Item Attributes

 

Overview

Attributes are the properties of your items. Whilst items represent the rows of data in your story dataset, attributes are the columns of data and can be used as the axes for views, as filters and displayed in attribute panels.

Attributes are mutually exclusive (must exist in 1 state or the other), for example, an item can’t have a Status of Ahead AND/OR Behind. For non-mutually exclusive options, refer to the Knowledge Base article for Tags.

 

Attribute Types

There are various attribute types to handle different data types. These include:

• Numeric – Numeric data such as Cost, Investment, ROI etc.
• Text – A text-based attribute such as Owner.
• List – Can be seen as repeated values, for examples such as Priority or Status, where items will have a value out of a set of values such as “High, Medium or Low”.
• Date – Date based data such as Project Start or End dates.
• Location – Longitude and Latitude data, used for the Map View.
• Wall – An attribute specific to SharpCloud, to position items on the Wall View.

 

Creating an Attribute

You can manually define the attributes within a story or if you paste (or automate) data into your story, the attributes are automatically created for you.

To create an attribute in the story, simply follow:

1. Go to the Story Setup in Create mode
2. Navigate to the Attributes Tab
3. Select the Attribute type to create.

Deleting an Attribute

To delete an attribute, simply highlight the attribute(s) and press the “Delete” button.

Attribute Label, Colours and Images

With Numeric and List attributes, labels can be created to better describe their values or range of values. For example, a list attribute called “Status” could have labels of Ahead, On-track and Behind, which you can assign colours and images to. This colour/image can then be reflected in the view in many ways to provide the audience more information.

To create labels, simply add new labels by pressing the buttons highlighted below:

The highlighted section in the image above controls everything with the attribute labels:

• create, delete and re-order the label values.

The order of the labels is reflected in the views, so it is key to ensure they are in the correct order.

 

Attribute Codes

Attributes can be used in calculations to create new data and insight. They are referred to through a code which you assign in the highlighted section below. Codes can be alphanumeric and any case but must be unique with a max length of 20 characters.

 

Saving your changes

Saving the changes that have been made to any of the settings (except the filters and forms) are automatically saved or manually saved using the “Save” button. To undo a set of changes, click the undo button on the right-side panel or press Ctrl + Z (on Windows).