CMS chart widget instructions

The type of chart used to show your data.

Available types currently include:

1. Bar
2. Bar (Grouped)
3. Bar (Stacked)
4. Column
5. Column (Grouped)
6. Column (Stacked)
7. Line (Multi)
8. Line (Single)
9. Area
10. Waffle

This may be expanded in future.

Different chart types have different data structure requirements. For more information about this, see data structure. 

The height of the chart on the page. Currently four options are offered for height:

1. Short (300 pixels)
2. Standard (400 pixels)
3. Tall (500 pixels)
4. Extra Tall (750 pixels)

When selecting a height, the general advice is to select the shortest available that shows your data clearly without excessive white space. 

The Data contains axis titles option was added for fine tuning of display when working with bar charts and your desired chart height falls in between 2 of these preset heights. 

The title of your chart. It is a compulsory field. This will be located above your chart on the web page.

Explain what the subject of the chart is with simple language, without acronyms. Keep the title short and precise.

Theme determines the colour palette used for your chart.

By default this will be the standard palette known as AIHW-General.

For custom palette enquires, please contact the Data Visualisation Team.

This section allows you to import the CSV file that contains the data for your chart. 

The source CSV file will usually be in the appropriate project folder in your unit's Projects/Shared drive.

For more information about the required data structure see the Data structure page. 

Rather than manually populating the axis titles fields you can have these automatically populated form the CSV data source. These titles will also be reflected as the column headings in the Table tab.

Note:

• When ticked the titles from your CSV file will override any manually entered axis titles.
• When ticked both axis titles will be turned on. If you only want a single axis title, then keep this unticked and fill out the appropriate axis title textbox.

The title to appear under the X-axis.

Note this is overridden by the column titles from your data source if 'Data contains axis titles' is ticked.

Adding an X-axis title to your chart is optional.

The title to appear to the left of your Y-axis.

Symbols that you want to appear before your value on the tooltips, data labels and in the table tab.

This will most often be a dollar sign. 

Note:

• The value prefix can be shown on the measure axis by selecting the 'Show affix on axis' option.
• If your data contains display values these will override the prefix. 

Symbols that you want to appear after your value on the tooltips, data labels and in the table tab.

This will most often be a per cent sign. 

Note:

• The value suffix can be shown on the measure axis by selecting the 'Show affix on axis' option.
• If your data contains display values these will override the suffix. 

Ticking this option will show any value entered in the 'Value prefix' or 'Value suffix' field in the relevant position on your measure axis labels. The measure axis may be your X or Y axis depending on the selected chart type.

The minimum value indicates a fixed start value for the range on the measure axis. 

This value defaults to 0.

The maximum value indicates a fixed end value for the range on the measure axis. 

This value defaults to 'automatic'.

The new 'Custom config' option allows you to make slight alterations to your charts by copying and pasting in the code snippets on this page. If you have a use case that is not covered by these snippets, feel free to contact us at the data viz inbox, to see if it's something we can write a script for.

See also Using custom config

NB: Only scripts approved by the data visualisation team should be used in your charts.

Adds tick marks to the X axis of your chart. 

Default option is to have tick marks off. 

You may want to turn this on when you have many X axis labels, particularly when the labels are sloped to make it easier to connect the label to the data.

Turns on data labels for your chart.

If a display value column is included in your data source it will be used for the data labels, else it will be generated from your raw data in combination with any entered prefix or suffix.

By default CMS Charts will hide data labels if it considers them to be too close together.

 If you want to show all data labels regardless of spacing this option can be ticked. 

Large numbers are automatically shortened on axis labels by CMS Charts, adding K for thousands, M for millions etc. 

This shortening can be disabled by selecting this option, instead showing the full number.

The height of a bar is fixed by default. When the limited chart height options results in bars that are overlapping or too much white space then this option can be ticked to change to variable bar height which may improve the presentation of your chart.

This will only impact on bar, bar (grouped) and bar (stacked) chart options.

This option is only to be used when the standard chart heights do not deliver satisfactory presentation of your chart.

Turn on legend for your chart.

In most cases you will want this turned on for the stacked, grouped and multi line chart types.

Title for your legend. Is the equivalent of the Axis Title for your dimension represented by colours on your chart.

This is an optional field when you have legend enabled. If the categories are self-evident usually legend title is blank.

Enter the footnotes that will appear directly beneath your chart in this field.

If you have flags that need to be referenced, or only a small number of notes, it is advised to display them as footnotes rather than in the separate notes screen. 

Enter the notes that will appear on a separate notes tab for your chart in this field.

This option allows for easier presentation of a large number of notes while keeping the chart presentation simple.

Footnotes can be used alongside notes or just one of the two options depending on need.

By default the description/screen reader text appears above your chart, below the title. This can be turned off by ticking this option.

You may want to turn this off if your report text already covers the content/story of your chart. 

See also Writing alt text (description) for visualisations

Enter the description that will appear above your chart/below your title.

The description text is what a screen reader will read aloud for your chart.

See also Writing alt text (description) for visualisations

Removes the table button that allows the user to view the chart data in table format.

Removes the download options that allows the user to download images/CSV data file for the chart.

Disables tooltips for the chart. 

Tooltips are the numbers and text that appear when you hover over a bar/column/line.

The data source for your chart which will appear underneath the chart/notes on the webpage.

Notes have optional links that can be used to take the user to a specified page for that data source.

Note:

• The CMS Chart Dev Tool currently only allows for the inclusion of a single data source.
• If you require listing multiple data sources for a single chart, your CMS author can do this directly through the CMS Chart widget.

Import a JSON file with chart data/settings that has been exported from the CMS Chart Dev Tool.

Create a web anchor which can allows the chart to be directly reached from a web hyperlink.