SP121

This document has been provided for the purpose of giving you a
takeaway for the Spotfire training experience. The pages in this
document contain important concept reminders, organized by the key
learning objectives for this course.

Course SP121 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I - Key learning objectives:

DATA ACCESS - Understand all available options for getting your data into Spotfire
Page 2 • Launch the application, login • Open from library • Default visualization
• Open files • Open from database • Save embedded or linked

CREATE VISUALIZATIONS - Learn how to create and modify common Spotfire visualizations
Page 3 • Insert pages, visualizations, text areas
• Tables • Graphical Tables • Pie Charts
• Bar Charts • Combination Charts • Summary Tables
• Line Charts • Scatter Plots • Cross Tables
Page 4 • Visualization properties • Right-click menus • Title bar
• Selectors • Drag & drop • Properties dialog
Page 5 • Trellis, rows, columns, panels • Colors • Fixed, Unique values
• Manual layout • Segments, Gradient • Add Points and Rules

Page 6 • Images in tables • Image from URL • {$} placeholder

• Images on axes • Binary data column • Rendering
Page 7 • FiscalYearOffset • Document Properties • Fiscal date groupings

CONFIGURE INTERACTIVITY - Get more details for specific data seen in visualizations or limit data displayed
Page 8 • Tooltip display info • Multiple markings • Document Properties
• How to mark data • Separate marking color • Edit markings

Page 9 • Filter types • Change filter types • Document Properties

• Reset all filters • Filtering schemes • Filtering scheme menu
Page 10 • Details visualization • Limit with multiple markings • Limit with multiple filterings
• What to show when empty • AND or OR • Filtering intersection

Page 11 • Subsets • Filtering schemes • Show/Hide Items

• Current filtering • Markings • Rules

SAVE & EXPORT - Understand the options for saving your Spotfire analysis and learn how to export data and images
Page 12 • Save as file • Data linked to source • Reload data
• Save as library item • Data embedded • Replace data table

Page 13 • Export data to file • Export visualization image • Export to PDF

• Export data to library • Export to PowerPoint • Export to HTML

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 1 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 DATA ACCESS

Launch Spotfire Analyst and log in:

Start ▲ All Programs ► TIBCO ▼

Log in provides access to the TIBCO Spotfire Server.

You may also Work Offline after your first login.

Add data from a variety of sources to start a Spotfire analysis : Expected data format …

Open File
Files of type DXP SBDF, TXT, XLSX, CSV, etc...
File ▼ Open …
Fix format
Open from Library issues using
Analyses, information links and data
Copy Paste Import
connections
Settings
TIBCO dialog.
Spotfire Information
Server Links
File ▼ Open From ► Library …
Query databases through the Spotfire server
Add Tables,
On-Demand Data, File ▼ Open From ► Database …
& Data Connections Direct query of database tables
are covered in other
Spotfire courses

If you do not like the default visualization presented upon opening a new data
table, this default setting can be adjusted under:

Tools ▼ Options ♦ Document

In fact, all default settings (color, shape, font, number formatting, etc.) can be
adjusted in the Options dialog.

The Spotfire analysis and the Data Table should be considered

as separate items. All access options except Copy/Paste can be
saved with the data table Linked to source. If you want to analysis
store the data table as part of the Spotfire analysis, you will
have to select Embed during the save process.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 2 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CREATE VISUALIZATIONS
After adding a data table, build your analysis by inserting pages, text areas, and visualizations :

Compare aggregate measures Examine data distribution

Insert ▼ New Page

Aggregate measure
Insert ▼ New Text Area Bar

Count
Charts

Insert ▼ New Visualization

Trends over time Line represents a pattern

Displays ‘raw’ data rows from
the underlying data table
Tables Line
Can select specific columns to Charts
display or sort rows

Cannot display aggregate data Ordered (time or date) Categorical (not ordered)

Can also add ‘Bullet graphs’ Graphical Lines are ‘Sparklines’ and you may add
Tables calculated values and rule-based ‘Icons’

Evaluate values as bars or lines on same visualization

Simple visualization which
displays aggregate data for
Summary selected columns Combination
Tables Charts
Cannot add color or mark

Examine correlations Discover clustering

A more flexible visualization
for displaying aggregate data
Cross Scatter
Tables Functions like a ‘pivot table’ Plots Identify outliers

Can mark or add color to cells

Can include subtotals and

grand totals

Compare parts of the whole, plus the option to change the overall pie size to represent a relative comparison
across categories
Pie
Charts

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 3 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide

Select the Spotfire visualization you want to insert on the page:
Insert ▼ New Visualization ►
CREATE VISUALIZATIONS
Bar Chart The selected visualization will be inserted on
the page with ‘default’ properties. You will
need to adjust properties to create the
Line Chart visualization you desire. Adjust visualization
properties in several ways:
Graphical Table
1. Property selectors, around the visualization,
Combination Chart in the legend, and in the properties dialog.

