24. Custom Pages

MQC provides the possibility to create user-defined trend and status charts for selected measures, i.e. base measures, derived measures, as well as quality properties, to better structure the data to be analyzed. These additional visualizations are shown on extra pages created on demand, whenever a new configuration of such charts is imported into MQC.

The User is able to define:

  • multiple custom pages

  • multiple visualization charts per custom page

  • multiple measures per chart

MQC allows:

  • to import a custom page configuration at any time and with that to replace a previously imported configuration

  • to add custom pages to the current analysis by importing a new custom page configuration

  • to update already created custom pages by replacing the custom page configuration

Note, that imported target values will be shown on custom pages only. This applies to all those targets related to measures configured by the user to be shown in a custom page visualization. Showing targets for measures can be switched on or off. Refer to Target Values for more details.

24.1. Custom Page Structure

All custom pages follow the MQC standard layout of the MQC data pages:

  • a Project KPI chart on the top-left showing current data availability

  • an Availability Bin Distribution chart on the top-right

  • an Artifact KPI chart on the bottom-left

  • the configured visualizations are shown in the main area of the page.

24.1.1. Status Charts

The following picture shows an example for a user-defined page with two status charts. For the configuration refer to Figure 24.7.

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_StatusCharts.png

Figure 24.1 Custom Page showing Status Charts for selected Base Measures and Quality Property

Status values for all or selected artifacts for one revision are shown in a bar chart.

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_StatusCharts_One_Measure.png

Figure 24.2 Status chart showing one status value per artifact

If multiple measures are configured to be visualized within the same chart, these measures will be shown as side by side bars per artifact.

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_StatusCharts_Two_Measures.png

Figure 24.3 Status chart showing multiple status values per artifact

Multiple revisions are trellised, i.e. the chart always shows the measure status for one revision at a time with the possibility to scroll between revisions (see Figure 24.1).

Corresponding target values are shown as horizontal line per measure bar.

24.1.2. Trend Charts

The trend over time for selected measures is shown within a line chart. Each measure trend is always shown as line over multiple revisions or as a dot if just one revision is marked by the user.

Multiple artifacts are trellised, i.e. the chart always shows the measure trend lines for one artifact at a time with the possibility to scroll between different artifacts.

If multiple measures are configured to be visualized within the same chart, one line per measure using different colors is shown at the same time for the current artifact.

Corresponding target values are shown as additional dashed line using the same color as for the measure.

The following picture shows an example for a user-defined custom page with two trend charts. For the configuration see Figure 24.7.

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_TrendCharts.png

Figure 24.4 Custom Page showing Trend Charts for selected Base Measures and Quality Property

24.1.3. Adapt Visualizations on Custom Pages

Especially for the purpose of generating a status report (see Status Report), where it is not possible to hover over the diagrams to get some further information via tooltips, MQC allows to add data values to the visualizations.

Enable the Measure values as labels in visualizations check box in the Settings dialog from the configuration section of the menu (see Figure 24.5).

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_SettingsDialog.png

Figure 24.5 Enable the display of Measure Values as labels on Custom Pages via the Settings dialog

The following picture shows a trend chart and a status chart with value labels enabled (Figure 24.6).

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_LabelsInVisus.png

Figure 24.6 Trend Chart and Status Chart showing value labels

Once enabled, those value labels are also included in the visualizations exported for a status report. Disabling the check box will remove the value labels from all custom pages visualizations.

24.2. Custom Page Configuration

Custom pages and charts are configured using Excel.

../_images/MQC_CustomPages_Configuration.png

Figure 24.7 Configuration of two additional pages, each page with two charts

The configuration has the following structure:

  • Page Title: a user defined title for the current custom page

  • Chart Title: a user defined title for the current chart to be shown within the current custom page

  • Chart Type: the type of the current chart

    • use “Status” for status bar charts (see Section 24.1.1)

    • use “Trend” for trend line charts (see Section 24.1.2)

    • “StatusLine” offers the possibility to get the status of all artifacts for one revision as line chart

  • Measure Name: the full qualified name of the measure to be shown in the current chart; measure names are expected in the following notation:

    • Base Measures:

      DataSourceName.MeasurementName.BaseMeasureName.VariableName

    • Derived Measures:

      DataSourceName.MeasurementName.DerivedMeasureName.VariableName

    • Quality Properties:

      QualityPropertyName

  • Chart Data Reference: the type of the current measure to be shown in the current chart, which must be either “Data” (for base measures and derived measures) or “Quality” (for quality properties)

Note

It is not possible to combine different types of measures within the same chart! A chart must either contain data measures, i.e. base measures and/or derived measures, or quality measures, i.e. quality properties.

It is possible to combine different chart types (status and trend) on the same page, whereas it is not recommended. This is because of the specific marking behavior, which is not the same for status and trend charts. Selecting a specific artifact and/or a specific revision affects all visualizations of a certain page.

24.3. Configuration Data Import and Page Creation

To import your configuration via the Manage Pages dialog in the Configuration section of the menu, press the Load button and navigate to the folder, where you have stored your configuration file.

Importing a new configuration Excel file will replace any previously imported custom page configuration.

After import, MQC will:

  • automatically create a new page for each configured custom page including all configured visualizations, if a custom page with the corresponding title does not yet exist

  • automatically replace all existing pages, where the title matches a configured custom page, hence, all page visualizations of a replaced page are updated according to the newly imported configuration

Note, that MQC will not close any custom page defined by a previously imported configuration, if the current configuration file does not contain a page with an identical title. Those pages have to be manually closed by the user.

Also note, that MQC will not replace any MQC standard page, if the configuration file contains a page with a title that matches the title of an MQC standard page. Instead an additional page with that name is created. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended to use dedicated names within the custom page configuration file.