Working with Layers

Layers allow you to create rich charts that overlay multiple data sources.

A few example use cases:

  1. You want to overlay new account signups with account cancellations and observe the relationship between the two datasets.
  2. You want to look at closed support tickets versus overall ticket volume and track you efficiency in handling customer support.
  3. You want to visualize sales across two regions and observe any interesting or unusual patterns in sales volume.

These are just two of many examples of how layers let you observe the relationship between multiple datasets.

Layers can be added on the same chart either from:

  1. Different tables in the same database
  2. Completely different databases

Adding a layer (or many layers) is easy. Let's start with our initial chart.

first layer

This is our first layer of comments from stackoverflow.com. Let's take a look at this with the additional layer of posts.

second layer

So to add this layer, we simply clicked on the "Add New Layer" button, which is adjacent to the "Chart it" button. If we wished, we could add a third layer, of votes on stackoverflow.

third layer

In conclusion, the idea of layers is to let you view multiple dimensions of your business in the same place for better context.