About visual reports

Security Desk's dynamic charts and graphs provide visual data that can be used to perform searches, investigate situations, and identify activity patterns.

Visual reports can display data in a graph or chart format along a specified axis by using lines or bars to visually represent the report data. The X axis represents all the labels (group by), and the Y axis shows the total number of instances relative to the X axis.

On the X axis, two types of grouping can be achieved:

Nominal values: Can separate the data in multiple columns on the X axis. For example, the X axis values can be sorted by the number of instances, and the user can choose the grouping (Top 3, Top 5, or Top 10).
Dates: Can separate the X axis based on a timeline. For example, the user can change the date interval grouping (Hour, Day, Week, Month, or Year).

Visual chart types

The following chart types are supported in Security Center when using the Generate report functions in Security Desk: Lines, Columns, Stacked columns, Rows, Stacked rows, Doughnut, and Pie.

Lines chart

Use a Lines chart when you want to track changes over a short or long period of time. For example, the total instances of the selected report data in relation to a timeline.

Line charts can represent the data better than row or column charts when the difference in changes is small.
Line charts can also be used to compare changes over the same period for more than one group.

The following example shows a Cardholder events report, Split by: First name, Show: Top 5 and X-Axis: Event timestamp, Group by: Day as a Lines chart.

Lines chart (simplified)

When the time range is too wide or too precise, a lot of data has to be computed and displayed on screen. In this situation, a simplified version of the lines chart is displayed.

The following example shows a simplified version of a Lines chart.

NOTE: The simplified version of a lines chart does not support interaction with the mouse or indication of Y value for a specific point.

Columns chart

Use a Columns chart when you want to group the data by category and display the results using vertical bars.

The following example shows a Door access report, Split by: Event, Show: Top 10 and X-Axis: Door, Show: Top 10 as a Columns chart.

Stacked columns

Use a Stacked columns chart when you want to group the data by category and display the results using vertical bars. The Y axis can be used to split the data and have more precise information in relation to the X value.

The following example shows a Door activities report, Split by: Event, Show: Top 10 and X-Axis: Door, Show: Top 10 as a Stacked columns chart.

Rows

Use a Rows chart when you want to group the data by category and display the results using horizontal bars.

The following example shows an Intrusion detector report, Y-Axis: Camera, Show: Top 10 and Split by: Frame time, Group by: Hour, Show: Top 10 as a Rows chart.

Stacked rows

Use a Stacked rows chart when you want to group the data by category and display the results using horizontal bars. The X axis can be used to split the data and have more precise information in relation to the Y value.

The following example shows an Intrusion detector report, Y-Axis: Camera, Show: Top 10 and Split by: Frame time, Group by: Hour, Show: Top 10 as a Stacked rows chart.

Pie and Doughnut charts

Use a Pie or Doughnut chart when you want to compare report data as a whole.

NOTE: Pie or Doughnut charts do not show changes over time.

Pie chart

The following example shows a Camera events motion report, Data: Camera, Show: Top 10 as a Pie chart.

Doughnut chart

The following example shows a Camera events report, Data: Camera, Show: Top 10 as a Doughnut chart.

Example

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