• Multiple data series (e.g. including a budget)
• Ability to place markers on the chart

Selecting the type of chart

• Line
  • Be aware that data points will be sorted according to their x-axis value.
  • If multiple data points could have the same x-axis value, consider using aggregation to combine them.
• Bar
• If the source data does not already group the values into categories, you can use modifiers to limit the number of bars displayed on the chart.
• You can use 'Count' (instead of specifying data) on the y-axis to display a histogram.
• If you limit the range of the x-axis to a certain number of standard deviations, ContactsLaw will assume that the y-axis value indicates the frequency.
• Pie
  • The x-axis values will determine the 'slices' of the pie.
  • ContactsLaw will automatically convert the values on the y-axis into percentages of the total.

Defining the data displayed on each axis of the chart

• Select the type of data to display
  • Workgroup field - Plot the values for a particular workgroup field. The field must be of the correct type (e.g. number, date, etc) in order to be meaningfully displayed. For fields which allow multiple values, only the first value will be shown on the graph.
  • Contact - Plots the contact/member in a particular role on the file. Use mainly for x-axis categories or filters.
  • Date - Plots one of the files' dates (created, archived, etc). You can modify the value to group by month, quarter, relative time of year, etc.
  • Member - Plots one of the member types on the file (manager, supervisor, etc). As with contacts, use mainly for x-axis categories or filters.
  • Active file? - Designed mainly for filters, determines whether the source file is active or archived.
• Set the values of any properties/arguments for the chosen type of data
• Each type of data has its own configuration. For each property/argument, you may have to choose from a list of values, or type your own.
• Decide whether to aggregate the data
  • If the source data might contain multiple data points with the same x-axis value, you may wish to combine the values using an aggregate function (Sum, Average, etc).
  • The 'Count' function does not require you to select a type of data, as it simply counts the number of qualifying files.
• Apply any desired modifiers to the data
• Modifiers transform the raw values from the source data. Typically, they are applied to x-axis values to group data into categories.
• The 'Quantize' modifier rounds values up to the nearest N; you can use it to arrange values into ranges/brackets.
• The 'Group by date range' modifier groups date values into periods.
• The 'Dates to categories' modifier allows you to group date values by 'throwing away' part of the date (such as the year - which would allow you to show months without respect to the year).

• Title - The title displayed on the axis.
• Format - A standard number format string which determines how the labels on the axis are displayed (number of decimal places, currency symbol, date format, etc).
• Scale - The size of one axis unit (in terms of source data units, e.g. each axis unit represents 1000 of 'x').
• Precision - The smallest increment that can be displayed on the chart. For bar charts, this determines the width of each bar.
• Range (σ) - Allows you to limit the x-axis range to a particular number of standard deviations from the mean. On bar and line graphs, markers for the mean and +/- standard deviation will appear on the chart.

Adding filters to limit the data displayed on the graph

• The data on which the filter operates (any type of data from the previous section can be used for a filter).
• The mechanism used to select a value for the filter (e.g. date picker, member drop-down, etc).
• The default value (leave blank for a sensible system default).
• Caption text appearing on either side of the filter control.

Accessing custom charts