ActiveReports 19 .NET Edition
Report Authors / Report Controls / Report Controls in Page/RDLX Report / Chart / Plots / Column and Bar Charts / Create Clustered Bar Chart
In This Topic
    Create Clustered Bar Chart
    In This Topic

    This walkthrough creates a Clustered Bar Chart. The chart compares the Store, Reseller, Online, and Catalog sales for the different sales categories as shown. The final chart appears like this:

    Clustered Bar Chart

    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 Validate Icon 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 and modify the Name of the [SalesAmount] field to [Net Sales].
    4. On the same page, add two calculated fields:
      Name Value
      Product Category =Switch([ProductKey] < 116, "Audio", [ProductKey] >= 116 And [ProductKey] < 338, "TV and Video", [ProductKey] >= 338 And [ProductKey] < 944, "Computers", [ProductKey] >= 944 And [ProductKey] < 1316, "Cameras", [ProductKey] >= 1316, "Cell Phones")
      Sales Channel =Switch([ChannelKey] = 1, "Store", [ChannelKey] = 2, "Online", [ChannelKey] = 3, "Catalog", [ChannelKey] = 4, "Reseller")
    5. Click OK to save the changes.

    Create Basic Structure of Chart

    We will use the Chart Wizard dialog to configure chart data values and basic customization. If you have a dataset added to your report, on Chart's drag-drop operation, the wizard appears. See the topic on Chart Wizard for more information. You can make further adjustments to the chart after you exit the wizard by accessing the properties of chart elements through dialogs, property panels, and adorners.

    1. Drag-drop Chart data region onto the design area. The New Chart dialog appears with an option to select the query and the plot type.
    2. Select the Query as the dataset name (FactSales) and the Plot Type as 'Bar'.
    3. Click Next to configure data values.
      Here, we will define two series values to form a cluster (or group), one column to show the 'Net Sales' and the other to show the 'Net Income'.
    4. Under Configure Chart Data Values, add the following two values from the drop-down, set the corresponding aggregates and captions, and click Next.                
      Field Aggregate Caption
      [SalesAmount] Sum Sales Amount
    5. In the Configure Chart Data Groupings, set the Categories > Group By to [Product Category].
    6. Set the Series > Group By to [Sales Channel]. Keep the remaining settings as it is. Ensure that Series > Layout Type is 'Cluster'.
    7. Click Next and Choose Report Colors from Theme and Style, and preview your chart.
           clustered bar chart at preview time
                Now that the basic structure of your chart is ready, let us add more meaning to the chart using the properties via the Chart Panels, Adorners, and Property Panel.

    Add Customizations to Chart

    Category Groups

    1. In the Category Groups, right-click the Product Category and from the adorner, click Edit.    
    2. In the Chart Data - Category Groups dialog, go to Sorting tab and add the following expression to sort the product category in the order of decreasing total net sales:
      =Sum([Net Sales])
         
    3. Click OK to complete setting up the plot.

    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.

    Y-Axis

    1. To open the smart panel, 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 Y-axis title in the chart.
    3. Go to the Labels page > General tab and set the following properties.
      • Format: Currency (with 0 decimal points)
      • Angle: 45
    4. Now go to the Appearance tab and set the following properties.
      • Font > Size: 9pt
      • Font > Color: Gray
    5. Go to the Line page and uncheck the Show Line option.
    6. Go to the Major Gridline page, check-on the Show Grid option and set the following properties.
      • Grid Interval: 50000
      • Grid appearance > Show Grid: Check-on
      • Grid appearance > Width: 0.25pt
      • Grid appearance > Color: #cccccc
      • Grid appearance > Style: Dotted
    7. Go to the Scale page and set the following properties.
      • Scale Type: Linear
      • Minimum scale value: 0
      • Maximum scale value: 450000
    8. Click OK to complete setting up the Y-axis.

    X-Axis

    1. To open the smart panel, right-click 'X 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 X-axis title in the chart.
    3. Go to the Labels page > Appearance tab and set the following properties.
      • Font > Size: 9pt
      • Font > Color: Gray
    4. Go to the Line page and set the following properties.
      • Color: Gray
      • Width: 2pt
    5. Click OK to complete setting up the X-axis.

    Chart Palette

    1. To open the smart panel, 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.
      • #f26324
      • #1fd537
      • #e40010
      • #8fcd37
    3. Click OK to complete setting up the custom palette.

    Legend   

    1. In the Legend Data, right-click Color and from the adorner, click Edit.
    2. Go to the General page and select SeriesGroups as Legend Mode.
    3. Go to the Appearance page and set the following properties.
      • Font > Size: 9pt
      • Font > Color: DimGray
    4. Go to the Layout page and set the following properties.
      • Position: Top
      • Orientation: Horizontal
    5. 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 'Sales by Category and Channel'.
    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, change the chart palette, and customize other chart elements. Once you are done, press F5 to preview the report.
                
      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.