This walkthrough creates a Circular Bar Chart. The chart shows the percentage values that each sales channel contributes to the net income. The final chart appears like this:

Create a Report and Bind Report to Data

In the ActiveReports Designer, create a new RDLX report and follow the New Report wizard to bind the report to data. You can also perform data binding later using the Report Data Source dialog accessed from the Report Explorer.

Connect to a Data Source

1. In the Report Data Source dialog, select the General page and enter the name of the data source.
2. Under Type, select 'Json Provider'.
3. Go to the Content tab under Connection and set the type of JSON data to 'External file or URL'.
4. In the Select or type the file name or URL field, enter the following URL:
   https://demodata.mescius.io/contoso/odata/v1/FactSales
   For more information, see the JSON Provider topic.
5. Go to the Connection String tab and verify the generated connection string by clicking the Validate DataSource  icon.
6. Click OK to save the changes and open the DataSet dialog.

Add a Dataset   

1. In the Dataset dialog, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset, 'FactSales'.
2. Go to the Query page and enter the following query to fetch the required fields:    

   Query	Copy Code
   $.value[*]

      
3. Go to the Fields page to view the available fields. On the same page, add two calculated fields:

   Name	Value
   Net Income	=[SalesAmount] - [UnitCost] - [DiscountAmount] - [ReturnAmount]
   Sales Channel	=Switch([ChannelKey] = 1, "Store", [ChannelKey] = 2, "Online", [ChannelKey] = 3, "Catalog", [ChannelKey] = 4, "Reseller")

4. Click OK to save the changes.

Create a Chart

We will use the Chart Wizard dialog to configure chart data values. The wizard appears by default if you have a dataset added to your report. See the topic on Chart Wizard for more information.

1. Drag-drop Chart data region onto the design area. The Chart Wizard dialog appears with an option to select the data and the chart type.
2. Select the Dataset Name as 'FactSales' and the Chart Type as 'Doughnut'.
3. Click Next to proceed. Here, you need to specify the doughnut settings. We will define a data series value to display the net income for each sales channel.
4. Under Choose Data Values, add a new data value, and set its properties as below.

   Field	Aggregate
   =[Net Income]	Sum

5. Click Next to preview your chart.
    
   You can also modify the chart palette and do other customizations as the last step in the process of chart creation. Or, you can exit the wizard and access these smart panels as explained below.        

Set Advanced Customization

Now that the chart is configured with data values, let us do some customizations on the chart elements using the smart panels.

Plot Settings

1. To open the smart panel for advanced plot settings, right-click 'Plot-Plot1' on the Report Explorer and choose Property Dialog.
2. Go to the Encodings page.
3. On the Detail tab, add a new value, and set its properties as below.
   1. Set Expression to =[Sales Channel] to display the net income for the store, reseller, online, and catalog.
   2. Under Grouping, set Group to 'Cluster'.
   3. Under Sorting, set Sorting field to =[Net Sales], Sort direction to 'Ascending', and Sorting aggregate to 'Sum'. This will arrange the subcategories in the increasing order of their net sales in the cluster.
4. Navigate to the Color page, add a new value, and set the Expression to =[Sales Channel] to display legend based on the sales channels in the chart.
5. Go to the Labels page > General tab and set the following properties.
   • Template: {PercentageCategory:p2}
   • Text Position: Center
6. Go to the Appearance tab and set the following properties.
   • Font > Size: 10pt
   • Font > Weight: SemiBold
   • Font > Color: #ffffff
   • Connecting Line > Style: Solid
   • Connecting Line > Color: Gainsboro
7. Click OK to complete setting up the plot.
8. With 'Plot-Plot1' selected, go to the Properties pane and
   1. set the Inner Radius property for the doughnut to '40%' to reduce the inner size.
   2. set the Sweep property to '270' to change the arc length for the plot.

Y-Axis

1. To open the smart panel for advanced Y-axis settings, right-click 'Y-axis' on the Report Explorer and choose Property Dialog.
2. Go to the Title page and remove the text from the Title field to hide the axis title in the chart.
3. Go to the Labels page and uncheck the Show Labels option as we are already displaying the percentage values of each sales channel in the chart.
4. Go to the Line page and uncheck the Show Line option.
5. Go to the Major Gridline page and uncheck the Show Grid option to hide the gridlines.   
6. Click OK to complete setting up the Y-axis.

Chart Palette

1. To open the smart panel for advanced chart settings, right-click 'Chart' on the Report Explorer and choose Property Dialog.
2. Go to the Palette page, select Custom from the drop-down and add the following colors.
   • #8fcd37
   • #f26324
   • #e40010
   • #1fd537
3. Click OK to complete setting up the custom palette.

Legend - Color

1. To open the smart panel for the legend, right-click 'Legend - Color' on the Report Explorer, and choose Property Dialog.
2. Go to the Appearance page and set the following properties.
   • Font > Size: 10pt
   • Font > Color: #3c3c3c
3. Go to the Layout page and set the Position to 'Left'.
4. Click OK to complete setting up the chart legend.

Chart Header

1. To open the smart panel for the chart header, right-click 'Header' on the Report Explorer and choose Property Dialog.
2. Go to the General page and set Title to 'Net Income'.
3. Go to the Font page and set the properties as below.
   • Size: 24pt
   • Color: #3da7a8
4. Click OK to complete setting up the chart header.
   You may want to resize the chart.
      
   Note: We use stub data at design time and not real data. So to view the actual final chart, you need to view the chart on the preview.
5. Once you are done with configuring and customizing the chart, press F5 to preview the report.