Overview of the custom chart configuration reference

Overview of the custom chart configuration reference

We've designed the default look and feel of Splunk charts to combine simplicity of design with strong usability. We want you to be able to easily generate your charts, incorporate them into dashboards, and share them with interested parties without needing to spend time "tinkering under the hood" to make things look just right.

But we also understand that the default chart design won't fit everyone's needs all of the time. This is why we've also made it possible for you to customize just about every aspect of the charting UI, from the choice of colors, fonts, and line thicknesses to the formatting of legends and axis labels and the way chart elements are laid out in the dashboard panel. Splunk's charting engine is built on Flash, so you change chart UI by adjusting properties for the Flash elements that control how charts display.

The topics in this reference chapter provide details on the various Flash elements and properties that you can use to customize just about every aspect of your dashboard charts. You can use this reference to customize charts whether they are built using the simplified or advanced dashboard XML. (For more information about the two kinds of XML, see "Introduction to advanced views" in this manual.)

Flash chart customization introduction and tutorial

While the topics in this reference chapter provide numerous small examples of how chart customization can be managed in simple dashboard XML with the Flash charting controls, elsewhere in this manual you can find a comprehensive introduction to advanced chart customization. It includes longer and more detailed examples, with some additional background on how they work. It also covers the slight differences in the Flash charting customization methods for dashboards built with simple XML and dashboards that use advanced XML. For more information, see "Advanced charting options".

To learn more about how to add a chart to your dashboard see the "Add a chart" topic in this manual.

What you'll find in this reference

The topics in this reference present tables for the various flash charting elements that you can customize. The tables contain the properties available for those elements. There are also tables for elements whose properties are either referred to by other elements (for example, a chart element might refer to a particular brush palette element, which in turn refers to a set of brush elements) or inherited by certain elements (for example, all chart elements inherit properties from the layoutSprite element, which in turn inherits a base set of properties from the sprite element).

This reference provides details on the following Flash charting elements:

• Charts - The chart element controls properties specific to individual chart types. For example, when chart has a value of line, you can specify properties for a line chart, such as lineStyle or stackMode.
• Legends - You use the legend element to control aspects of the visual appearance of chart legends, including legend placement, label text, and text formatting.
• Axes - The axis element controls how data is mapped to the chart grid (but not how it appears--for that see the axisLabels element). It is set up to handle three types of chart axes: category axes (which map categorical values), numeric axes (which plot data along a numeric range), and time axes (which plot data along a range of time).
• Axis labels - The axisLabels element controls the visualization of chart axes. It places tick marks and labels at locations along chart axes that are appropriate depending upon the state of those axes.
• Axis titles - The axisTitle element is mainly used for Cartesian (dual axis) charts such as bar, column, area, and line charts. It enables placement of the x- and y-axis titles within the chart layout.
• Grid lines - The gridLines element is used to control the display and appearance of chart grid lines in cartesian (dual axis) chart types, such as bar, column, area, and line charts. Grid lines correspond to axis tick marks from axis labels and extend across the span of the chart.
• Tool tips - Tool tips are the visual elements that appear on chart mouseover, displaying information that corresponds to the chart data sprite underneath the mouse pointer.
• Fonts - Font properties enable you to set a number of characteristics for the fonts used in the charts, such as the font size and style.
• Colors - Color properties enable you to set basic chart color characteristics, such as the color of the chart background.
• Brushes - You can apply a variety of different brushes for the purpose of rendering chart lines and fills in different ways. For example, if you want a line chart to render its lines with a dashed stroke instead of a solid one, you can use a brush element of the dashedStroke variety.
• Color palettes - The color palette element is used to control the colors used by brushes, which in turn are used to paint things like chart lines and series swatches in legends. You can define a set list of colors that the palette applies to series, or you can arrange to have the palette generate colors by interpolating between a range of colors (from red to yellow to blue for example).
• Brush palettes - Brush palettes match a series index to a brush type. This can come in handy for things like line charts, where you might want a different type of dashed or solid line for each series represented in the chart.
• Shapes and shape palettes - Shapes are used for markers in several cart types. You can have one shape be used throughout a chart, or you can use a shape palette to assign different shapes to different series.
• Layouts - The layout element controls the layout of all visual chart elements in a dashboard. In most cases you won't need to work with it, but you might use it to set up something like two charts that share the same x- or y-axis.
• Data - The data element enables you to tweak the tabular format that contains the reporting data from which the chart is generated. In most cases you won't need to adjust the data settings.
• Text blocks - textBlock elements control text display in legend and axis labels as well as axis title and message text.
• Layout sprites and sprites - The layoutSprite and sprite elements are formatting elements that feed Flash display properties to many other elements throughout the charting system. In most cases you won't need to adjust these settings.

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