Add a Bar Chart in the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer

You add a Bar Chart to a report in the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer by dragging it from the item panel. Use it to compare values for unordered items across categories through horizontal bars ordered vertically.

How do I add a bar chart to the report?

The Bold Reports® Web Report Designer lists the bar chart under the Comparison category in the item panel.

Drag and drop the bar chart from the item panel into the design area.

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The bar chart renders in the design area, and the properties panel lists the chart properties.

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How do I create data for the bar chart?

To present data in a Bold Reports® bar chart, create a dataset and bind data to the chart data region. 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
WHERE (SOH.OrderDate BETWEEN '1/1/2002' AND '12/31/2003')
GROUP BY DATEPART(yy, SOH.OrderDate), PC.Name, PS.Name, 'Q' + DATENAME(qq, SOH.OrderDate), PS.ProductSubcategoryID

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

How do I assign data to the bar chart?

The Bold Reports® Bar Chart needs a minimum of 1 value element and 1 column element to render. Drop the measure or expression field you want to analyze into the Y Value(s) section. Drop the dimension that categorizes the measure into the Column section. To categorize by a series, also drop the respective dimension into the Row(s) section.

To configure data in a bar chart, follow these steps:

  1. Select the chart report item in the design area 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 Value(s) 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 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

  9. Formatting Column and Row(s) sections:

    You can also Filter, Sort, or Group the Column or Row(s) sections using expressions.

How do I format the bar chart?

You format a bar chart in the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer through the settings in the Properties tab.

To format a bar chart, follow these steps:

  1. Drag and drop the bar chart into the design area and resize it to the required size.

  2. Configure the data for the bar chart.

  3. Select the bar chart and click the Properties icon in the configuration panel to open the property pane.

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The property pane lists the properties available for the report item with their default values.

Name

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

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Basic Settings

The Basic Settings category of the bar chart contains the Show Legend and Choose Series properties shown in the following image.

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Show Legend

A chart legend is text that describes the plotted data. You can toggle the visibility of the legend in the chart and customize the legend text appearance. To set or reset legend properties, see the Show Legend property.

Choose Series

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

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

In this example, the Show Data Label option is enabled and the Data Label format value is '$'#,0,;('$'#,0,) in the series settings.

Data Label Settings

Appearance

The bar chart 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.

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Chart Area

The bar chart Chart Area properties, such as border width, color, shadow color, shadow offset, and background color, customize the area of the chart design.

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The properties panel lists these properties under the Chart Area category.

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Use the Color Palette property to customize the color of the chart.

Title

To show or hide the bar chart title, toggle the Show Chart Title checkbox. Customize the chart title by editing the Title Text property of the chart.

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Use these properties to customize the font color, font text, font style, border, background, and position of the title in the chart design.

No Data

The bar chart No Data property displays static text when a dataset returns empty or zero rows at runtime.

Chart No data message

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

Category Axis

The bar chart Category axis displays text labels instead of numbers. To use the categorical axis, toggle the Enable Axis checkbox under the Category Axis category in the chart properties.

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To set or reset axis properties, see the Axis Properties property.

Value Axis

The bar chart Value axis uses a numerical scale and displays numbers as labels. To use the value axis, toggle the Enable Axis checkbox under the Value Axis category in the chart properties.

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To set or reset axis properties, see the Axis Properties property.

Grid line

You can set the bar chart Grid line properties for the category axis and the value axis.

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Category Axis

To show the grid line for the category axis, enable the Category Axis checkbox.

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You can also enable the Minor Grid Lines and customize the major and minor gridline style and color in the Advanced Options menu.

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Value Axis

To show the grid line for the value axis, enable the Value Axis checkbox.

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You can also enable the Minor Grid Lines and customize the major and minor gridline style and color in the Advanced Options menu.

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Page break

The bar chart page break property controls the amount of information on each page when you preview the report. To apply the page break property to the chart 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 prevent predefined page breaks from being applied during report preview, enable the Break Disabled property checkbox. You can also control page breaks during report preview with expressions. For details on setting and resetting page breaks dynamically, see the Set Expression and Reset Expression sections.

    Page Break Disabled

  3. To restart page numbering on each page, enable the Page Number Reset property checkbox.

    Reset page number

Data Element

The bar chart 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 chart element. The chart report item 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 chart when you export the report. Each option performs the following operation:

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

Data element output property

Miscellaneous

The bar chart Miscellaneous category contains the page name, tooltip, document map, bookmark, 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.

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 chart item using the properties panel, see the Tooltip section.

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 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 preview the bar chart report?

You preview the bar chart report from the design view of the Bold Reports® Web Report Designer.

  1. Review the final design view of the report, shown in the following image.

    Preview icon in design view

  2. Preview the report. The following image shows the report preview.

    Chart report preview

Download the bar chart report design file from GitHub.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the bar chart in the item panel?

The Bold Reports® Web Report Designer lists the bar chart under the Comparison category in the item panel.

What data does a bar chart need?

The bar chart needs a minimum of 1 value element in Y Value(s) and 1 column element in Column. Add a dimension to Row(s) to categorize by series.

See also