Several visualizations can be placed in a single page. The disposition of these is customizable, and the size of each can also be manipulated.
Each visualization that is added to a page will be placed on the top, above any already existing visualization. The layout can then be manipulated by the user and visualizations can be shifted around and arranged in a user chosen fashion.
Spotfire offers the possibility for visualizations to be arranged vertically, horizontally, or in a mixed grid. Just be aware that the screen size limits the available area.
Visualizations can be shifted around, just by dragging-and-dropping. To grab a visualization, select (with the mouse) the visualization bar which contains the visualization name. From there, users can drag-and-drop it anywhere on the screen. Moving visualizations can be done at any point in time. When dragging a visualization around a page, grayed drop areas will appear to guide the users to drop the visualization in a proper location.
Spotfire offers the possibility of auto-arranging the visualizations, where a user can simply select one of the four predefined arrangement types. To access this feature, open the menu View | Arrange Visualizations. The following screenshot presents the list of available possibilities:
The possibilities are described as follows:
- Evenly: It distributes the visualizations evenly throughout the page.
- Side-by-side: It distributes the visualizations horizontally (side-by-side).
- Stacked: It distributes the visualizations vertically stacked.
- Maximize Active: It expands the currently selected visualization, minimizing all remaining ones. The minimized visualizations are placed at the bottom of the page, and only their title bar will be visible.
Pages foster the creation of Spotfire analysis that includes many visualizations functionally segregated and distributed across different containers. Users can create pages organized in a logical sequence to better shape their analysis.
Spotfire allows navigation between pages in three different ways: using titled tabs, step-by-step, and history arrows.
- Titled tabs: This is the mode used by us so far. Pages are represented by selectable tabs on top of the screen, just below the toolbar. Also, there is a drop-down arrow available on the right-hand side of the tabs bar, which allows the user to select to switch tab. The following screenshot displays the tab bar with the drop-down selection option.
- Step-by-step: In step-by-step mode, users will see numbered links as the navigator between pages (instead of tabs). The following screenshot exemplifies this:
- History arrows: History arrows are similar to step-by-step links, but no numbered links are available. Only history arrows will be available to users. Navigation has to be enabled using text areas or dynamic items on graphical tables. More information can be found in Spotfire Professional's Help Topics documentation.
Libraries allow users to share analysis using a central repository. Analysis assets created by a user to be shared include not only the pages with their visualizations, but also information links, data tables, and so on.
Spotfire Professional offers a library management tool, which can be initiated by accessing the menu Tools | Library Administration, as shown in the following screenshot:
Administration tasks include folder structure creation and management, importing and exporting library files, and permission setting.
To save an analysis project to the library, users can use the menu File | Save (As) | Library Item or File | Save Copy (As) | Library Item. There, it will be possible to define the folder where the analysis will be stored, and it will also be possible to choose other configuration values such as the embedding of data in the analysis. All shared analysis will be available not only for Spotfire Professional users, but also for Spotfire Server Web Player clients.
Tip
Embedding data in libraries has the same behavior as embedding data in an analysis file. It means that the source data of the data tables is stored with the analysis itself and is always available for loading.
Not embedding data means that the source data of the data tables has to be available when an analysis is loaded. If the data is not available, users will fail to load the analysis. This configuration has the advantage of keeping analysis files smaller in size.
To create a library containing the analysis created throughout this book, perform the following steps:
- Access the File menu, and select the option Save As | Library Item.
- Create a new folder named
spotfire Analysis, by clicking on the button New Folder. - Double-click on the newly created folder and inside it create a new folder named
Demo visualizations. - Once again, double-click on the newly created folder to enter it.
- In the name input box, name the library as
demo1. Click on the Next button. - At this point, a description and several keywords can be associated with our library. We will leave both blank. Click on Next.
- In this last configuration step, the user can set the data tables configuration for the library (embed or not the data). This is done by using the options Edit and Override these settings and embed all in-memory data. We will tick the checkbox Override these settings and embed all in-memory data. Click on Finish.
- The following pop up will be presented. You can close it by clicking on the Close button.
Web Player Server is the Spotfire platform component which enables web browser access to the shared analysis projects stored in the library. This product consists of a web application, which is integrated with the Spotfire Server, and can read the analysis deployed in it.
Because it supports solely thin clients, Web Player Server makes available only a subset of the features of Spotfire Professional. Users can only read analyses; they cannot create or modify them.
The following features are available in the tool:
- Visualizations panel
- Marking of data for drill down and for display of details visualization
- Filters panel without filtering schemes and filter customization
- Details-on-demand panel, in which the data presented comes from standard marking
- Libraries
To access the Web Player, open one of the Spotfire Web Player supported web browsers, and navigate to http://localhost/SpotfireWeb/.
After logging in with the administration spotfire user, the following library screen will be presented:
Here are listed the libraries that are visible to the logged-in user. The library demo1 was saved as an example for the Libraries section of this chapter.
To open the library, just click on it. If we click on demo1, we will be presented with the following screen:
