Overview

The titles of pages and visualizations as well as the visualization descriptions can be set to change with the selections done on the visualization axes. This can be accomplished either using the built-in "axis visualization properties" or by setting up custom document properties. Document properties can, in turn, be controlled via property controls in the text area.

Note: If you have specified a dynamic title or description and then change the setup of the visualization by removing all columns from an axis included in the title or description, you may end up with unexpected blank sections in the title or description. Try to consider how you and other users of the analysis intend to modify the visualization before you specify what to include.

Example – The Default Scatter Plot Title:

The factory default title of a new scatter plot in Spotfire 5.5 and forward is constructed by the display names used on the axes of the visualization:

When the axes are changed, then the title of the visualization is automatically updated:

This is defined in the General page of the Visualization Properties dialog:

The expression for creating this dynamic title is built by the display names for the two axes and some regular text:

${Axis.Y.DisplayName} vs. ${Axis.X.DisplayName}

The Edit... button next to the title field opens a dialog where you can select from all currently used axis properties and also create new document properties.

Example - Setting Up a Dynamic Bar Chart Title:

The factory default title for a new bar chart visualization is "Bar Chart":

However, you might want to use a dynamic title instead, which contains the display names used on the axes of the bar chart. Right-click on the visualization and select Properties from the pop-up menu. On the General page, click Edit....

Here, you can select the properties of interest and insert them into the Title expression field. You can also type additional information in plain text. For example, the following expression includes the display names for the X- and Y-axes and also the color axis:

${Axis.Y.DisplayName} per ${Axis.X.DisplayName}, split by ${Axis.Color.DisplayName}

This would result in the following title, using the same visualization setup as above:

Example – Dynamic Description Updated Using a Property Control

If you are using custom properties to control what is shown in your analysis, you can also let the current property value be a part of the title or description of a visualization. In this example, a document property called MeasureColumnSelection has been used to set what is shown on the Y-axis of a bar chart. A property control in the text area allows you to change the value of the property:

When the value of the property is changed using the property control, the visualization is updated:

The expressions used in this visualization were:

On the Y-axis: Sum($esc(${MeasureColumnSelection}))
Title expression: ${MeasureColumnSelection} per year
Description expression: This visualization shows the ${MeasureColumnSelection} per year.

And the property control used fixed values with display names: