Sparklines are typically small graphics, showing a horizontal line connecting several data points without labeling the values on their axes. The purpose of a sparkline is to show the movement of a trend over a certain period. Since its details are not available, the context of a sparkline must be clear to the dashboard user to interpret its meaning properly. This recipe will show you how to configure a sparkline.
Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data into the spreadsheet, as shown in the following screenshot:
600
in the Normal Range Low field and enter 1000
in the Normal Range High field:The configuration of the General tab within the properties pane of a sparkline chart component looks like the configuration of a line chart component. But, a sparkline chart component has fewer options here: no axis and no category labels can be defined. From a dashboard user's perspective, this also means that the user has to know and understand the context of the presented data. When multiple sparklines are displayed and they all have different bands without axes, it is very difficult to compare the values. The user needs to be aware of this.
With the Normal Range Area section in the Behavior tab, it is possible to illustrate the range of the values of this series. Also, the start and end and the highest and lowest values of the presented series can be emphasized.
In this section, we will discuss some specific labels for the sparkline component: header labels and low and high values.
Header labels can label two parts of the sparkline chart component: the series name(s) and the sparkline(s). To activate these labels follow the given steps: