Configuration Options in Full-Screen Mode
Line chart is used to visualize data points or values, connected by a continuous line. It is useful to see trends in your data over time or to forecast values.
Line chart represents a series of data points, called Measure, on Y-Axis and another set of values, called Dimension, on X-Axis. You can also create additional lines that represent comparison trends.
Below, you can see issues for a project in Jira. You can notice when the issue creation/resolution was the highest and when it took a dip.
To create a Line chart:
- Right-click on the ‘Created’ column > Select View> Change> Line.
Refer here to learn more about creating a visualization.
The following figure shows the resulting Line chart.
Configure Line Chart
- Select your Line chart and open the Visualizations Panel.
Following configuration options are available for the Line chart:
- Data Configuration : It lets you choose columns for the following settings:
- Visual Configuration : It lets you configure the visual appearances and interactions of the Line chart.
- Visualization Level Filters : They let you filter the data in the visualization without impacting the other visualizations.
Refer here to learn more about Visualization Level Filters.
- User-Defined Colors : They let you add meaning to a data point by associating a specific color to it. User-defined colors also help you to differentiate a data point from the rest.
Data Configuration
Click on the icon for data configuration options.
X-Axis
Specify the column which contains date and time values. You can aggregate Date, DateTime and Time type column by Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day, Hour, and Minutes.
To change the X-Axis column:
- Click on to remove the existing column.
- From the Data Panel, drag the desired column and drop it onto the Visualizations Panel’s “X-Axis” section.
Note: You can also type the column name in the Data Panel to quickly find it. - Select the grouping option for the date and time data.
Y-Axis
Here, you can specify the column whose aggregated values should be shown.
To change the Y-Axis column:
- Follow the same steps shown for the “X-axis”, then
- Click on the icon and select the aggregate function.
- Aggregate functions for textual data: Count, Unique Count
- Aggregate functions for numerical data: Count, Unique Count, Sum, Min, Max, Avg
- You can add multiple columns to the Y-Axis to create a multi-line chart.
- You need to separately select aggregate functions for each of the columns added to Y-Axis, as explained above.
In this example, the Line chart with “Key’ and “Resolved’ columns on Y-Axis enables you to compare the number of issues allocated vs resolved issues.
The following image shows the ‘Multi-Line’ view for both the columns in different colors.
Color By
It is also possible to color or split each line into another categorical column into the data using the ‘Color By’ option.
For example, if you choose Issue ‘Type’ for ‘Color by’ setting, then a separate line with different colors will be created for each of the issue types such as ‘Epic’, ‘Story’, ‘Bugs’ etc.
To set the ‘Color By’ column:
- Drag and drop the column from the Data Panel onto the Visualizations Panel’s ‘Color By’ section.
Note: ‘Color By’ option cannot be applied with multiple columns on Y-Axis. Remove the multiple columns from Y-Axis to apply the ‘Color By’ and vice-versa. |
Sorting
You can sort the Line chart on X-Axis or Y-Axis.
Note: By default, the Line chart is sorted on X-Axis. |
To change the sorting:
- Click on icon and select the column from the drop-down.
- Click on or icon to change the sort order (ascending or descending).
Add Sorting Levels
- In the ‘Sorting’ section, click on 'Add level'. A sorting level will be created.
- Select the column to apply sorting on from the drop-down.
Note: You can only sort on the columns present in the Pivot chart. - Click on the ascending, descending icon to toggle sorting order.
- Repeat these steps to perform multi-column sorting.
Reorder Sorting Levels
The order of columns in the Sorting section defines the order of sorting in the Pivot chart.
- Drag and drop columns in the sorting section to change the sort order.
Remove Sorting Levels
- Click on icon to remove the sorting level.
To learn more about sorting, refer to the following GIF.
Note: Steps for sorting are same for Grid and Line chart. |
Visual Configuration
- Click on the icon for visual configuration settings.
Labels
You can show or hide the data labels by this toggle switch.
- Provide the size of data labels.
- Click on the icon and select a font color. To restore the default color setting, click ‘Reset to Default’.
X-Axis
- Type in the title for the X-Axis.
Y-Axis
- Choose the number of decimal places you want to display values with.
- Select the Axis type.
- Type in the Axis title.
Axis Types
There are two ways to plot values - linear and logarithmic.
On a linear scale, a change between two values is perceived on the basis of the difference between the values, whereas, on a logarithmic scale, this change is perceived on the basis of the ratio of the two values.
The main reason to use logarithmic scales in charts and graphs is to respond to skewness towards large values; i.e., cases in which one or a few points are much larger than the bulk of the data.
When plotting disparate data on a linear scale, the smaller values get lesser prominence while the larger ones occupy the entire scale. In such cases, using a logarithmic Axis type is recommended.
The following figure shows the Line chart on a logarithmic scale.
Zoom Option
This option enables you to clearly understand specific data in your Line chart by zooming it.
- Keep the Zoom Option ‘On’ by selecting the toggle switch.
- For the Zoom Panel, select the ‘Show’ option from the drop-down to select the part of your chart by dragging its edges in either direction.
- Select the ‘Hide’ option from the drop-down to hide the Zoom Panel.
- Right-click + drag to pane the chart (move up, down, left and right) within the container to focus on a particular portion of the chart.
Note: When the Zoom option is enabled, you can also use the mouse wheel to zoom your chart. |
Line Style
To turn lines selection on or off:
- Select the toggle switch.
- Choose between Linear and Smooth line style.
The following example shows the visualization with no lines:
With linear lines, your chart will look like this-
If you choose to have smooth lines, then your chart will look like this-
Markers
In your Line view, each point (shown as a circle) on the line is a data marker representing a single data value in your data set. You can enable or disable markers on the view by selecting the On (or Off) slider. Here is a Line chart without markers.
Legend
Legend helps you identify and correlate data on your chart. They provide an overview of the different data points involved in the chart along with the colors associated with each of them. Legend consists of Heading and Items.
- To turn legends on or off, select the toggle switch next to Legend.
- Select legend position (Left, Right).
- Enter text for the legend heading.
Note: Click on legend items and related data will be highlighted in the visualization. |
Container Settings
- To show or hide the header and border, click the toggle switch.
- Turn on the toggle switch to show the border for the container. Change the border color, style and width as shown below:
The following figure displays the effect of various container settings for your Line chart.
Visual Interactions
- Select the target behavior and coordinated visualization scope from the below settings.
To learn more, refer to section- ‘Configure Coordinated Visualization’.
User-Defined Colors
- Click on the icon for color settings.
Colors for Individual Data Item
It lets you add meaning to a data item by associating a specific color to it and differentiate some data items from the rest.
For example, the red and green color may be used to represent “Off Track” and “On Track” issues, respectively. Whereas, orange color may be used for the “Bugs” type of issues to draw attention.
To change the colors:
- Click on the icon next to the data item for which you want to change the color.
- Select the color from the available color grid or click ‘More Colors’.
- To restore default settings, click on ‘Reset to Default’.
If you have selected the ‘Color By’ option in Data Configuration, you can customize the colors for different sub-categories for the selected column. Here in this example, different sub-categories for issue type are Epic, Story, Bug, etc represented by different lines.
Configuration Options in Full-Screen Mode
Visualizations can be seen in full-screen mode by clicking on icon.
Note: Visualizations Panel is not accessible in full-screen mode. |
- Click on the icon at the top-right corner of the container.
- Select ‘Configure View’ from the overflow menu.
- A pop-up form with all the relevant configuration options will appear on the screen.
- Configure your visualization and click on ‘APPLY’.