Bar Charts with Non-Stacked Subgroups

Question

I'm trying to create a report in CR2008 for my elementary school principals that will display how many students received a specific grade each of the three marking periods (T1, T2, and T3) per grade level per subject area (Math, PE, etc.).  I was able to do this with a separate chart for each marking period, but would like to combine the charts into a single chart that has the grades (such as ADV, PRO, or BLB) across the bottom, and has the trimester scores as subgroups, so it looks something like this:
               3    123     23   1     1
              23    123    123   123   12
Kinder Math  123    123    123   123   123    123
             ADV    PRO+   PRO   APP   BASI   BLB
Each of the grades would have three subgroups (bars) representing the three trimesters.  The y-axis scale would be the count of students who received each grade, with the maximum value set to the total number of active students at the end of the year (plus a small fudge factor in case the T3 enrollment is smaller than the T1 or T2 enrollment).
The database (SQL Server 2005) I'm pulling from has table I'll call Grades; it's joined to a table called Students to get the grade level.  Each record in Grades has the following data in it (names have been changed to make them make more sense here, and only relevant fields are shown):
StudentID, CourseNum, Section, T1_Active, T1_Grade, T2_Active, T2_Grade, T3_Active, T3_Grade
If a student was enrolled in a specific CourseNum and Section at the end of a marking period, the XX_Active field will be "A"; if it's not, it should be skipped in the counting.  Because of this it is very possible that the count for a specific grade/trimester is zero, especially at the outliers (ADV and BLB).
In Chart Expert >> Data >> Advanced, the current charts are set up using:
On change of Grade.T1_Grade
Show value(s): Count of Grade.T1_Grade
(Substitute T2 or T3 for the second and third charts.)  Unfortunately, I have no clue what to choose for these values to get a combined chart.
My questions:
1) Does CR support bar graphs with subgroups that aren't stacked?  Does it support having three subgroups?
2a) If so, what would be my next step to making this work?  Is the secret in running totals, formulas, arrays, or something else?  Maybe creating a view in the database that rearranges the data to make it easier to work with?
2b) If CR doesn't support this directly, would it be worth while to fake it with six separate bar charts u2013 a chart just for ADV next to a chart just for PRO+, etc. u2013 or would the performance penalty be too much?  Would I need to have them each in their own subreport, or could they all live on the same level?  Is this the way I'd need to go if I also wanted to put trend lines over or above each letter grade group?
Thank you in advance for any pointers you can give me.
Jim
Edited by: jimsteph on Jul 8, 2010 2:33 PM

Answer 1

If you can create a view, that would be very helpful, by making the view, you are pushing some of the work to the
server, so... "Hopefully" the report will be quicker. I don't think making six seperate charts would be all that much load on the
server, or cr. If you do that, would you stack the charts? and just make the top stacks with Transparent backgrounds?
Rather than add a view on the server u2013 there's talk that the next version of the gradebook program will completely refactor the database u2013 I did a SQL Command (I can't remember where I read about that tip over the last couple of feverish days, but my hat's off and I owe someone a frosty adult beverage!) that created a simplified table.  I then used that to create a Cross-Tab (my original report approximated one using a whole bunch of Running Totals).
I then tried to make the chart, and got completely frustrated u2013 again u2013 until I accidentally created a chart from the Cross-Tab (right-click on the Cross-Tab and choose Insert Chart ).  I had no idea you could do that, and it ended up being exactly what I wanted.
I have CRXI, if you go to the Sample reports, you will see one called Chart.rpt, this has multiple examples of some of the
charts you can create. Perhaps a 3D riser chart would meet your requirements. HTH If not, can you provide some different samples?
I would have never thought to look for the samples.  Thank you!  Now that I've got my immediate problem solved it's time to look at the samples and see what possibilities exist for future reports.
Jim