Alpana : The Meaningful Colors of Your Dashboards
Colors are an essential component of data visualization. Sometimes, you need to attach a specific color to a specific database value.
As always, Alpana has got your back !
Why value-based colors ?
There are many reasons why you will want to attach a color to a database value. Some examples :
colors have a general meaning, and the database contains state names. You want "Good" to be always green, and "Bad" to be always red.
colors have a standard meaning, and the database contains fluid names. You want "CO2" to always be black, and "H2O" to always be blue
colors have no dedicated values. You still want "Europe" to have the same color everywhere, and same for value "Asia", etc...
How to bind value-based colors
As explained in Alpana's extensive documentation, simply go to the Data Source field that contains the values and open the "Edit value based settings" menu :
Note : this is possible on any string field, including Alpana Expressions.
Assign a color by using the palette, or the color picker, or even a specific hex code :
Finally, in your Widget simply select "Use value-based colors" :
Your gains
Once you attach colors to database values, you can benefit from huge enhancements in your visualization and in your productivity :
Dashboards are simpler and clearer, which makes them faster and easier to use : since Colors are meaningful, you need less legends and explanations. For example, you can trust that the "Downtime" state will be orange every time.
Colors are consistent across visualizations : the same item will have the same color everywhere.
Colors are consistent even when data is modified : when items appear, disappear or become filtered, the same item gets the same color.
The standard colors are defined in a central place : to update the color, simply update once in the Data Source.
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