Area Chart Mod for Spotfire®

The area chart mod is similar to a line chart, except that the area below the lines is filled with colors to represent and compare the evolution of quantitative values over a time period. Values of each category are displayed on top of each other, allowing to understand the evolution of both the total of a numeric variable, and the importance of each category.

Data requirement

Every mod handles missing, corrupted and/or inconsistent data in different ways. It is advised to always review how the data is visualized.

To make the area chart mod work properly, the underlying data must be formatted in a certain way. A data table with at least two columns is required. One column should contain the positions on the X-axis where each line will be plotted. A second column should contain the vertical contribution for each point, one column per series to be plotted.

Setting up the chart

In this example dataset, we have four columns: Month, Trials, Personals, Professionals

In the area chart configuration in Spotfire, we would specify the 'Month' columns from the data table above as our X-axis and each other column as Y-axis.

Configuring the chart

Once the area chart is configured and has data provided, you can configure the type of area and curve to display. These settings are accessed by clicking on the X-axis. From here there are 2 settings which alter the area chart live:

Chart Type

• Overlapping (default): Used to compare values between categories and emphasize which category has the largest values. Coloring for each category will overlap and transparency is applied so that all categories can be seen.
• Stacked: Used to understand the breakdown of the total by category and to depict how each category compares to the other in their contributions to the total.
• 100% Stacked: Used to indicate how the percentage of each category changes over time. It is a part-to-whole chart where each area indicates the percentage of each part referred to the total of the category.

Curve Type

• Linear: Data points are connected by straight line segments.
• Curved: Data points are connected by smooth curves.

Using the chart

The area chart mod supports marking data and filtering data. Clicking on a line will mark it. Clicking in an empty space will clear the marking.
 

Help and support

This Mod for Spotfire® is not supported by Support.
In the event of issues or to suggest features and enhancements, submit an issue in the Mod's GitHub repository.

For general questions about Mods, please post in the Forums with the topic "Mods" to make it visible and routed to the appropriate team(s) to respond.

More information about Mods for Spotfire®

• Spotfire Community Exchange: A safe and trusted place to discover ready-to-use Mods
• Developer Documentation: Introduction and tutorials for Mods developers
• Mods code examples on GitHub: A public repository for example projects