Allow combination of stacked and side-by-side bar charts

Description:

Spotfire allows stacked bar charts, with an aggregation method on the value axis such as a SUM or COUNT and a matching category on the category axis such as a name. If a developer wanted to have side-by-side bars on only a few bar segments, and stack others on a new bar right beside each other, this would not be possible. It is an "all or nothing" situation when it comes to stacked vs. side-by-side bars. I believe this should be changed. Opening this up to more customization will allow better comparative visualizations.

Use case:

As long as the Spotfire developer can link the data sources on a matching name, it is possible to show aggregated data per name. This is especially useful for workload analyses. In the stacked_bars screenshot below, take note of the following:

• each different colored bar is from a different data source (workorders, work permits, hours driven, etc.)
• these bars are aggregated either by SUMs or COUNTs
• these bars are sorted by value and categorized by name (this name is matched across all data sources)

What I'd like to do is take the two bar segments Sum(OT_HRS) and Sum(PREM_HRS) and put them below the stacked bar, in their own stack, per name. This would result in a mix of the stacked bars visual and side-by-side bars visual. This would not be simply side-by-side bars (image attached), but rather a combination of both.

I would like to more easily see the workload per person and compare it to the extra hours a person may have have accumulated over a timespan. To have these two different side-by-side stacked bars right next to each other would be perfect. Also, I believe this enhancement would benefit the community because this feature could be used for other comparative reasons.

For now, I am doing a tornado chart (attached), but it is not ideal and not as visually easy to compare. Users will have to look at the left side, tally up the hours on the left and compare them to what is on the right (I know I can show labels for the complete bar, but that clutters the screen).