SQL Reporting Services 2008 R2 Gauges - An Example of Over-Engineering
What is a Gauge? A gauge provides either a linear or radial measuring device.
Put in English, that means it either looks like an old-fashioned speedometer or rev counter on a car, or like a thermometer or barometer.
Gauges Belong in Gauge Panels One reason that gauges are so powerful (or over-engineered, depending on your viewpoint) is that they live in gauge panels.
These are basically just containers for one or more gauges.
For example, you could create a radial gauge with a pink background, and have it sitting on a rectangular yellow background (the gauge panel).
Gauges Can Contain Other Gauges Gauges would be complicated enough as simple standalone report items, but in addition one gauge can contain another.
Again, a car analogy is helpful: in some cars the speedometer contains within it a miniature rev counter (older readers will recognise this analogy).
Do you really need this feature in SQL Server Reporting Services? All Measurements are Percentages Perhaps the most complicated aspect to gauge report items is that all measurements are relative to the size of the original gauge.
So, for example, if you want a fairly big pointer occupying about half the size of the gauge, you would set the offset of this from the edge of the gauge to 50 percent.
This is simple enough, but gets far more complicated when you add labels (basically, bits of text floating around within a gauge).
Rather than specify that you want your label 20 mm down (say) from the top of the gauge, you instead state the percentage of the total gauge's height or width the label should lie from the top left corner.
It sometimes seems like you need a degree in maths to position labels correctly! Indicators are Gauges Too SSRS 2008 R2 also contains a new report item called an indicator, but it turns out that these are just simple gauges underneath the hood.
Conclusion They may be impressive report items, but if ever there was a bit of a software which most people won't fully explore, it's gauges.
Have fun with them, and let us know how you got on!
Put in English, that means it either looks like an old-fashioned speedometer or rev counter on a car, or like a thermometer or barometer.
Gauges Belong in Gauge Panels One reason that gauges are so powerful (or over-engineered, depending on your viewpoint) is that they live in gauge panels.
These are basically just containers for one or more gauges.
For example, you could create a radial gauge with a pink background, and have it sitting on a rectangular yellow background (the gauge panel).
Gauges Can Contain Other Gauges Gauges would be complicated enough as simple standalone report items, but in addition one gauge can contain another.
Again, a car analogy is helpful: in some cars the speedometer contains within it a miniature rev counter (older readers will recognise this analogy).
Do you really need this feature in SQL Server Reporting Services? All Measurements are Percentages Perhaps the most complicated aspect to gauge report items is that all measurements are relative to the size of the original gauge.
So, for example, if you want a fairly big pointer occupying about half the size of the gauge, you would set the offset of this from the edge of the gauge to 50 percent.
This is simple enough, but gets far more complicated when you add labels (basically, bits of text floating around within a gauge).
Rather than specify that you want your label 20 mm down (say) from the top of the gauge, you instead state the percentage of the total gauge's height or width the label should lie from the top left corner.
It sometimes seems like you need a degree in maths to position labels correctly! Indicators are Gauges Too SSRS 2008 R2 also contains a new report item called an indicator, but it turns out that these are just simple gauges underneath the hood.
Conclusion They may be impressive report items, but if ever there was a bit of a software which most people won't fully explore, it's gauges.
Have fun with them, and let us know how you got on!
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