Occasionally with Microsoft Dynamics CRM you can create a chart which looks great with your test data but in the real world it just looks rubbish! Often I’ve found the reason comes down to the data. As typically 80% of your data might be represented by a small number of values but the remaining 20% can be all sorts of odds and sods which ideally would be best visualised as one pie slice. (aka Other.)

Now I am going to assume you are familiar with how to edit chart xml, if not try referring to this example.

Consider a chart that looks like this …..

This chart is showing how many fish I have caught at various fishing locations. I know not a common CRM chart! But it does illustrate my point as many of the slices are so small that you can’t hardly read them. Now below you can see that I have grouped a number of “results” together and called the collection “Other”. Making my chart easier to read. This is achieved using “Collectedthreshold”. There are a number of options available. Allowing you want to group everything below a value or percentage. And also options to control the label / legend.

I have shown my code below. I used all of the options simply to show all the capabilities! It is important to note that “IsValueShownAsLabel” must be false.

I have spaced out my code below to make it easier to read, you can place all in one line if you like!

<Series>
<Series ShadowOffset="0"
IsValueShownAsLabel="False"
Label="#VAL"
LegendToolTip="#PERCENT - #VAL out of #TOTAL total"
Font="{0}, 9.5px"
LabelForeColor="59, 59, 59"
CustomProperties="PieLabelStyle=Inside,
PieDrawingStyle=Default,
CollectedThresholdUsePercent=True,
CollectedThreshold=5,
CollectedColor=Pink,
CollectedSliceExploded=True,
CollectedLabel=Other #VAL - #PERCENT,
CollectedLegendText=Other - #VAL out of #TOTAL total,
CollectedToolTip=#VAL out of #TOTAL total"
ChartType="pie" >
<SmartLabelStyle Enabled="True" />
</Series>
</Series>