Table Of Contents

Graph IDE ► Primer ► Importing Data

There are just too many ways to import data and descriptions of those ways are scattered throughout this manual. Even though data importing is a common task and it is just "obvious" how to do it (once you know how), it can be daunting at first. So, lets describe succinctly one very common task here.

Lets start off with a CSV file whose contents are shown here:

Sector, Gross (M), Index
Oil & Gas,12.09633,1
Metals & Mining,5.65675,2
Financial,10.824,3
Utilities,8.547437,4
Real Estate,8.414734,5
Telecom,3.37747,6
Infrastructure,12.1683,7
Industrial,11.2435,8
Pulp & Paper,10.67935,9
Transportation,15.56745,10

and included within this manual here: Sector.csv. You can save that file to your local file system to work with it.

On a Mac, in the Finder, right-click on the file and select the menu Open With ► Graph IDE.app. If Graph IDE does not show up then use the Other... item and navigate to the Graph IDE app and use that. You may also want to set Graph IDE as the default app to use in which case you need only double-click the file to view it in Graph IDE.

Once you choose to open with Graph IDE then Graph IDE is launched with a document containing a Spreadsheet and the Import Selector will come forward. If the first row in the CSV file is a header row, as in this case, then select the First Sequence is Header switch and then select the Import To Table button.

Your data is now imported into a spreadsheet on a Document. When you save that document then your data is saved as well.

To see a pie chart of the data click on the second column header (the top grey cell named Gross (M) ) of the spreadsheet (to set that column as the Amplitudes Column in the inspector) and within the Spreadsheet inspector, select the Representations ► Pie Chart menu.

You now have a basic spreadsheet and pie chart within the document. If you click on a pie section of the pie chart then you will be able to change that piece of data using the Data Selector. However, in this primer lets proceed a different way. In the spreadsheet inspector, make the Event Qualifier inactive. That places the document in a normal layout mode. Then click once on the pie chart to select it and move it around and resize it as desired. Then type command-2 which brings forward the Pie Chart Arranger. In the lower part of that arranger, choose column 1 for the Label column.

You are now well on your way to making the perfect pie chart; but recollect that there is no perfect pie chart or rather the perfect visual of your data is defined by you and not by this manual. That is the juncture where things get intricate. You may have specific guidelines on coloring your pie chart and need to use the Color Selector. Perhaps your pie chart will need a certain stroke width for each wedge section in which case you need to restrict editor to Wedges and then use the Group editor to set the stroke width, color and other attributes. There are simply too many ways to proceed to define all the options within this primer. However, here are a few guidelines:

Note these following guidelines:

• If you wish to place your data onto a graph then make the Event Qualifier inactive, choose a graph type from the Graphic Selector for example the Linear Graph cell. Then drag out a Linear Graph onto the Graphic View and near the spreadsheet. Then click on the spreadsheet and select a different representation such as a Line Graph. That will place a Function graphic on the graph's data layer.

• Once you have the visualization that you wish then consider making Palettes with your own specifications.

• Instead of first importing the data into Graph IDE, you may wish to use the many factory prototypes within Graph IDE first. For example, in the Graphic Selector choose the Spreadsheet cell and in the resulting factory inspector choose the Financial tab and drag out the Sector Allocation spreadsheet. Then in the spreadsheet inspector select the Table Controls Table ► Import From File... menu to import data.

• At the beginning of this Primer data was imported from a file which resulted in a document with a single spreadsheet. However, if you first make the spreadsheet then you can have multiple spreadsheets with their own representations all within one document. It is actually easier to make the spreadsheet first and then import data than vice versa. Also, because of security concerns, there is no way to import data into a web browser first and thus you will need to make the spreadsheet first and use the Table ► Import From File... menu.

• Notice how the predefined Sector Allocation spreadsheet referenced above has its formatters set for a particular purpose. All of those settings are not achievable by a simple CSV importing so it is best to start with the correctly formatted spreadsheet and then import data.

• When you have many columns in one spreadsheet and many spreadsheets within one document then you can use the Pie Chart arranger (or any arranger) to redirect data acquisition to different spreadsheets and columns within a single spreadsheets. That way you can observe different data sets simply by referencing them instead of making new representations. Notice how you are now operating in the reverse of the flow of logic from the start. Instead of starting from data you are now starting from a representation and redirecting to different data. It is that pattern of reversal which is difficult to comprehend at first because it is unusual.

• You can copy and paste the pie chart or spreadsheet as you wish. Doing so separately will duplicate the graphic, but not the data connection. You may also ungroup the pie chart and operate upon its elements individually and in that fashion lay it out exactly as you wish, but the data connection is lost. There are many ways to work with spreadsheets and representations that are explained in other sections of this manual.

Importing some data and making a graph of that data can be very streamlined. When you build up your expertise and make palettes then that streamlined quality can be achieved while also making your own perfect graph. However, building up your expertise may take some time. Fortunately, Graph IDE features can be acquired incrementally as demonstrated in this primer.

See the Movies for examples on how to streamline very involved concepts and perform complex tasks with ease.

It should be noted that this primer is very user-oriented. In high-volume operations, it makes sense to Automate data importing instead of using laborious key and mouse events. Noticed how a programmed Graph IDE document can be placed on the web and its program is executed upon access thus making the web resource dynamic. A thorough description of all the programming techniques is beyond the scope of this manual.

The ultimate programmability of Graph IDE is, in fact, the Graph IDE Web App itself where all of Graph IDE is made into a dynamic web resource. That web resource is totally driven by Graph IDE documents.