Visual KPI Groups allow you to organize your data in a way that makes sense for your organization. Groups allow users to quickly navigate data on your Visual KPI site.
The concept of Groups is simple but powerful. Any Visual KPI object, such as a KPI, Chart, Table or embedded content can be organized in a Group. Let’s say you create Groups based on regions. Each Group can contain data relevant to that region.
You can have Groups within Groups, and objects can live within the Groups at any level. For example, you could add sub-groups to organize data for each plant within a region.
Learn more about the attributes of Groups.
Static vs. Dynamic Groups
The data that is eventually visualized on your Visual KPI site can live in one Group or in multiple Groups.
A static Group means that objects live in only one assigned Group. Continuing with the regional Group example, you may assign all KPIs for the plants in that region to that one regional group.
But let’s say you want to create another Group that visualizes data in a different way. Rather than displaying the data for one region, you want to also show an attribute of all plants across all regions. You can use Dynamic Groups to display relevant data. A Dynamic Group will show data based on attributes you select. For example, if you create a custom attribute called “Temp” for temperature, you can dynamically display all KPIs that have a “Temp” attribute.
Dynamic Groups are especially useful for moving targets, such as assets that change geolocation. If you have transportation moving materials, you can create Dynamic Groups to track assets in time and according to location. For example, you could create a Dynamic Group that returns the data for all trains inbound to San Francisco. In this group, you could have KPIs based on the materials each is transporting.
Create a New Group
Open Visual KPI Designer and connect to the appropriate site.
Select the Groups tab and click the New Group icon ().
Enter a name for the Group.
Note: If you have a worksheet with Groups open and want to remove all Groups from the current Group worksheet, select the Replace worksheet contents checkbox (any unsaved changes are lost). This will also remove the existing Groups from your site.
Add the new Group.
- Click Apply to add the new Group and its default settings to the Groups worksheet and continue adding Groups.
- Click OK to add the new Group and its default settings to the Groups worksheet and close the dialogue.
- Click Cancel to cancel the creation of the new Group. Once you have clicked the Apply button, the Group(s) already added to the Groups worksheet will not be removed.
Configure Group Attributes
When you add a new Group to the Groups worksheet, it keeps the default settings and attributes. You can edit any of the default settings and configure additional attributes.
Note: If you want to add KPIs, Charts or Tables to this Group dynamically, build a query in the respective columns: KPI Selection Query, Chart Selection Query, Table Selection Query. Learn more
To save a Group, place an “x” in the first column and click the Save ( ) icon in the open Groups tab of the Objects Toolbar. It is important to note that ALL Groups with an “x” in the (x) column will be saved. You can remove the “x” for any Group you do not want to save or update.
Here are a few basic attributes you may want to define. See a full list of all possible Group attributes in the Group Attributes & Keyword Reference.
Define Display Order
Select a Display Order for the Group. A Display Order of 1 means the Group will appear at the top of the Groups list. Groups not assigned a Display Order will appear in alphabetical order, following any Groups assigned a Display Order.
Add Text to Display on the Visual KPI Site
The Description appears under the Group Name on the Visual KPI site. By default, the name of the Group displays. You can add text to the Description column if you want a different descriptor. For example, a Group called Region NE could have the Description NE Region Power Gen Sites.
Define the Group Parent Name
The tells Visual KPI whether this is a Home Group or sub-group. If you want the Group to appear on the Groups Home page, select Home. If you want the Group to be a sub-group of any other Group, select the Parent Name. Alternatively, you can use Group Selection Query to create a Dynamic Group.
Define the Default Group View
If you want the data on the Groups page to be displayed differently from the default Rollup visualization, define another default view. For example, you could select a List View or Geo Map view. You can also select the visualizations for the other objects in the group, such as KPI View, Chart View and Table View.
Note: If you select a Geo Map visualization, enter the latitude and longitude parameters, or select an interface that will return the latitude and longitude parameters.
Learn more