Building a scorecard
1. Overview
This walkthrough shows you how to use scorecards in Dundas BI to create a customized table, with complete control over layout and support for any visualization in its rows. This example displays a row for each product with a different visualization used for each measure.
A scorecard in Dundas BI is another type of view and is similar to a report. While both scorecards and reports allow you to customize the layout and contents of each row and repeat the design for different data, reports are laid out into pages including page headers and footers and are ideal for PDFs or printing, while scorecards are focused on the design of a table.
You can view a scorecard by itself or add it to a dashboard just like you would display a table visualization.
Related video: Scorecards and Reports
2. Example preparation
This example uses a data connector pointing to the Adventure Works sample database for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), but you can follow similar steps with any data source.
3. Designing the scorecard
3.1. Create a new scorecard
Go to the main menu, click New, and then click Scorecard.
The scorecard editor is displayed.
To change the width of the scorecard, click and drag the diagonal arrow icon to the bottom-right of the editor.
You can also set a precise width by clicking an empty area of the editor to select the scorecard canvas, opening the Properties window, and finding the Width property in the Layout tab.
3.2. Add a row grouping
Drag data that contains a value for each row you want the scorecard to display.
For our example, go to the Explore window, locate and expand the Adventure Works cube. Drag the Product dimension and drop it onto the row grouping area (Drag data here...). This will cause the body region we are designing to be repeated for each product.
For convenience, a pair of items are automatically added to the scorecard: a data label in the body region, which will display the product name, and a header in the header region.
Click View in the toolbar to see the scorecard with product names displayed in each row.
3.3. Display sales by date
In the Explore window, expand the measures in the Adventure Works cube and drag the Internet Sales Amount measure to the body region. The corresponding data label and header are created automatically.
The Data Analysis Panel for this data label opened automatically, showing that it currently displays the data from the scorecard group itself, e.g., data grouped only by each product. Click Select data separately if you want to create a separate metric set for this visualization that can display data grouped by additional hierarchies, such as by date in this example.
Now we can drag the Date.Calendar hierarchy from the Adventure Works cube to Rows in the Data Analysis Panel.
The data label would now normally automatically re-visualize to a sparkline, or you can choose Re-Visualize in the toolbar and then Sparkline.
3.4. Display the order count
From the Explore window, drag the Order Count measure to the body region. The corresponding data label and header label are created automatically.
3.5. Display the sales by territory
In the toolbar, click Data Visualization and select Data Bar.
Drag the Internet Sales Amount measure onto the empty visualization. Notice that Dundas BI automatically added the Product grouping hierarchy, but kept this as a separate metric set.
Drag the Sales Territory Group hierarchy from the Adventure Works cube to Rows.
Click the Visualization button in the Data Analysis Panel, and click More... to expand the options.
Click to add Sales Territory Group under Data Point Label, or drag it there from elsewhere in the Data Analysis Panel or the Explore window.
To customize the data point label settings, click the paintbrush icon to the right of the Data Point Label heading to open the Properties window to the relevant section.
Set Placement to Inside and Inside Alignment to Toward Start.
Resize the visualization to be able to see the labels.
3.6. Adjust the group header area
The group header area appears only once for the list of products.
Set the background color of this area by clicking an empty spot inside it, opening the Properties window, and choosing the Look tab. In our example, we change Background to Gainsboro.
You can double-click the headers or use options in the toolbar or Properties window to customize their text.
3.7. Add an axis
An axis can be added to the header or footer of a scorecard to use as a reference for visualizations such as data bars in the rows, just like you would use an axis in a regular bar chart.
In the toolbar, click Data Visualization and select Axis.
Drag the axis visualization to the header area, above the data bar, and resize it to match the visualization.
In the toolbar, click Connect Axis and select dataBar 1: Bottom Axis 1 from the dropdown in the Properties window.
3.8. Add a line separator
To add a separator between each row (product) of the scorecard, select the body area and open the Properties window to the Look tab.
Click the + button under Row Separator Line to add one. Click the new item labeled 1px Black to customize those settings, expanding Stroke and setting Width to 2 pixels (2px).
3.9. View the final scorecard
Click View in the toolbar to see the completed scorecard.
Hover a header such as Sales by Date and click the AZ icon to open the sort and filter popup, and sort by Descending order, for example.
4. Using the scorecard in a dashboard
While editing a dashboard, drag the scorecard from the Explore window to your canvas. Then reposition and resize the scorecard as you would with any other visualization.
