Data Keys

Data Keys on the Report

Data Keys are enclosed in the "@" character when utilized by components in the report. They may be typed manually, or dragged directly from the Key Browser. 

Keys that contain a single value will create a Text Shape when dragged onto the report. 

Keys that represent datasets will create a Table component, and configure the Data Key property to use the key. 

Show Calculations Property

In the Key Browser, the Show Calculations property will add several aggregates to each key. These allow your reports to easily display things like the total of a key. These calculations are typically used in the summary row on the Table component. 

Once Show Calculations is enabled, the Key Browser will refresh, and each key will be expandable. Expanding a key will show the available calculations. 

Calculation Keys work like any other key: they may be dragged onto the report, and utilized in Keychain Expressions.

Configuring a Dynamic Data Key

There are two ways to configure a dynamic data key. Note that the syntax of keys differs in Dynamic Data Keys: the "@" are omitted, as demonstrated below.

Drag-and-Drop

The easiest approach is by simply dragging a data key from the Key Browser directly to a property on a report component. 

Right-Click

1. With a report component selected, look in the Property Inspector, and left click on the name of a property you wish to place the dynamic data key on. 
   
   
2. Once selected, you can right-click on the property name and a menu will appear.
   
   
3. Click on the Use dynamic data key menu item. 
   
   
   
   
4. This will place a dynamic data key on the property. An icon of a link () will appear next to the property name, and a default key will be applied to the property. 
   
   
5. Next we will want to override the default value with one of the keys from the Key Browser. Simply left click on the value field and a magnifying glass () icon will appear.
   
   
   
   
6. Click on the () icon. From here a popup of available keys will appear. Select the key you wish to use, and then click OK. 

Data Key Usage

Data Keys as Paths

Data Keys are relative, and use 'dot notation' to reference children.  Meaning, if we have a nested data structure, we can use Data Key paths (also known as Keychains) to reference the nested data.  In the key browser image below, we have a nested data source called Downtime. Downtime contains a number of columns, and then contains a reference to additional data called runInfo.  If we wanted to access the highlighted operator data, we could use the keychain dot notation in the Designer - @Downtime.runInfo.operator@. Nested data sources are outside the scope of this page, but you can learn about Data source nesting in the Nested Queries section.

Array Index of Data

You can reference an individual object in a list using standard array indexing syntax (brackets) like this: @dataSource[0].columnName@, where "dataSource" is a data source that contains a child data key named columnName. Assuming a data source with the values listed below, we can retrieve the value of "Second Row" by specifying index 1 and the column stringValue: @static_data[1].stringValue@

indexColumn, stringValue
0, "First Row"
1, "Second Row"
2, "Third Row"
4, "Fourth Row"

Colors in Expressions

Colors may be references in Keychain Expressions in several ways.

The 7th and 8th digits may be added to specify an alpha channel, or the opacity of the color: 00  is fully transparent, while  FF  is fully opaque. Below, we see a similar rectangle overlapping an ellipse, but with a code of  "0000FF40" . This represents ~25% opacity, so objects behind the rectangle will be visible, and the fill color will only be slightly opaque. 

Strings as Colors

Additionally, case-insensitive string color names may be used to return a color. Again, the value must be wrapped in quotation marks. 

The following string values may be used: