Category and Series Data Grouping

In This Topic

As mentioned in The Chart Data Model topic, the category and series data grouping are dynamic. This means that at runtime a single dynamic data grouping can generate zero, one or more data grouping members. Because at design time you can create child dynamic data grouping the runtime structure of the data grouping member's forms a hierarchical structure (i.e. a tree).

The hierarchical structure of the category data grouping members is typically displayed on the chart X dimension (when the current chart type has a categorical X dimension). The hierarchical structure of the series data grouping members plus the members produced for the leaf values data groupings is typically displayed on the chart Z dimension (when the current chart type has a categorical Z dimension and the chart is in 3D mode).

Category and series data groupings are added, removed and edited in two ways:

From the Category/Series Data Groupings adorner panel.

Add - to add new category/series data grouping just drag a field from the dataset and drop it in an empty space of the panel.

Remove - to remove an existing category/series data grouping - select the data grouping and either press the delete button or right click to show the context menu and select the delete command.

Edit - double click the item or right click to show the context menu and select the properties command.

In the category/series data groupings adorner panel each data grouping is represented by a card. This card shows the name of the data grouping and the expressions on which the data is grouped. You can drag and drop fields on existing entries in the card to replace the grouping expressions.

You cannot change the order of the category/series data groupings from the adorner panel. To do that you need to use the Chart Properties Dialog (see below).
From the Data - Groupings tab page in the chart properties.

The Category/Series data grouping are completely editable from the Chart Properties Dialog. Open the Chart Properties Dialog and go to the Data - Groupings tab. The Add, Remove, Edit, Move Up and Move Down commands are exposed by buttons and are self-explanatory.

Following is a description of the properties of the Category and Series Data Groupings as they appear in the visual interface.

General

Name - specifies the name of the data grouping. The name must be unique within the report. When the data grouping is created via drag and drop, Nevron Chart for Reporting Services will automatically generate a name which follows this format:

"<ChartReportItemName>_<FieldName><fieldIndex>"

where:

<ChartReportItemName> - is the name of the chart report item at the time of drag and drop. For example nChart1.

<FieldName> - is the name of the field which was dropped

<OccuranceIndex> - is an optional index, which is appended when the chart already has a data grouping for the dropped field.

For example: you drag drop a field named company in a chart report item named nChart1, the data grouping will be automatically named nChart1_company. If you drag and drop the company field once again the the data grouping will be automatically named as nChart1_company1.

Label - specifies the text, which represents the local data grouping label. The label text will appear in the hierarchical scale constructed for category/series data grouping (in case the chart X/Z dimension is categorical). In the case of a series data grouping it is also used in the construction of the full series label (see Values Data Groupings - for more information). See the XML Formatted Texts topic for more information on how to create texts with rich formatting.

Parent - type or select a parent group or an expression that evaluates to a parent group. Click the expression (fx) button to edit the expression. Parent groups are used for recursive hierarchies. For more information, see the Working with Report Designer - Defining Report Data - Working with Data Regions - Grouping Data topic in the Reporting Services documentation.

Group By Grid - lets you type the expressions on which to group the data. See Custom Report Items Processing for complete discussion).

Expression - lets you define the expression on which to group data.

Filters

Filters Grid - lets you define the filter options for the the data grouping. This grid has three columns Expression, Operator and Values. Each row defines a filter which is combined with an AND with the previous filters. See Custom Report Items Processing for complete discussion).

Expression - type or select the expression to evaluate.

Operator - select the operator to use to compare the expression value with the filter values.

Values - type the values for the filter operator.

Sorting

Sort By Grid - lets you define the sorting rules for the data grouping. See Custom Report Items Processing for complete discussion).

Expression - type or select the expression to evaluate.

Direction - defines the direction of the sorting rule.

Data output

Contains options that define the XML data output options for the group.