The Grid component can display a table with data in your dashboard. Therefore, it looks a bit like the List View and Spreadsheet Table components. There are a number of differences between these two sets of components, stated as follows:
- The List View and Spreadsheet Table components allow us to make data selections; the Grid component does not
- The Grid component not only displays data, but its values can also be changed by the dashboard user
- The Grid component doesn't have a header row
Open a new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards file and enter the values in the spreadsheet as shown in the following screenshot:
- Drag a Grid component into the canvas.
- Bind the Data field to spreadsheet cells A5 until C7.
- Go the Behavior tab and set Increment to
5. - Click on the Appearance tab. Set the Vertical Margin as well as the Horizontal Margin to
5. - Resize the Canvas Container component to almost half the size of the canvas.
- Preview the dashboard to see how this works. Move your mouse over one of the cells and click on it as soon as the cursor changes into an up down arrow as shown in the following screenshot. Now drag your cursor up or down to change the value of the cell.
As you can see, the way the Grid component works is quite straightforward. It displays a simple table with the values in the spreadsheet cells we bound to the component. The value of each cell can then be adjusted when we run the dashboard. As with all the insertion-like components, the actual value in the spreadsheet cell will change as well and can be used in Excel functions or other components that refer to this cell.
In the General tab, we can set the Minimum Limit and Maximum Limit fields that we can change a value to. This means that if the initial value of a cell lies outside this range and you want to change the value, you can only change it to a value within the range.
Under the Common sub-tab of the Behavior tab, these limits can be set to Fixed or Open. If you choose the Open option, the Scale fields on the General tab are grayed out.
Furthermore, you can set the Mouse Sensitivity level. This will set the speed in which the values will increase or decrease when changing them. If you set Scroll Behavior to Auto, the values keep changing if you click the cell and drag the cursor a bit above or below the cell. If you use the Manual option instead, you have to keep moving your cursor up or down to change the value.
