15 comments
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Yes that would be very beneficial. Right now my work-around is to copy and paste the entire table to the new klip and reference from it then hide all columns. Is there any better way?
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Hi guys,
Have you tried placing the klips in the same layout grid? If that's possible in your layout you should be able to reference the values.
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Hi All,
It's great to see the activity on this topic!
As Jon is referring to, it is common to have references to formulas in other visualizations (components) in the same Klip. (e.g. using Product Margin calculated in a bar chart and referring to it to create Product Margin % in a Value Pair elsewhere in the same Klip. Better described in this article on Reference values.)
I would be very interested in understanding your specific use cases for referencing formulas (components) from other Klips, Can you describe what you are trying to accomplish? It would be great to understand things like...
- the kinds of calculations/formulas you are looking to create that you want to refer to (e.g. like my reference to Product Margin above)
- what are the kinds of formulas/calculations you would like to refer to the other Klip
- how often are you doing this now by copying/pasting entire tables (or other components) and hiding them?
- your view of the benefit/value of being able to refer to formulas/components in other Klips (how does this benefit you as you build Klips? how would it benefit your users of the dashboards? Other value?)
- Anything else about your specific scenario that would help contribute to the context of this feature request
This will be very helpful background to have when this feature request is written up, evaluated and prioritized.
Thanks in advance for any additional insights you can share.
Cheers,
Scott.
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It is very often I have to do this. I would say it is very beneficial to have this feature.
Common scenario:
Lets say I build a klip to pull revenue data from different sources and combine them to get a total revenue. (in dashboard A)
In another klip, I want to build a klip showing profit (in dashboard B), so I need to reference to the total revenue number I got previously. In this case, I will have to copy the entire tables from the klip in dashboard A and paste in on the profit klip in dashboard B.
Lets say I will need to do some adjustments to the total revenue number on another klip, I will need to do the same etc. Also, copying the table will also add all the data sources with it. It seems redundant.
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Hi Darwin,
Thank you for sharing additional context. I will add this to the feature request to help with prioritization.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Hi Scott,
In almost all my klips there are common calculations that I use (sales, cogs, fixed costs, sales projections, etc).
For example in one dashboard (A) I built a klip with a Profit and Loss statement and in another klip I built a dashboard (B) with some KPI´s including profit margin, GOGS/Sales, Overhead/Sales, etc.
In the example above, in dashboard B I have to re-calculate all the measures already calculated in dashboard A. This is very time consuming and annoying. This gets worst when you need to edit a calculation, for example add a new sales column, and have to repeat this step in every klip using sales calculation.
Sometimes I just even dont build a klip because of the daunting task of repeating calculations.
Referencing values to other klips will reduce dramatically the time to build or edit a klip/dashboard.
I think this is the most important feature Klipfolio is lacking.
Cheers,
Eduardo
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Hi Eduardo,
Thank you for sharing your use case. I will add them to the feature request.
We have had a few discussions about how to approach the kinds of scenarios outlined in this thread. Such as enabling calculations to be created at a data source level which could be defined ones and reused across Klips, or having named formulas or metrics that can be reused across Klips. More happening as we delve into this area and possible next steps.
Thank you again!
Cheers,
Scott.
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Hey All,
Jon's feedback about building multiple component Klips is excellent, and if you've not tried this, or aren't sure what he means, chime in here, or check out a good short playlist of videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDCazm7yyMQLLjRzu2oMB6JhNOZsMksEh.
That said, it's often the case that we can't (or don't want to) put multiple charts into the same Klip. In that case, you are right, you cannot use the !REFERENCE feature to reference a calculation in different Klip. However, good workaround:
1) When looking at your dashboard, duplicate your browser tab so you have two identical tabs
2) In the 1st Tab, Edit the Klip with your original calculation
3) In the 2nd Tab, start building the new Klip where you need the original calculation
4) you can copy and paste formulas from one of your browser tabs (with the original Klip) into the other browser tab (with the new Klip).
I do this fairly often, and it's pretty quick. Having multiple browser tabs open working in the Klip Editor is fine. You should not work in multiple browser tabs where you are logged into two different Accounts (like a Partner working in their own Account, and also in a Client's Account); these two browser tabs will sync up, and it's easy to get confused.
But two tabs open with the editor is fine, and something I do often.
Your feedback still very relevant though, so thank you for sharing! Just wanted to chime in with my tips as well.
Best,
Zach -
Thanks Zach for the tips, that is what I always do if I need to copy formula from one klip to another. It is helpful when I build a new klip.
The hard part would be maintaining and updating them. I totally agree with Eduardo that it is one of the most important features that is lacking. A simple change in the base table (like in my case: total revenue) means I will have to do the changes to all klips that used the same base table and make sure they all sync up. It is a pain when the numbers of klips or the complexity of the calculations grow. We are planning to offload all data processing and calculation to our own database and read from the db instead due to this limitation. -
Hi All,
Completely agree with the 'maintenance and update' comments as previously stated by Darwin and Eduardo.
Currently it takes a lot of time copying and pasting the same adjustments over and over again since there is no way to reference across klips.
Another annoying thing creating new klips with results references in it, is that results references within the klip do not function any more once the klip is copied and pasted. As a result, you need to copy and paste each results reference individually in order to create a working klip again.
Being able to reference across klips or adding Results that are often referenced to in some sort of 'results / data library' would save huge amounts of time.
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Completely agree with that. I actually thought this is part of the 'global variable' feature but when trying to use it today I realised it's not and got here...
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Hi Eden
Have you heard of our new modeller functionality? You can do all your formulas for a single data source in one place and then use the model to build Klips.
The modelled data source can be used in our new Beta functionality 'Trends', but it can also be used to build Klips, especially where you need to re-use formulas. You can see more details here:
and a guide for modelling tabular data or JSON/XML data:
https://support.klipfolio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002373534-BETA-How-do-I-model-a-data-source-
Maybe this could help you? If you don't see the option to model data source on in your account, we can turn it on for you. It should be turned on for all accounts soon.
Thanks
Meggan
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Hi all
I totally recognize Darwins initial challenge with "revenue data from different sources and combine them to get a total revenue".
Has there been any feature updates since? I haven't found the other solutions to be relevant in this case?
The hope is, since a calculation is made in one klip that adds up different revenue components, i want to include that label to calculate total revenue in another klip.
Thanks
Omar
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I totally agree with previous posts.
There are times when I want to make a complete new klip but want to reference information from other klips.
A global variable would be very beneficial./
Carl
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Bumping this thread to say that I also agree with the previous posts. Having multiple tabs open and copy-pasting is not a solution since results references do not work in other klips. There is no workaround since I am using filtered data to produce these results references that are needed for other klips. There are at least a dozen use cases for this on our company's dashboard and this feature not existing is often a roadblock for things we need to do.
Adam