Hello everyone,
Today's blog entry is about using charts. Charts are a nice
way to make an otherwise dull report look spiffy; the reports can also be
embedded in a screen (Look at the Sales Center Dashboard). Now it's time to
dive into creating a chart on a report.
Here's the scenario - you want to print a chart that will
display the sum of the customers with the top 5 invoice totals.
Before we get into the details of how to create a chart,
here are some definitions:
Argument: Is the X axis of a chart. In most charts, this axis
represents categories, such as months, market segments, or other non-numeric
data. (The customers)
Value: Is the Y axis of a chart. It is
usually drawn from bottom to top and usually shows the range of values of
variables dependent on one other variable.
(The sum of customer invoices)
Qualitative: Descriptions or distinctions based on some quality rather than on
some quantity. In our case, a "John Smith" customer name would be a qualitative
type value.
Steps to create a Bar Chart
- Create a report based on the Invoice table
(click here
if you need help with this).
- Drag a Chart object from the Standard Controls
tool box onto the report.
- The Chart Wizard will pop up, Select Bar.
- Click
Next >>.
- Here you can select the colour Palette.
- Click
Next >>.
- By default, 2 series are created. In our case we only need 1 series, so select Series 2 and click Remove.
- Change the Series
name for Series 1 to something
meaningful, in this case I chose "Total Amount".
- Click Top
N options tab.
- Check Enabled and change the Count to "5". This will
display the top 5 values.
- Uncheck Show
Others.
- Click Point
Options tab.
- Change the Value
Format To "Currency".
- Click Next
>>.
- Select Series
Binding tab.
- For Argument, select "Customer".
- For Binding
mode, select "Summary function".
- Click (...).
- From the drop down list, select SUM.
- From the list tree on the right, select Amount located within Invoice.
- Click OK.
- Click on the Auto-created
Series tab.
- For Argument,
select "Invoice. Customer".
- For Binding
mode, select "Summary Function".
- Click (...) for summary function.
- From the drop down list, select Sum.
- From the list tree on the right, select Amount located within Invoice.
- Click OK.
- Click Finish.
Voila, you have created your
first chart and it should look similar to the image below. Be sure to pat
yourself on the back.

Before you continue onto the second chart, get up and
stretch (if you were like me, the first time I created a chart it was not a
simple task, then again I didn't have a wonderful blog entry to refer to
.
So this time around, instead of a breakdown by customer and
invoice we want a breakdown by invoice item. We want to visually see a
breakdown of our line items that are used on invoices and we are going to
create a Pie Chart to display this information.
Steps to create a Pie
Chart
- Create a report based on the InvoiceLine table
(click here
if you need help with this).
- Drag a Chart object from Standard Controls tool
box into the report.
- The Chart Wizard will pop up, select Pie.
- Click
Next >>.
- Here you can select the colour Palette.
- Click Next
>>.
- By default 2 series are created. In our case we only need 1 series, so select Series 2 and click Remove.
- Change the Series
name for Series 1 to something
meaningful, in this case I chose "Invoice Item".
- Click Top
N options tab.
- Check Enabled and change the Count to "3". This will
display the top 5 values.
- Uncheck Show
Others.
- Click Point
Options tab.
- Change the Value
Format To "Percent".
- Ensure that Value
as percent is checked.
- Click Next
>>.
- Select Series
Binding tab.
- For Argument, select "Item".
- For Binding
mode, select "Summary function".
- Click (...).
- From the drop down list, select SUM.
- From the list tree on the right, select Amount located within InvoiceLine.
- Click OK.
- Click on the Auto-created
Series tab.
- For Argument,
select "Item".
- For Binding
mode, select "Summary Function".
- Click (...)
for summary function.
- From the drop down list, select Sum.
- From the list tree on the right, select Amount located within InvoiceLine.
- Click Ok.
- Click Finish.
Voila, you have created your
second chart in Method Report Designer.

I hope these steps will come in handy when creating your
next Method report.
Regards,
Michael