About the Custom Visualization Component

A Custom Visualization Component is an extension to Studio that lets you create customized visualizations in cases where the default components in Studio do not meet your specific data visualization needs. A developer creates a custom component, tests it, modifies it, and publishes it to become available to business users. A business user then creates and configures an instance of the custom component on a project page in Studio.

Elements of a Custom Visualization Component

A Custom Visualization Component is made of the following:

A JavaScript file to define the features, rendering, and interaction of the custom component with its data. You code this file to conform to the Custom Visualization Portlet JavaScript API.
An EQL statement to provide one or more result sets for the component. This may include EQL token configuration to define variables in an EQL query.

You specify the JavaScript, the EQL, and the EQL token configuration on the Custom Visualizations page of Studio along with additional configuration of the custom component.

Installed libraries and external libraries

BDD has D3 version 3 and jQuery version 2.0.3 installed by default. If you need to access additional JavaScript libraries for use in your component, you specify them as a list of external JavaScript libraries when you create the component.

Role privileges

You must have Administrator privileges to access the Custom Visualizations page in Studio. Once you publish a Custom Visualization Component, any user with project access can create an instance of the custom component on a project page.

Reference API documentation

The Custom Visualization Portlet JavaScript API has generated JavaScript documentation that is available as part of the full BDD documentation set. You can use this documentation as a reference to code the JavaScript file for a custom component.

For details, see the Custom Visualization Portlet JavaScript API Reference.