Searching for ideas on another visualization issue
Hi,
I am still working on my Dashboard.
Now I am just trying, instead of having up to four tables for up to four KPIs which the user can select to view (one table per KPI), to put it all in one.
=> That way, there's no need for five or six overlaid objects with visibility_conditions to avoid any gaps inbetween the tables, the width of the table always adapts and I have only those "buffer expressions" (a nr. of blanks) that I put in myself.
<=> There is a new issue arising from this - I have only one caption and, depending on how many KPIs and how many columns to show per KPI the user has selected, I have to display one or several titles and make sure they appear approx. central above all the columns for one KPI - above the right KPI:
- If two KPIs and, say, four columns are selected, I'll have the dimension plus four columns for the first KPI - that's where the first title should be - then one blank buffer-expression - the title for the next KPI should in any case show to the right of that blank expression, ideally again approx. centered above the columns displayed for the second KPI.
I attach an Excel file showing an example of how it should look like - these are just a few scenarios, but there can be many.
Seems like a lot of experimenting and quite some nested IFs - but maybe someone can think of an easier solution?
Several conditionally shown textboxes above the entire table would not take away much of that complication, just a little - I'd have to position those correctly, too, and make them dependent of the user's selections. That means I'd need a number of them. Well, if I could put in variables for the width of a textbox, that variable could take on the question of "how broad is the user's choice of columns which I have to center over?" and I would only then have to make those textboxes dependent on the user's choice of KPIs - but it seems I cannot do that.
Well - I'm not sure that this will make it better - in one sense it will, it will be more "truly" dynamic and I'll have just one table instead of many - but the caption is an issue.
Well, I can do that. For the caption I need a lot of nested IFs - a lot of possibilities - but that's just too bad.
I could put those IFs inside the REPEAT() functions for the buffer positioning the four titles correctly - but that would probably just be shoving the effort from left to right ... maybe I could put some of the formulas controlling the positions into an INCLUDE file - but well, it all doesn't really affect the performance and to keep the code acceptable to read, I'd rather have it inside the object.
Maybe it would be helpful - although not really reducing the necessary effort - to put a set of four or five IF_constructs into a variable - it repeats again and again and with a variable, it would be more readily visible that it really is the same over and over again. I'll give it a think.
let me formulate once more what is my current issue, maybe someone can help me with that:
- In my Dashboard, I now have one table_chart (straight table) containing up to 4 different KPIs;
- There are "separator expressions" inbetween the KPIs;
- The user can choose both the nr. of (and which) KPIs out of a list should be shown AND what columns they want to see in the tables per KPI;
=> That means the width of the table can vary greatly. Since it's only one, it adapts to all the user's selections nicely, that works fine.
<=> My issue is, the caption is only one, but it has to show up to 4 different titles in the correct position - I cannot just line them up to the left of the table. Currently, I'm querying every possible combination of user_selections which is a lot of typework and error-prone.
=> Can someone think of an easier solution? One possible optimization would be to put all those queries into variables so it would at least be readily visible that it's always the same stuff repeating ...
