A tablix report item summarizes business data and displays the result in a flat or cross-table format. It allows the creation of multidimensional views for analyzing and satisfying the needs of business users. Tablix report item is widely used by analysts in financial domains to organize and analyze large data sets. In this article, we will discuss seven unique features of Tablix using Bold Reports.
The seven unique features
A Tablix report item provides basic functionalities like sorting, filtering, and grouping, but the following seven unique features of tablix distinguish it as an efficient widget for advanced scenarios:
- Visual cues
- Hierarchical grouping by rows and columns
- Aggregation
- Conditional formatting
- Drill-down
- Drill-through
- Interactive Sorting
In this blog we will briefly discuss each of these using a tablix report item in a report created using Bold Reports.
Visual cues
Visual cues on a tablix data region will assist with the tablix areas. When you select a tablix cell, row, and the column grippers, group indicators will show the groups to which the cell belongs. The following screenshot shows a matrix with both row and column groups, and a total row and then a total column.
Hierarchical grouping by rows and columns
We can add groups in the tablix to display data in a visual hierarchy. You can display data in row wise grouping and column wise grouping. With grouping, each row or column value acts as a group with a corresponding aggregated value displayed in a value cell. A group hierarchy has parent/child groups that are nested and can have adjacent groups. Data associated with row group members expands horizontally across the page and data associated with column group members expands vertically down the page. For example, an employee hierarchy, multinational geographic groupings, a chart of accounts, and complex product portfolios can be naturally organized and presented in a hierarchical structure using grouping feature.
The following snap shows the areas for a tablix region with nested row groups and column groups.
To build grouping structure in the tablix data region, we can use the grouping panel or cell context menu. Refer to the details group, row group, and column group documentation to create, edit, and delete groups in tablix data regions. We can also add headers and footers for each group in the tablix data region. Refer to the blog, Add headers and footers with tablix group.
Aggregation
An aggregate function performs a calculation on a set of values and returns a single value. To display aggregated values on a tablix, you can use built-in aggregate functions in expressions. For example, we can use the SUM function to display sum of numeric values on tablix. Totals are the aggregated result of row or column values in the tablix. We can display the sum of numeric values for tablix groups or the whole tablix. Grand totals for rows are displayed at the bottom of the tablix below all rows. Grand totals for columns are displayed at the right of the tablix at the end of all columns. Similarly, subtotals for rows are displayed at the bottom of each row group and subtotals for columns are displayed at the right of each column group.
Refer to the Add Total documentation to learn the step-by-step procedure to add totals in a tablix data region.
Conditional formatting
Conditional formatting is best suited for real-time use cases where a user needs to be alerted when a threshold value is reached. The alert will be in the form of customized font style, text representation, font color, and fill color based on the condition satisfied.
In the tablix report item, you can apply conditional formatting to data using expressions in the Properties window.
At runtime, formatting will be applied on the data based on the conditional expression.
Drill down
Drill down is an interactive feature that allows users to organize and visualize data efficiently. It adds a toggle to the text box report item in a report that lets users view sections of the report by expanding and collapsing them at runtime. For example, you can show or hide a tablix row associated with a group by configuring a toggle option in the group’s text box. On expanding, it will show the data under that group.
To learn the step-by-step configuration of drill down action in table, refer the blog- How to Create a Drill-Down Report Using the Report Designer
Drill through
Linking is an important part of interactive data visualization for analysis. With this functionality, a row or column header cell or value cell in a tablix can be linked to published report URL and a general URL with or without parameters.
You can enable linking in the Tablix report item through the Link settings in the Properties window.
Interactive sorting by value columns
With interactive sorting, we can add an option to toggle between ascending and descending orders for rows in a tablix.
In Bold Report Designer, you can configure interactive sorting for cells of a table or matrix using the User Sort property listed in tablix cell properties. At runtime, this will add sort buttons in the row or column headers and groups of the tablix data region. The user can then choose which column to sort by.
To learn complete configuration steps about interactive sorting refer to the blog: How to Enable Interactive Sorting in SSRS Tablix
Conclusion
We hope this article helps you to get a clearer idea about the unique features of Tablix. To explore further, go through our sample reports and Bold Reports documentation.
If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section. You can also contact us through our contact page or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.
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