You can view trends in Visual KPI in many ways, both natively and through adjustments made by administrators or end-users. You can always find the exact information you need from a trend by customizing or configuring it with ease.
Adjusting the Time Range
You can set the time range for viewing the trend by hours, days, weeks, or any custom time range you choose. You can also use relative time functions to create advanced ranges based on functions (like month-to-date, or “a 16 hour period that ends at 9:43pm every day” as examples).
Visual KPI gives you a variety of ways to view and set time ranges. Let’s explore each.
- Use the Time Range icon () to select from a list of time ranges set by your administrator (using the Visual KPI Designer), or set a custom time range using the custom time range fields.
- Use Box Zoom Mode () or pinch-to-zoom with your fingers on a touchscreen device.
- Use the paddles ( or ).
- Use Drag Mode () with your mouse or with your finger on a touchscreen to change the time view or zoom.
- Use zoom gestures with your mouse wheel by holding down Ctrl (horizontal stretch) or Alt (vertical stretch) while scrolling. This also works with two-finger scrolling on touchpads, etc.
Change Trend View Options
The Trend Options icon () allows you to change how you view data and targets and limits in a trend.
Trend Scale
View the trend in Single Scale mode with only the Target line indicator showing, or you can view in Multi-Scale mode that shows all status indicator line parameters. This is most appropriate when viewing managed or ad-hoc trends with multiple pens that have very different scales. On multi-scale trends, clicking on the pen name in the legend of the trend will adjust the Y-axis.
Trend Type
Change the Trend Type to view Interpolated, Step, Symbol, or a combination of views. The Default Trend Type is interpolated unless set by your admin in the Visual KPI Designer. It can be any one of the following:
Auto Play
Auto Play On or Off allows you to choose whether you want the trend to update in near real-time (seconds) or if you want to pause the trend data at the current view. Note: if you zoom within the trend, the trend will return to its default when the real-time update happens. If you want to keep your current view, set Auto Play to off.
Pen Width
Change the Pen Width to adjust the width of the pens. In the range, 1=thinner and 5=thicker.
After you make changes to options, click Apply.
Note: At any time, you can click the Revert icon () on the Trend menu to return to the default trend view.
Create an Ad Hoc Trend
Ad Hoc Trends are custom trends that you can build right inside your Visual KPI site. You can even add them to your Dashboard or Share. Because Ad Hoc Trends can be built based on an existing trend, you have the Ad Hoc Trend icon ( ) on the trend menu in every trend view. Learn more about Ad Hoc Trends.
Trend View as a Gauge Chart
View a trend as a Gauge chart ( ), if it makes sense (and if this option has been configured by your administrator). Gauge charts, also known as Dial or Speedometer, are a meter-type visualization that shows the real-time status of a KPI, indicated by a gauge and needle, within a range that includes targets and actual values. Gauge/Dial/Speedometer charts can be used to show actual performance versus targets or progress toward a target.
View Trend Data
The Raw Data icon ( ) shows you the raw values associated with the trend, or you can choose to export to CSV for further analysis.
Cursor Mode () lets you scroll over the trend chart with your mouse or finger to see more data details associated with specific points in time along the trend. Clicking or tapping on the trend will lock the current cursor and let you add additional cursors for comparison (number can be limited by device type in the Visual KPI Designer).
Snap To () will snap your cursor to point along the trend line where actual values exist in the data source(s), highlighting the difference between real values and interpolated lines drawn between values.
View KPI Details
The KPI details page shows a ton of additional information about the KPI, including the default parameters set by your admin, statistics (for the given time range). You can see what groups the current KPI belongs to, who is responsible, links, custom attributes, and any other defaults set by the admin. If Manual Data Entry is enabled on a KPI, you can even adjust it from the details page.
Use the View KPI Details icon ( ) to see this screen.
Show Status Background
Use the Show Status Background icon to quickly see the historical status changes of a trend in full color. The trend view normally shows the status of a KPI in relation to the indicator lines historically over time, and you can see the current status of the KPI in the top right corner; but when you toggle the Status Background icon, the background colors of the chart change to highlight status over time. Take a look at the vertical color bars in the image below. You can see quite easily that this trend has mostly highs and lows and never seems to hit its target.
Note: you can also view this status history in the status history list view and other visualizations.
Gestures for Trends on Dashboard Widgets
As you’re scrolling through your Dashboard, you can stop on a trend and get different views by using a toggle behavior. Click once on the trend to enable scroll zoom, then click again to exit and keep scrolling down the page.
Try these other gestures on dashboard widget trends:
| Zoom only X axis | Zoom only Y axis | Zoom X and Y axis | Scroll into the past/future | |
| Mouse with wheel | Ctrl-Scroll | Alt-Scroll | Scroll wheel alone | Click-drag right/left |
| Mouse in Box Zoom mode | Horizontal click-drag | Vertical click-drag | Scroll wheel alone | N/A |
| Finger on tablet/phone in Box Zoom mode | Horizontal swipe | Vertical swipe | Two finger pinch in/out | Single finger swipe right/left |
All Trend Functions
- Status Background
- Box Zoom
- Mousewheel zoom – Both x and y
- Ctrl-Mousewheel zoom – x
- Alt-Mousewheel zoom – y
- Narrow box zoom – zoom x
- Comments
- Drag Mode
- Cursors
- Snap To
- Export
- View Raw
- Multiscale (and change scale)
- Pen types
- Autoplay
- Revert
- Details (stats)
- Future data
- SPC
- Pen Toggle
- Tightened gesture control
Learn more
Working with Visual KPI Trends
Changing the Visual KPI Trend View
Add Ad Hoc Trends to Your Dashboard
Enroll in the Visual KPI End-User Training and watch our video about Trends and all the ways you can view data in a trend.