Line Chart and X Axis Display Options

[JDMTX]

I am preparing a series of line charts using WRS 4.2 that are to be burst to users on a weekly basis. The line charts display rig counts (y axis) for a period of two years (x axis) to measure seasonality changes on a monthly basis. I need to know how much control I effectively have over the following x axis graph elements:

1. Ability to specify the display of tic marks on x axis.
2. Ability to rotate x axis value labels at a 0, 45 or 90 degree angle to the axis..
3. Suppress the display of the axis label. If I am displaying dates along the x axis it is redundant to display the label Period Date.
4. Exercise control of the font size and style for x axis value labels independent of the font size and style used for the y axis.

I only ask, as we are converting these reports out of Excel and Crystal and the current reporting platforms give me this capability but I am not certain how to accomplish in WRS. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

JM

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
If you are going to use a stored process to generate your line chart, you have full control over these display options for the axes using the AXIS, LEGEND and SYMBOL statements, which provide global graphics options to SAS/GRAPH for creating the stored process output.

If you are creating a report using WRS graph controls, then you'll need to consult the WRS documentation on the graph properties that are changeable. Generally, if you are designing and creating a graphical report in WRS, you have a drop down box in Edit mode that allows you to change graph properties. It's been a while since I worked with WRS, so I don't quite remember everything you can change in this fashion.

cynthia

[Technolero]

JM:

I have several web reports (WRS 4.2) with months along the X axis (set up as a category in my info map) and measures on the Y axis, which sounds similar to what you would like to do. I am unable to control any of the 4 elements that you asked about. These elements can be adjusted for the Y axis though (except for number 3). As Cynthia mentioned, to get the output you are looking for, running a stored process in your web reports will be necessary.

[JDMTX]

Can you recommend a paper or technical note that explains the use of stored processes in web report studio using report prompts to filter the data and pass the filter values off to a stored process as parameters. Understand that you can perform this by using group breaks but my interest is to use filters on the report and thus effect the data displayed by the embedded stored process.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
The use of stored processes in Web Report Studio isn't much different than the use of stored processes in any of the other client applications. The only thing to really note is that the output type of the Stored Process is SASReport XML -- and not HTML, CSV or RTF as in some other client apps.

The use of report parameters to prompt the user for information prior to running the stored process will be the same in WRS as it is for the other client apps, too. Once the parameters are defined in the metadata, then the prompting interface is generated by each client application to gather input from the user.

These papers talk about stored processes and parameters:
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/forum2008/024-2008.pdf
http://support.sas.com/rnd/papers/regional07/paradigm_edu07.zip (zip file of programs for above paper)
http://www.nesug.org/proceedings/nesug07/ap/ap22.pdf
http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings09/330-2009.pdf

Depending on whether you have SAS 9.1.3 or SAS 9.2, the documentation is your best resource. But look at the version specific doc, you have the ability to create cascading and dynamic prompts in SAS 9.2 and those will not be in the doc for SAS 9.1.3.

Generally, when speaking of filters, I think of filters on an Information Map. You can also populate a stored process with data that comes from an information map that is linked to the stored process. That type of filtering is described here:
http://support.sas.com/kb/26/175.html

For more information about other types of filters with Information Maps, look at the Information Map documentation.

cynthia

[NicolaD]

Hi,

You can do number 3 in your list above in WRS by clicking right on the graph, select properties and then the axis tab, set the axis label text size to 1 (you have to type this in as not an option in the pull down list) and the text colour to white (or a colour that matches your background), we employed SAS consultants to set up our reports and they showed me how to do that.

[JDMTX]

Created a series of line and bar charts in Enterprise Guide 4.2 using the provide graphing tasks. I then converted the project into a stored process and then embedded the stored processes into WRS. The reports look fantastic on screen but when distributed via e-mail as HTML the graphs are boxed in by black borders that destory the presentation value of the graphs. Has anyone encountered this situation before and have a work around?