Scatter Plot Expand Collapse

Pie Chart 2. Right-mouse click on the visualization, the

legend, the axes labels, or on property
selectors.
Table right-mouse click ▼

Summary Table
3. Drag & drop filters on drop targets for the
visualization
Cross Table

Possible drop targets which may appear on a given visualization:

4. Triangle menu allows you to show/hide:

legend, title bar, zoom sliders, selectors, and
right-mouse click axis labels

5. The most comprehensive list of property

adjustments are available in the
visualization properties dialog.

Consider sliding the ‘Visualization’

Properties dialog off to the side so that you
can see what each adjustment is doing to the
visualization.

Number formatting for each visualization can be adjusted in the visualization properties;
however, you may find it more efficient to format numbers and dates globally, using:

Edit ▼ Column Properties In the Column Properties dialog, you can

also change column names, sort string-type
data columns, and delete unwanted columns.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 4 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CREATE VISUALIZATIONS

Visualizations can be subdivided into trellis panels by applying

categorical column(s) to the following properties:

Visualization Properties ♦ Trellis

In addition to drop target Rows

options, trellis panels can be
set to show one value at a
time using Pages.
Columns

Panels
When selecting Panels, you can choose
to define a Manual layout to set the
row and column dimensions of the
trellis panel matrix.

Color is an important property on visualizations, and the

Fixed Categorical
properties dialog affords a wide variety of options:

Visualization Properties ♦ Colors

Color mode:

Unique values Segments Gradient

For continuous columns, Add Point to

define values or calculated limits for
Gradient or Segments color modes.

Add Rule to further expand color

thresholds beyond fixed values or
calculated limits.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 5 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide

Table visualizations (or the Details-on-Demand
panel) may be configured to display images.
Table Visualization Properties –
Columns section,
select column which will
support the image
For a Binary data column, select
Image as the Renderer.
-OR-
For a directory of image files, select Image
from URL as the Renderer.
For a directory of image files, the Settings
button is used to enter the URL string which
will use the column value to access the image
file.
Scatter Plots, Bar Charts, Line Charts, Combination Charts and Heat
Maps may show images on their axes.
Visualization Properties
Axis section, Scale labels - click
the Label Rendering ... button
Visualization Properties
Tooltip section, Add ... button
– select Column
Visualization Properties
Labels section, Label by:
– select Column
© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 6
CREATE VISUALIZATIONS
Image source options:
• Binary data column, in data table, containing image info
• Directory of image files available via URL
• Table visualizations may display images in Virtual Columns*
* A virtual column is not part of the
original data table, but connects to a
remote data source and collects data
from there. Virtual columns are not
available by default, and need to be
registered programmatically.
The {$} symbol is a placeholder for the
string value in the column which will be
passed as part of the URL string.
The value may be a
file name or even
contain a part of the
directory path, like:
For a Binary data column, select
Show as: Image.
For a directory of image files,
select Show as: Image from
URL. For a directory of image files,
the Settings button is used to
enter the URL string which will
use the column value to access
the image file.
TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CREATE VISUALIZATIONS

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
FiscalYearOffset = 0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

FiscalYearOffset = 2
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb

FiscalYearOffset = -1
Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

Edit ▼ Document Properties ♦ Properties

The FiscalYearOffset property specifies the number of months from
the start of the calendar year to the start of the fiscal year.
For instance, a value of -1 specifies that the fiscal year starts in
December of the previous calendar year, whereas a value of 2
specifies that it starts in March of the current calendar year.

This offset is factored-in when fiscal functions or date groupings

are applied.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 7 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CONFIGURE INTERACTIVITY

Drill down capabilities allow you to interact with a visualization to learn more about what you see.

Visualization Properties ♦ Tooltip

Information displayed in the tooltip can be adjusted

in the Tooltip section of the properties dialog.

How to mark data: (‘item’ = marker, bar, line, sector, cell, or row)
• Click on item: marks item and unmarks all previously marked items
• Ctrl + click on item: adds or subtracts items from the marked group
• Drag rectangle: marks all items touched by rectangle, unmarks all others
• Ctrl + drag rectangle: marks or unmarks items touched by rectangle,
adding or subtracting from the marked group
• Alt + draw lasso: marks all items touched by custom lasso shape
• Ctrl + Alt + draw lasso: marks or unmarks items touched by lasso shape, Marking dims unmarked data, loads rows
adding or subtracting from the marked group into Details-on-Demand table, and shows
number of rows marked in the status bar.

You can establish different markings to capture different subsets of

data in different visualizations.

Visualization Properties ♦ Data

Create a New marking for a
visualization, instead of the
default ‘green’ marking.

Select an existing Marking for

a visualization.

