Getting started

Views Chart Tools extends the Views interface and provides a style plugin for drawing multiple charts in a dashboard. Both of these tools used together provide flexibility in a manner consistent with what users familiar with Views are used to seeing. Let's take a look at how to set up your Views Chart Tools view.

Enabling the Google Charts Dashboard

• Navigate to the Views UI at admin/structure/views.
• Create or edit a view of the type you desire. Views Chart Tools can draw charts from any type of data available to Views.
• Enable the Google Charts Dashboard style under format.
  
  
• At the following screen you will see the dashboard style plugin's options. These will be discussed later. You can close this screen for now.

Adding a chart

The Google Charts Dashboard style plugin supports rendering multiple charts in a single view. It is important to remember, though, that all charts in the dashboard are based on the same results. This means that some charts may be unavailable with certain configurations. Views Chart Tools will attempt to filter out chart options that are incompatible with the current configuration.

• Navigate back to your view.
• With the Google Charts Dashboard style enabled, you will now have access to the Dashboard Elements section of the view configuration. This section works just like many other sections in the Views UI (fields for example).
  
• To add a new element to the chart, click the Add element link or the Add button at the top right corner of the section.
• Select the element you wish to add. You will also notice control options. Controls are real-time filters for your charts, but more on that later. Also, note that some (or many) charts may not be available due to an incompatibility with your current view configuration. You may need to add or remove fields from your view in order to enable more charts.
  
• After clicking apply, you will be directed to the chart configuration page. Notice that at the top of the configuration page is a table describing the current columns in your view. This table indicates which data types and roles are permitted by the chart being viewed, and which of each are applicable considering the current vie configuration (other charts and their requirements). This is intended to help users find and resolve conflicts between data requirements in different charts.
• Finally, configure the chart and click apply.