Visualisations

Overview

This guide introduces the Visualisations feature in StoreFeeder, which is powered by SandDance (a Microsoft product also used in Power BI). It covers navigation, the main menu sections, and a practical example. For a deeper dive into SandDance's capabilities, refer to the additional guides and videos available online.

Drag — Moves the graph in 2D or 3D space.
Scroll wheel — Zooms in and out in 2D or 3D space.
Ctrl + drag — Rotates the graph in 3D space (no effect in 2D).

General options

Undo/redo and filter controls.
Snapshot creation and navigation.
Toggle between 2D and 3D.
Centre the graph.
Advanced rendering options.

Chart

Chart — Change the chart type. Eight options are available; experiment to find what works best for your data.
Column Mapping — Change the columns shown on the Y (and Z, if 3D) axis.
Color by — Set the colour split based on a data point.
Sort by — Change the sort order.
Total by — Change how totals are rendered (varies by chart type).
Size by — Change how data is sized. Works best in the Strips view, where you can choose a metric such as Total Sales or Total Units.
Facet by — Break the report down further for more detail.

Chart Color

Color by — Choose the data point used to colour the graph.
Scheme — Choose from pre-made colour schemes.
Color Reverse — Reverses the colour gradient.
Color Binning — Sets how colours are distributed across the range (for example, 1-10, 11-20).
Color Options — Not in use.

Data Browser

Scope — Switch between All Rows, Filtered, and Selected.
Navigation — Move between rows of data.
Column Types — View columns by type. You can change a column's type using the pencil icon. Select Reset to Default if you make a mistake.

Select by Search

Build filters on specific data points by adding expressions and applying grouping.

Snapshots

Save the current layout and/or filter state as a named snapshot so you can return to it later. Use the snapshot navigation buttons at the top of the page or this menu. Delete snapshots using the bin icon.

History

Step backwards and forwards through your change history. Select any entry to return to that point. The Undo and Redo buttons at the top of the page provide the same functionality.

Transitions

Controls for how graphs are animated during rendering. If your machine is struggling to keep up, set the transition duration to 0 to remove the animation effect.

Scrub Transition — Move through the rendering animation manually.
Transition Options — Set how the transition is rendered.
Stagger Options — Reverse the drawing order.
Transition Durations — Set transition duration and delays.

Options

Z Axis Options — Change the Z to Y axis scaling ratio.
Text Options — Scale the text size on the graph.
Chart Canvas — Toggle axes and legend display on or off.
Snapshots — Change the thumbnail size in the Snapshots section.

Practical example

The following example uses data from a report generated in the Insights Engine.

The default view is a 2D bar chart.

This shows how many deliveries each person has booked. Switch to 3D and set the Z axis to Quantity to also see how many units were booked in.

Faceting by Delivery Date breaks this down further to show details for each delivery.

Use Select by Search to filter to a specific date.

Use the options at the top of the screen to isolate that data.

Save the current view as a snapshot to return to it later.

The snapshot appears in the list and can be recalled at any time.

Use the History section to undo your changes. Your snapshot remains saved and restores all applied actions when selected.

As a further example, the Top Selling Items report below uses Sum as Percentage (Strip Layout), sized by Number of times ordered and sorted by SKU.

Hover over a bar to see more detail about that metric.

Changing Size by to Total Revenue shows what percentage of total revenue each SKU contributes. For example, you might see that one SKU on your EPOS channel generates disproportionately high revenue compared to other channels, which could inform pricing decisions.

Everything in Visualisations is read-only, so you cannot affect your underlying data. Experiment freely to find the views that work best for you.