Caution: don’t get confused

and check boxes which ‘Limit
data using makings.’

Visualization Properties ♦ Appearance

Use separate color for marked items, will apply
Each marking defines a subset of data. marking color, rather than dim unmarked items
These marked subsets are available for
export. File ▼ Export ► Data …

After creating and selecting markings for specific visualizations, you

may wish to edit the color or name of a given marking. This can be
done under:
Edit ▼ Document Properties ♦ Markings

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 8 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CONFIGURE INTERACTIVITY

Data displayed in visualizations can be limited using filters.

Return data by
resetting all filters.
Edit ▼ Reset All Filters

Change filter types by right-mouse

right-mouse clicking on the filter:
click ► Filter Type ►

Available
filter types:

Range
Filters

Different filter settings can be differentiated as

different Filtering Schemes. First, however, you must
Item Filter Show the filtering scheme menu in Filters panel.

Edit ▼ Document Properties ♦ Filtering Schemes

Check Box
Filter

Radio Button
Filter

Text Filter

After showing the menu in the filters panel, you can create a
New Filtering
List Box Scheme… for each
Filter filter settings
configuration you wish
to define.

Defined filtering
schemes can then be
applied to individual
visualizations or to
entire pages.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 9 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CONFIGURE INTERACTIVITY

Data displayed in visualizations can be limited using a variety of features.

To limit using markings…
right-mouse click ► Create Details Visualization ►

Visualization Properties ♦ Data

… OR … If no items are marked in the master
visualizations, show: 1. Empty visualization
2. Custom message
3. All data

… adjust the properties of an existing visualization:

Visualization Properties ♦ Data ► Limit data using markings

• check 1 marking

• check more than 1 marking, and select:

 All markings (AND)

 Any markings (OR)

You can also limit data in a visualization using

any of the defined filtering schemes or a
combination of filtering schemes:
• check current filtering scheme used on the page

• check a different filtering scheme than the page

• check more than 1 filtering scheme

 automatically results in a filtered
subset which must meet all filtering
scheme criteria

Visualization Properties ♦ Data ► Limit data using filterings

The default setting is to limit data using the filtering scheme

assigned to the page the visualization is placed upon.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 10 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 CONFIGURE INTERACTIVITY

Ways to define the Subsets variable:

• All data
• Current filtering
o Not in current filtering
• Filtering scheme
o Not in filtering scheme
• Marking
o Not in marking
• Custom Expressions
 Deactivate highlighting/marking for this subset

Once more than one subset is defined, it becomes

a categorical variable which can be applied to
visualization properties.

Rule types to control show / hide items:

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 11 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 SAVE & EXPORT

Saving your analysis requires two considerations. First, where to save the analysis:

Option 1: File ▼ Save As ► File …

My Spotfire Analysis.dxp
Option 2: File ▼ Save As ► Library Item …

My Spotfire Analysis TIBCO Spotfire Server

And, second, how to store the data table:

Option 1: Linked to source - store only a path to the data source,

and reload data table from that source each time the
analysis is opened. If you wish to reload the data from the
source while the analysis is opened, use:
File ▼ Reload Data …

Option 2: Embedded - store a copy of the data table in the

analysis. Will not reload data table from the source when
the analysis is opened; however, data may still be
reloaded from the source if the path is still viable – using:
File ▼ Reload Data …
The data table status can be viewed and changed:
With either linked or embedded data,
Edit ▼ Data Table Properties ♦ General an analysis can serve as a template by
simply replacing the data table:

File ▼ Replace Data Table…

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 12 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide
 SAVE & EXPORT

You may wish to export two different elements of your analysis:

1. Data: File ▼ Export ►Data to File …

File ▼ Export ►Data to Library …

Export data from:

• data from a specific visualization on the
current page, including data viewed in tables
(with customized sort order or specific
columns displayed), cross tables, summary
tables, or Details-on-Demand.

• data from the underlying data table, where

you can select:
 all data from the data table
 filtered data (from the filtering
scheme used on the current page)
 or any subset of data currently
defined by different markings
across the entire analysis

2. Visualizations: File ▼ Export ► Image … Export the active visualization as any of

the following image file types:

File ▼ Export ► To Microsoft®PowerPoint®… Each of these export options provides a

selection of elements to export:
File ▼ Export ► To PDF… Export what:

File ▼ Export ► To HTML… †

Only ‘export to
Microsoft®PowerPoint®’
allows you to export an
image which can be
edited (using
PowerPoint’s ‘Ungroup’
function).
*
†
*
† Will export the each Spotfire page as you
see it, with existing layout of visualizations
and text areas.
* Will export each text area and
visualization as a separate PPT slide, PDF
page, or HTML page.

© TIBCO Software Inc. Page 13 TIBCO Spotfire Analyst Essentials I – Quick Reference Guide