Drag-and-Drop

TIBCO Spotfire contains rich possibilities of using drag-and-drop operations for setting up the visualizations. You can drag columns from the data panel, filters from the filters panel, or even column selectors and drop them on the visualization axes and drop targets in the middle of the visualizations. These drop targets control coloring, trellising, size or shape, etc. You can also change the layout of visualizations on the pages using drag-and-drop. All operations can be undone, so you can try different layouts without being afraid of destroying anything.

Column Selectors

Dropping a column (a filter or a column selector) directly on a column selector will change that axis to use the new column instead. Dropping it next to the previous column selector will add another column to the axis.

Copying Pages and Visualizations

You can drag a page or a visualization from one instance of Spotfire to another if you want to reuse the page structure or visualization set-up in another analysis.

Note: No data is included when a page or visualization is copied to a new instance of Spotfire. If the new data does not match the previously used data, you must specify the data tables and columns to use manually.

Drop Targets

You can drag a filter from the filters panel or a column from the data panel and move it over the center of a visualization. As you do so, drop targets will appear as shown in the table below. By dropping a filter on, for example, the Color By icon, the visualization will be colored according to the column the filter represents. Other drop targets can be used to set different properties, such as X-axis or Trellis. If you want to assign several columns to one property, you can use Shift + Click or Ctrl + Click to select several filters at once.

You can also drag a column selector from, for example, the legend or an axis and drop that on a drop target. The behavior is identical to that of dragging a filter or column except that the original column selector will be removed unless you hold down Ctrl while dragging. This behavior is the same if you drag the columns directly to a column selector.

Drop Target	Visualization	Description
	Bar chart ,scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, box plot, combination chart	Changes column on the horizontal axis. In most cases this means the X-axis in a visualization, but in a bar chart it depends on the orientation of the bars. In a vertical bar chart, this refers to the category axis; in a horizontal bar chart it refers to the value axis.
	Bar chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, line chart, box plot, combination chart	Changes column on the vertical axis. In most cases this means the Y-axis of a visualization, but in a bar chart it depends on the orientation of the bars. In a vertical bar chart, this refers to the value axis; in a horizontal bar chart it refers to the category axis.
	3D scatter plot	Changes column on the Z-axis in the 3D scatter plot.
	Bar chart, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, pie chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart, box plot, treemap	Colors the visualization items by the provided column.
	Scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart	Changes the markers' shapes according to the values in the provided column.
	Scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart	Sizes the markers by the provided column.
	Line chart	Splits the lines according to the values in the provided column, unless they have already been split by a more detailed coloring option.
	Pie chart	Defines the column or hierarchy whose values will set the size of the pie sectors.
	Treemap	Changes the treemap hierarchy to the provided column or hierarchy.
	Treemap	Sizes and orders the rectangles in the treemap by the provided column.
	Cross table	Changes the cell values of the cross table to the provided column.
	Cross table,graphical table, heat map	Changes the vertical values (Y-axis) to the provided column.
	Cross table, heat map	Changes the horizontal values (X-axis) to the provided column.
	Heat map	Changes the cell values of the heat map to the provided column.
	Heat map	Adds the provided column to the cell values of the heat map.
	Table, graphical table, summary table	Shows the selected columns in the table (and removes all other columns from the table).
	Table	Adds the selected columns to the table.
	Summary table	Splits the summary table into different categories.
	Bar chart, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, pie chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart, box plot, treemap, combination chart, heat map	Splits (trellises) the visualization into several rows, where the number of panels equals the number of categories in the column provided.
	Bar chart, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, pie chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart, box plot, treemap, combination chart, heat map	Splits (trellises) the visualization into several columns, where the number of panels equals the number of categories in the column provided.
	Bar chart, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, pie chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart, box plot, treemap, combination chart, heat map	Splits (trellises) the visualization into several panels, where the number of panels equals the number of categories in the column provided.
	Bar chart, line chart, parallel coordinate plot, pie chart, scatter plot, 3D scatter plot, map chart, box plot, treemap, combination chart, heat map	(Only available when a column selector within a visualization is being dragged.) Removes a previously applied condition from the visualization. For example, if you have dragged a filter to the "Color by" drop target of a visualization, but later want to remove the coloring, you can drag the color selector from the legend to this drop target.
	Combination chart	Splits the visualization according to the values in the column provided.
	All visualizations except graphical table	Attaches the selected tag to the marked rows.
	All visualizations except the table	Adds a new subset based on a selected marking to a visualization, so you can compare multiple subsets in one visualization. See What are Subsets? for more information.
	Map chart	Adds a new marker layer to the map chart based on the data table containing the selected column.
	Map chart	Adds a new feature layer to the map chart based on the data table containing the selected column.

Graphical Table Specific Drop-Targets

The graphical table has, depending on what dynamic items are shown in the table, a number of drop targets specific to the graphical table. If multiple items of the same type are available, you can always see which graphical table column the drop target belongs to by looking at the highlighted column in the graphical table when hovering over a drop target. Note that the added columns must come from the same data table as the values on the row axis in the graphical table for anything to be displayed.

Drop Target	Description
	Uses the selected column to specify the Y-axis values in the highlighted sparkline column.
	Uses the selected column to specify the X-axis values in the highlighted sparkline column.
	Uses the selected column to specify the calculated values in the highlighted calculated value column.
	Uses the selected column to specify the icons in the highlighted icon column.
	Uses the selected column to specify the values in the highlighted bullet graph column.
	Uses the selected column to specify the comparative values in the highlighted bullet graph column.
	Adds a new sparkline column to the graphical table, using the selected column on the Y-axis of the sparkline. The default aggregation for numerical columns is Sum. The default for categorical columns is Count.
	Adds a new calculated value column to the graphical table, using the selected column to calculate the values. The default aggregation for numerical columns is Sum. The default for categorical columns is Count.
	Adds a new icon column to the graphical table, using the selected column to calculate the icons. The default aggregation for numerical columns is Sum. The default for categorical columns is Count. The default rule for icons is Top 1.
	Adds a new bullet graph column to the graphical table, using the selected column to calculate the values. The default aggregation for numerical columns is Sum. The default for categorical columns is Count.

Filters Panel Drop Target

When you are working with in-database data or have turned off the automatic creation of filters in the Options dialog, you will see a drop target in the filters panel:

Drop Target

Description

[Only applicable for columns where no filter is previously available.]

Creates a filter for the selected column.