Add a data bar in the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer

A data bar in the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer is a small, simple chart that shows trends and changes in data over time, especially over many periods. Data bars convey a lot of information in a little space, and you often use them in tables and matrices.

How do I add a data bar to the report?

The Bold Reports® Web Report Designer lists the data bar report item in the item panel under the KPI category.

  1. Find the data bar report item under the KPI category in the item panel. Data bar item in item panel
  2. Drag and drop the data bar report item from the item panel into the design area or inside a tablix cell. Drag and drop data bar report item into design area
  3. Review the item properties. After you drop the data bar item in the design area or inside a tablix cell, the properties panel lists its properties. Data bar item with properties view

How do I create data for the data bar?

To present data in a Bold Reports® data bar, create a dataset and bind data to it. This example uses the following dataset query to create the dataset.

SELECT PC.Name AS ProdCat, PS.Name AS SubCat, DATEPART(yy, SOH.OrderDate) AS OrderYear, 'Q' + DATENAME(qq, SOH.OrderDate) AS OrderQtr,SUM(SOD.UnitPrice * SOD.OrderQty) AS Sales
FROM Production.ProductSubcategory PS INNER JOIN
Sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH INNER JOIN
Sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD ON SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID INNER JOIN
Production.Product P ON SOD.ProductID = P.ProductID ON PS.ProductSubcategoryID = P.ProductSubcategoryID INNER JOIN
Production.ProductCategory PC ON PS.ProductCategoryID = PC.ProductCategoryID
GROUP BY DATEPART(yy, SOH.OrderDate), PC.Name, PS.Name, 'Q' + DATENAME(qq, SOH.OrderDate), PS.ProductSubcategoryID

To create the dataset with this query, see Create an embedded dataset. This example uses the AdventuresWorks database.

How do I assign data to the data bar?

A Bold Reports® data bar needs a minimum of 1 value element to show data. Drop the measure or expression field you want to analyze into the Y Values section. Drop the dimension that categorizes the measure into the Columns section. To categorize by a series, also drop the respective dimension into the Rows section.

To configure data in the data bar, follow these steps:

  1. Select the data bar report item to bind data to it.
  2. Click the Properties icon in the configuration panel to open the property pane. Then, switch to the DATA tab. Chart properties pane
  3. Choose a dataset in the dropdown list. The dropdown lists the data available in the report. Choose the dataset for chart
  4. Review the fields. The Measures section lists numeric columns and numeric expressions. The Dimensions section lists other types of columns and dimension expressions. Measures and dimensions
  5. Drag and Drop Measure Element: Drag the numeric column (measure element) or the numeric expression column from the Measure section and drop it in the Y Values section. Add a Y-value field The following image shows the report item design after you add the Y value field. Preview after adding y-value field
  6. Aggregate Options: Click the Settings icon (highlighted in the image) to open the aggregation type dropdown list. Aggregate settings icon Set the aggregation type that computes the selected column. Aggregate menu list
  7. Drag and Drop Dimension Element: Drag the dimension element from the Dimensions section and drop it into the Column(s) section. The dimension measures against the numeric column(s) selected in the Y Value(s) section. Add dimension field The following image shows the report item design after you add the dimension field. Preview after adding dimension field
  8. Grouping: Group the added column element with another column by adding the respective dimension element into the Row(s) section. Achieve grouping by row values The following image shows the report item design after you add the row field. Preview of row value grouping

Which properties can I set for a data bar?

The Bold Reports® data bar properties control its name, series, appearance, page breaks, position, export behavior, and visibility. Before you set the following properties, see the Properties panel section.

Name

The Name property provides a unique name for the data bar item in the report.

Name property

Basic Settings

The data bar Basic Settings category is shown in the following image.

Chart Basic settings

Choose Series

The data bar lists all series you add in the Choose Series dropdown. To customize a series appearance, choose the required series name in the dropdown.

Choose series

To customize each series using the properties panel, see Series.

Appearance

The data bar Appearance properties (border style, color, width, and background color) style the chart and customize its appearance in the report design. The properties panel lists these properties under the Appearance category.

Chart appearance

Chart Area

The data bar Chart Area properties, such as border width, color, shadow color, shadow offset, and background color, customize the area of the chart design. The properties panel lists these properties under the Chart Area category.

Chart Area

No Data

The data bar No Data property displays static text when a dataset returns empty or zero rows at run time.

Chart No data message

To set or reset no data message properties, see the No Data Message property section.

Page break

The data bar page break property controls the amount of information on each page when you preview the report. To apply the page break property to the data bar report item, follow these steps:

  1. Choose a Break Location type in the dropdown. The Break Location property specifies where the page break occurs. Break location
  2. To restart the page numbering on each page, enable the Page Number Reset property checkbox. Reset page number

Position

The data bar Position property sets the width, height, left, and top position of the data bar in the report design. To handle these properties using the properties panel, see the Position section.

Chart postion

Data Element

The data bar Data element properties control the visibility of a report item when you export the report in XML format. The properties panel lists them under the Data Element category.

Data element properties

Name

The Name field assigns a custom name to the data bar element. The data bar exports with the provided name.

Data element name property

Note: The name cannot contain spaces, and it must begin with a letter followed by letters, numbers, or the underscore character (_).

Output

The Output property controls the visibility of the data bar when you export the report. Each option performs the following operation:

  • Auto or Output - Exports the data bar report item.
  • NoOutput - Does not export the data bar report item.

Data element output property

Visibility

The data bar Visibility property conditionally shows or hides the data bar report item on report preview or export. To set the visibility of a data bar item using the properties panel, see the Visibility section.

Chart visibility

Miscellaneous

The data bar Miscellaneous category contains the page name, document map, bookmark, custom attributes, tooltip, and custom style properties.

Page name

The page name property names the first worksheet of the Excel workbook when you export the report to Excel format.

Page name property

You can set static or dynamic text as the page name. To set and reset dynamic text, see the Set Expression and Reset Expression sections.

Document Map

A document map is a navigational feature that displays a separate side pane with a set of navigational links in a hierarchical structure when you view a report. A user can click the content in the list to navigate to the report page that displays that item. To configure the document map in the report design, see the Document Map section.

You can set static or dynamic text as the value for the document map property. To set and reset dynamic text, see the Set Expression and Reset Expression sections.

Bookmark

Bookmark links let users navigate to different parts of an SSRS report. You can add bookmarks to each textbox, image, table, or chart, or to the unique group values displayed in a tablix, to direct users to specified locations in the report. The value of the bookmark property can be your own strings or an expression. To configure bookmarks in the report design, see the Bookmark section.

You can set static or dynamic text as the value for the bookmark property. To set and reset dynamic text, see the Set Expression and Reset Expression sections.

Custom attributes

The custom attributes property sets the values for chart custom properties. To assign values to custom properties using the properties panel, see the Custom Properties section.

Tooltip

The Tooltip property displays informative text or values when the user hovers over the report item in the report preview. To set a tooltip for a data bar report item using the properties panel, see the Tooltip section.

Custom Style

The Custom Style property enables external CSS for styling report items, giving more flexibility than the built-in styling options. Use this property to meet specific design requirements and keep styling consistent across multiple reports. For a step-by-step guide on setting up custom styles in your report, see the How To section of this guide.

custom style property

How do I set an expression on a data bar property?

You can set an expression on a few Bold Reports® data bar properties to process their values based on expressions. To set expressions on data bar report item properties, see the Set Expression section.

How do I reset an expression?

To Reset the expression applied to a Bold Reports® data bar property, see the Reset Expression section.

How do I open advanced properties?

A few Bold Reports® data bar properties contain nested properties. To open and handle the nested properties, see the Advanced Properties section.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the data bar in the item panel?

The Bold Reports® Web Report Designer lists the data bar report item under the KPI category in the item panel.

What data does a data bar need?

A data bar needs a minimum of 1 value element in the Y Values section. Add dimensions to the Columns and Rows sections to categorize the measure.

See also