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Dashboard Period-over-Period Comparison

Introduction​

Holistics’s Period-over-Period Comparison (PoP) capability enables non-technical users to visually compare data from different time periods, e.g: comparing revenue data this quarter with same quarter last year.

In Holistics, you can set up PoP at two different levels: Dashboard level, and Widget level.

This article explains how to work with Dashboard-level PoP (or Dashboard PoP). For Widget-level PoP, please refer to this document: Period-over-Period Comparison.

When does Dashboard PoP get useful?​

As Dashboard PoP operates on the dashboard level, it offers certain flexibilities of a dashboard interactive feature, similar to Dashboard Filter. These include:

  • Creators can selectively map several widgets to the same comparison at once
  • Dashboard viewers can change the comparison period

High-level Mechanism​

Comparison mechanism: Previous period & Custom period​

Dashboard PoP supports two types of comparison:

  • Previous period: a relative time shift from the original timeframe (Example: compare with 2 months ago)
  • Custom period (Beta): an absolute timeframe chosen by you (Example: compare with range 2022-05-24 to 2022-08-11)

1. Previous period Comparison​

Similar to Widget-level PoP’s mechanism, Dashboard PoP will generate an additional data series, which is similar to the original one but shifted back by the chosen period. These two series will then be overlaid on top of each other in the chart.

2. Custom period Comparison (Beta)​

info

The Custom period comparison type is currently in Beta.

Dashboard PoP will generate another data series from the chosen arbitrary timeframe, and put it next to the original series. These two series will then be overlaid on top of each other in the chart.

Mapping to a widget(s)​

Once enabled for a widget(s), Dashboard PoP will apply its comparison mechanism to any Date fields it is mapped to. Thus, it will update the comparison period according to the original period in each widget.

Example:

  • You map a Previous period Comparison of 2 months ago to two widgets - A and B. Widget A's original period is filtered to 08/2023, while widget B's period is filtered to 05/2023
  • After applying the PoP, the comparison period will be 06/2023 for widget A, and 03/2023 for widget B.

Tutorial​

You can set up a Dashboard POP following these steps:

  1. On Widget’s Settings: Select at least one aggregated field (or measure) from the dataset
  2. On Dashboard: Click on the “Add Control” button, and choose “Period-over-Period Comparison” from the drop-down menu
  3. On the “Add Period-over-Period” modal:
    • Select the Comparison type & Period to compare
    • Enable the widgets you want to map to
    • Choose a date field for comparison in each enabled widget

Acknowledgments​

  • Map & Override Behavior:
    • Each widget can be mapped to only one Dashboard PoP at the same time
    • If a widget already has PoP in its settings, Dashboard PoP will override it
  • Databases & Visualization types that Dashboard PoP is supported for:
  • When you save an exploration as a dashboard widget, any Dashboard PoP at the moment will be retained as Widget PoP. See more in Save your Data Exploration.

FAQ​

Dashboard PoP for non-time-series (categorical) chart​

  • Previous period Comparison
  • Custom period Comparison
    • You can perform PoP Custom period on non-time-series charts, since Holistics already requests you to determine a comparison period beforehand.

On the roadmap​

  • Custom period Comparison for more databases: MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Clickhouse.
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