The Time Aware Axis feature allows you to show dates in chronological order plotted at specific intervals within minimum and maximum bounds. To do this, the Time Aware Axis feature turns a discrete X-Axis into a continuous time interval. The distance between adjacent axis items is proportional to their time value difference (a non Time Aware Axis shows all items using the same difference between them). The Time Aware feature only implements an alternative visualization of source data and does not affect the way how the data is aggregated and computed items are calculated. That is, the data processing in chart section which includes dividing data into categories and calculating fact data does not depend on whether the Time Aware feature is activated. In particular, the behavior of the “Chart This Pivot”, “Pivot This Chart” and “Add Computed Item” actions do not change.
For example, the data below represents the total sales per month:
A Line Chart that has no Time Aware axis, shows the data as follows:
The four ticks corresponding to the month are arranged uniformed along the axis (the distance between them is the same. At first glance, it appears that the sales reduction trend becomes slower in the last month. If you look at the graph closer, there is no March to May period.
If you add a Time Aware axis, the same chart looks like this:
This chart shows every month on the present time values; even month for which there is no data. Sales for the last month drop quickly.
The Line Charts is the main application area of this feature; however it is available in almost all existing chart types. Scatter/Bubble charts do not include this option because they are already “time aware” (essentially, value aware) by nature. Both have two fact axes which are continuous by definition.
The Time Aware axis can only be used under specific conditions:
The X axis should have a date/time category to display, which becomes a dedicated Time Scale category.
Only one category should be on the X-Axis. If you add multiple categories, even if they are ate/time categories, the feature is rendered inactive.
The Time Aware axis is not available for pie, scatter and bubble charts.
The Time Aware Axis is considered active if the conditions in the list above are met, and the Time Aware option on the Label Axis dialog is not explicitly disabled. You can turn on or off the feature. If you turn off the feature, the X axis remains discrete as in previous versions. By default the feature is turned off for Interactive Reporting documents older than Release 9.3. Charts created in Release 9.3 and later have the feature enabled.
Note: | Since the Time Aware Axis assumes that all axis labels are in ascending order, the sort order option is disabled. |
To create a Time Aware axis: