You can display charts with data pulled from multiple iSheet sources. This means that you can create data visualisation charts using data from multiple iSheets from multiple sites.
Multi-iSheet source setup - video
Creating a Multi-iSheet source
To create a multi-iSheet source, click Admin:
Within admin, navigate to Data visualisation > Multi-iSheet sources:
The Multi-iSheet sources screen is displayed:
Here, you can Add new multi-iSheet sources, Edit or Remove existing multi-iSheet sources, and also check on the Status, Last modified by and Last modified on data.
Adding a new multi-iSheet source
To add a new multi-iSheet source, click Add:
The Add source screen is displayed:
Within this screen, you need to give the new source a Name. Additionally, you must select the Source type from the drop down menu:
Once you have given the new source a name and selected the source type, you need to select the iSheets that you want to pull data from. To do so, within the iSheets section, click Add:
The Select iSheets screen will be displayed, showing all available iSheets which you have access to:
Here, you can also search for a specific iSheet or filter by Recent or Favourites.
Please note that each iSheet and also which site the iSheet belongs to is displayed here.
Select the iSheets you wish to use for your multi-iSheet source, and click Add. (There is currently a limit of 12 iSheets for performance reasons, but if you wish to discuss using more iSheets, please contact support). These iSheets will now be displayed:
Now you have selected the iSheets, we need to select the columns. To do so, within the Column section, click Add:
This will display new drop down fields, for each iSheet:
(There is currently a limit of 6 columns for performance reasons, but if you wish to discuss using more columns, please contact support).
The data selected in the first row of this section will define the data that is available within each other drop down menu.
Select which data you wish to display from the drop down menus within the column section:
And once you have selected all of this data, click Save to save all of your changes:
If you would like to remove columns or iSheets once you have selected them, please click More actions > Remove for either of them:
Managing Multi-iSheet sources
Within the Multi-iSheet source screen, you can Edit and Remove existing sources, and also check the Status, see who last modified a source and see the date a source was last modified:
- Edit - Click More actions > Edit to edit the source
- Remove - Click More actions > Edit to remove the source
- Status - This is the status of the source. OK means that the source can be used. A warning symbol indicates that there is an error that needs to be rectified
- Last modified by - This is who last modified this source
- Last modified on - This is the last date the source was modified on
Multi-iSheet source charts - video
Displaying data visualisation charts from Multi-iSheet sources
Once you have created your Multi-iSheet source, you can use it to display data in charts. To do this, navigate to any site home page:
And click the Edit button to Add content:
Click Add panel:
And select Data visualisation within the Add panel screen:
For more information on data visualisation, click here.
Once you have familiarised yourself with data visualisation, give your new panel a Title and select Multi-iSheet source as your source:
Select the Chart type:
And then select the Category, Value and Filter data values:
Once you have selected these data values, click Preview. If you are happy with your chart, click Add to add your chart to the home page.
Retrieve all Multi-iSheet charts data
There is also the option for multi-iSheet charts, that can be used to retrieve all multi-iSheet chart data, so that users can see all of the aggregate data without needing access to all the sites and iSheets that make up the source. This means that you can share a chart with a user without giving them direct access to the source data.
Please note that users can still only see and drill down into the data if they have the required permissions
To set these permissions, when adding a new panel, there will be a new Permissions section:
The two options available are:
- Respect user permissions - This option is used to ensure the user will only see the data they are allowed to see
- Retrieve all data - This option enables the user to see all data that is available in that source, regardless of a users specific permissions
Once you have entered all details of the panel, click Add. The panel will be added with the relevant permissions set.
Drilling down to a source
You can, with permission, drill down to the source of a multi-iSheet chart. To do this, on your chart, click one of the segments. A multi-iSheet chart has more than one level of information, so you will have to click multiple times, to get to the source:
The first click shows how much each of the sources contributes to the overall top-level chart. You will only see sources that you have permission to see, even if the chart has been created to retrieve all data. You can press Back to go back to the top level chart.
Below is the result of clicking the first chart, showing that there are two sources, each contributing 50% of the total.
The title of the chart shows you the type of aggregation (count, average or sum) and the field that is being aggregated.
When you click one of the two segments in this chart, you are taken to the selected source:
Please note that when you add iSheets to a multi iSheet source, you will no longer be able to search and find iSheets from template sites
Please note, that when an iSheet view has a column removed and that column is used in a multi-iSheet source, the status of that source will be set as Warning. To inform users that there is now an unmapped column. To fix this, edit the source
Users can also search for iSheets based on the site name, as well as the title of the iSheet
Bypass permissions when displaying data
You can aggregate all data from the source sites, rather than hide the data that the user may not have permission to see.
When adding a Data visualisation panel, and your source is set as Multi-iSheet, you will have the following permissions options:
- The new Retrieve all data option should be set to ensure that the permissions on the record data is ignored and all records that match any filter are returned from all sources. The user will not be able to drill down into the data of any sites or Sheets that they do not have permission to see
- The Respect user permissions option will only display the data that the user is allowed to see
Please note that site security checks are still shown (such as terms and conditions and password etc.), but once they have been passed, the data is collected as if the user is a site administrator.
