Not so long ago, we released version 2021.3 with new functionality and improvements. We have already published articles about views in a chart, dependent variables of the List type, column visibility and many others. In this article, you will know about the improvement of table conditional formatting in dashboards.

What is conditional formatting?

Conditional formatting allows you to change design settings when a specified condition is met. It's one of the data analysis capabilities when certain tendencies are highlighted in the list with a different color, style, font size, or other design settings.

In the 2021.3 version, we have added several capabilities to use conditional formatting when creating a dashboard flexibly. In earlier versions, there was a lack of settings to use conditional formatting widely.

Earlier

Condition Editor
Firstly, only a static value could be specified as the second condition value, and it was not possible to specify an expression. Accordingly, you were not able to make the visual analysis dynamic. For example, when some two values from data columns are compared with.

Secondly, it was not possible to define table columns for which you should apply conditional formatting. In other words, you had to set conditions for each column, which design needs changing.

Now

Now things are different. You can specify the expression, which calculation result will be the second condition value. To do it, you should define the Value parameter as the Expression.

In addition, you can define the columns for which you should apply conditional formatting. You can do this in the Destination parameter. You should select the table columns, which design you want to change.

Now the use of conditional formatting in dashboards is quite easier, and visual data analysis may be dynamic.

Show dashboard with conditional formatting in a new tab
We have prepared a video lesson about this and one report sample with the new condition editor functionality.

We hope this article will help you understand the new functionality of Stimulsoft products for report and dashboard creation. If you have any questions, contact us – we will be glad to help you.

Today we would like to announce changes in system requirements for products. Starting with version 2021.4 of Stimulsoft Reports and Dashboards, you should have at least .NET Framework 4.5.2 or higher to work with our products when using WinForms and WPF platforms.

Framework versions for .NET Core libraries remain the same:
  • .NET Core 3.1 and higher for WinForms and WPF products;
  • .NET Standard 2.0 and higher for Web products.

We continue to acquaint our users with the changes and additions of the new version of Stimulsoft products 2021.3. The next new functionality to create dashboards is setting icons for indicator series.

What is it for?

The Indicator is an analytics element, which is often used in dashboards to display the sum of values, deviation values, etc. In addition, it is used to display several values in the case of using series. In other words, when working with one value, the set of icons is quite diverse, and in the case of using series, you were able to apply only five preset kits of icons.

This way, if, when creating a dashboard, a creator uses series in the Indicator element with an icon, it has two options:
  • create a lot of components on a dashboard with the risk of the lack of place there;
  • work only with the proposed set of icons, limiting the choice of icon for a specific situation and making data display less visual and understandable.

What's new?

From the 2021.3 version, you can add ranges for indicator values with series and define icons for these ranges. Accordingly, the icon for the indicator record will correspond to the icon of the range to which this record belongs. Moreover, the borders of ranges can be defined as relative or absolute values.

Show dashboard with Icons in a new tab
You should know that the color of the indicator style is used for icons, so if you want to change it, you can do this when editing the style or using conditional formatting.

Customizing Icons
We hope this article will help you understand the new capabilities of Stimulsoft products for report and dashboard creation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us – we will be glad to help you.

In April 2021, Microsoft released Windows 10 21H2 Sun Valley (according to the inside information - Windows 11). This update includes a major redesign of the user interface, improved animations, updated built-in applications, and many other new features and system optimizations.

We at Stimulsoft subscribed to get preliminary versions and have already tested our software on the latest Sun Valley build currently available. We are glad to inform our clients about full compatibility and the absence of errors in their work. We will monitor the release of new assemblies, perform further tests, and at the time of the release of the final version, Stimulsoft products will be ready for work.

The release of Stimulsoft products 2021.3 has come out recently, where we introduced not a few important new capabilities to create reports and dashboards. In this article, we will tell you about the innovation, which looks not very important at first glance, but it substantially helps to accelerate the process of setting the design of a report or dashboard.

The Eyedropper

So, we are talking about the Eyedropper. It allows you to get the color code of any graphic element in reports, dashboards, or designer interfaces. Besides, you may get the color code of other elements outside the application. So, using this tool reduces the time to get the appropriate color you need.

How it works

It is easy to work with the Eyedropper, and you don't need any special skills to use it. To start, you should open the color picker in the report designer. You can do it in the style editor or any design property of any report or dashboard component.

You may find the tool at the bottom left from the sample color panel. Choose it and, holding the left mouse button, drag it into the element which color you want to get. After this, the color code of the element will be transferred to the color picker.

Eyedropper

It's simpler and faster than typing the color code manually

This way, you can get the color code you need, then copy it and apply it for all necessary design settings. Now the tool is available in the report designer for WinForms, but we are working on its implementation for other Stimulsoft products.
This capability will reduce your time when creating a report or dashboard design and will make your work with data more comfortable. We hope this article will help you understand the functionality of the Stimulsoft products. If you have any questions, contact us – we will be glad to help you.