Creating a Central Page

The central page type focuses exclusively on a single dimension and value, which appears as the title of the page. When you define a central page, links are automatically generated on other pages to that central dimension. These links are the only way to access the central page. Be sure you have a parent page, whether it be a report, ad hoc, cross, dive, or overview page, before you add a central page.

Creating a central page is much like creating an overview page. It requires planning and a phased development. In general, the steps are:

• Design the layout and divide the page into panes. Use your favorite tool for mockups.
• Specify the general data content.
• Define the elements in a definitions block so they can be reused.
• Define the central page in a pages block, and test the effect on other data pages.
• The total percentage of the display layout elements within a vsplit or an hsplit must equal 100.

To create a basic central page:

Use an already existing data page as a basis. For example, a simple report page.

NOTE: You can also use ad hoc, cross, dive, and overview pages, as long as there is a shared dimension.

1. Locate the pages block in your script. If not present, add a pages block to the data-area.
2. Add a central-page tag with an open brace, {.

3. Add a dimension that the central-page has in common with the report-page. For this example, dimension Corporate Supplier.

   dimension "Corporate Supplier"

4. Specify the cPlan. For example:

   cplan "/cplans/basic_timeseries.cplan"

5. Define a tab for the central page. Here is an example of the tab block.

     tab "Central Data" { 
       screen { 
         layout { 
           vsplit { 
             hsplit percent = 50 { 
               element id = "pc-respteam" percent = 50 
               element id = "tb-customer" percent = 50 
             } 
             hsplit percent = 50 { 
               element id = "ln-brand" 
             } 
           } 
         } 
       } 
     } 

6. Add the elements to the elements block. The elements block can be in the definitions block or the central-page block. Here is an example of an elements block.

     elements { 
       pie-chart id = "grid-dimensions" { 
         title "Resp Team x Cases" 
         dimension "Resp Team" 
         column column = "Cases" 
       } 
       line-chart id = "ln-brand" { 
         title "Corporate Brand" 
         dimension = "Corporate Brand" 
         line column = "Net Sales" 
         line column = "Cost" 
         line column = "Discount" 
       } 
       table id = "tb-customer" { 
         title "Customers" 
         dimension "Customer" 
         text column = "Cases" 
         text column = "Cost" { 
           value-format "$#,###.00" 
         }
       } 
     } 

7. Save the script and explore how the central page affects the data on other pages.

Here is an example of the report page.

Notice how the dimension values are now shaded light blue, indicating a link to the central page.

Here is a central page example where dimension value KENDALL-JACKSON is selected.

Here is the full code for this example.

divetab version = "0.0" { 
  
  definitions { 
    
    elements { 
      
      pie-chart id = "pc-respteam" { 
        title "Resp Team x Cases" 
        dimension "Resp Team" 
        column column = "Cases" 
      } 
            
      line-chart id = "ln-brand" { 
        title "Corporate Brand" 
        dimension "Corporate Brand" 
        line column = "Net Sales" 
        line column = "Cost" 
        line column = "Discount" 
      } 
      
      table id = "tb-customer" { 
        title "Customers" 
        dimension "Customer" 
        text column = "Cases" 
        text column = "Cost" { 
          value-format "$#,###.00" 
        } 
      } 
    } 
  } 
  
  data-area id = "NY Data" { 
    title "Central Example" 
    icon "/divetab/images/Document288.png" 
    
    sections { 
      
      report-page { 
        title "Corporate Supplier" 
        cplan "/cplans/training/basic_timeseries.cplan" 
        
        dimension "Corporate Supplier" 
        
        text column = "Cases" 
        text column = "Cost" { 
          value-format "$#,###.00" 
        } 
        text column = "Net Sales" { 
          value-format "$#,###.00" 
        } 
        text column = "Discount" { 
          value-format "$#,###.00" 
        } 
      } 
    } 
    
    pages { 
      central-page { 
        cplan "/cplans/basic_timeseries.cplan" 
        
        dimension "Customer" 
        dimension "Product Name" 
        dimension "Corporate Supplier" 
        
        quickview-set { 
          cplan "/cplans/basic_timeseries.cplan" 
          dimension-quickview "Corporate Product Group" 
          dimension-quickview "Product Name" 
        } 
        
        tab "Central Page" { 
          screen { 
            layout { 
              vsplit { 
                hsplit percent = 50 { 
                  element id = "pc-respteam" percent = 50 
                  element id = "tb-customer" percent = 50 
                } 
                hsplit percent = 50 { 
                  element id = "ln-brand" 
                } 
              } 
            } 
          } 
        } 
      } 
    } 
  } 
}