Graphical Charts
Graphical charts present a visual representation of data, placing a field on the X axis and a measurement on the Y axis. These visual charts are ideal for presentations, quick glances at record activity, and embedding within larger reports. Many of the graphical chart formats are common and likely familiar, such as a basic bar graph.
This article focuses on complex graphical charts that require more considerations or advanced configuration. For guidance in using the wizard to create basic charts, see Create and Edit Charts and Reports.
Multiple or Segmented Charts
Where a standard graphical chart shows a single Y axis element per bar, segmented or multiple charts allow you to break the data down by additional elements. For instance, the Y axis could be the number of People in the organization, and they could be segmented by the linked Groups table, which would show the number of people segmented per group on the vertical axis.
Ring Charts
This chart displays a breakdown of items in the X-axis as a percentage of the defined Y-axis value, with the total displayed in the center. You can choose to show totals for each segment if desired.
JavaScript Graphical Charts
The graphical chart setup contains the option to Use JavaScript Charts for the basic chart types: column bar, line, pie, and ring charts.
JavaScript charts are dynamically sized depending on the screen dimensions, and allow you to interact with them by selecting and de-selecting the Y Axis data. They are particularly useful for Dashboards, where they are used for all Chart Widgets.
Many existing charts in the system do not have the Use JavaScript Charts option enabled. To enable this option for all existing charts, go to Setup > System > Manage Global Variables and the set the Always use JavaScript Charts variable to Yes. For a better user experience, we recommend enabling this variable.
JavaScript charts work identically to standard charts, and if they are distributed to disk or via email, they will have both the static, non-JavaScript version and the JavaScript version which can be opened in a browser and interacted with as normal.
The standard graphical chart size on the Formatting tab can be too small for JavaScript graphical charts with legends, and can cause the elements on the screen to overlap. To improve the visibility of JavaScript graphical charts, set the value to 1024x768 or higher.