Report sizing options
Reports can be viewed on different devices, with different screen sizes or screen resolutions. In dashboards, reports are displayed in widgets that can be resized, repositioned and combined in attractive layouts.
Designing dashboards which remain usable, and attractive, when viewed on different devices can involve these tasks in Application Studio:
- Specifying that one or more report columns and rows can grow and shrink.
- Specifying minimum report dimensions.
And, these tasks in the dashboard:
- Specifying dashboard auto-sizing
- Specifying automatic horizontal and vertical fill in widgets.
In summary, creating a dashboard which resizes automatically, and maintains its
appearance, requires use of these options:
- Auto-sizing
- The property of each dashboard is enabled by default. But this alone does not ensure that a dashboard will remain usable and attractive on different screen sizes. The reports need to be able to shrink to a specified minimum size, and the widgets in which they are displayed must automatically fill the space available to them.
- Shrinkage and growth
- Create Application Studio reports in which one or more columns and rows can grow or shrink. You can allow shrinkage and growth on multiple columns and rows as required. For example, you might enable growth and shrinkage only on the columns and rows containing a chart. But to enable report resizing, growth or shrinkage need be enabled on only one column or row.
- Report size
- Allowing reports to shrink and grow is not sufficient to ensure that they remain usable. To ensure that widgets, and the reports they contain, do not become too small, specify a minimum report size. The correct minimum size can only be determined by testing the report to find the smallest size at which it remains usable, and attractive.
- Horizontal and vertical fill in widgets
- You can specify that widgets automatically expand horizontally or vertically to fill the space available to them. If you have created a dashboard, with widgets containing reports that can shrink and grow, and which have a minimum size; specify the fill characteristics of the widgets. In many cases, you will specify both horizontal and vertical fill. But, in some widgets, you might specify only vertical or only horizontal fill. For example, if the content of a report is primarily horizontal - such as line chart, or a sparkline - you might specify only horizontal fill.