How do I create custom charts in the platform?

The types of analysis and visualization you can do in the Data Midsouth platform will depend on the data source, but there are two ways to build charts. One way to create visuals is by clicking on the Data tab at the top of the DMS website and then selecting “Create Chart” or “Create Map” from the dropdown menu. Then select “Add data set to this chart” to start populating the chart.

Another way to create a visual is to go to the Data Midsouth catalog and go to the thumbnail of the data source you are interested in. Data sources that allow you to build charts will have an “Analyze” option in the menu on the right side of the thumbnail. Some will also have a “Map” and/or “Visuals” option.

When using the Analyze function for a given data source, we recommend selecting the type of chart visual you want to use first:

Then, select what variables you want to use for the chart for the other dropdowns:

• X-Axis – This is usually the best place to select a timeline type of variable (ex: eviction filing date) or a set of categories you want to compare (ex: property land use code).

• Y-Axis – This is usually the best place to select an outcome type of measure that would fluctuate over time and/or by the categories you want to compare (ex: count of eviction filings)

• Filters – Use the menu on the left side of the page to apply filters to the data in your chart. For example, you can limit the chart to data from a certain date range or zip code (if it contains address information)

• Break down series – This option lets you compare additional variables within the chart. For example, if you are creating a line chart that shows Census population change over time, you can break this series down to split out the lines for different race, age or gender categories. This also works for creating stacked column or bar charts.

• Use for ordering – This option is available for some but not all chart types to the right of the Y-axis dropdown. This will sort the results from highest to lowest instead of other sorting methods like chronological or alphabetical order.

• Max number of points – When looking at data sets with a large number of categories, you can use this dropdown to limit the number of categories showing to just the top few. This works best if you first select the “use for ordering” function mentioned above.