Use of Animations in CRM Analytics Tables

Have you ever thought about loading your plain and simple tables in Salesforce CRM Analytics with fun animations to make it more appealing and highlighting the facts. The use of visualizing table data using bars and conditional formatting was in use for quite some time in CRM Analytics and it is always found to be very useful. However, with the use of the new image option in Table columns, now you can use the images (animated or non animated) to highlight the facts and draw immediate attention of the reader. In order to achieve it, this requires a simple 5 steps as listed below:

Step 1: Upload your image(s) in the Salesforce Org as Files

Once you have the images you want to use, it needs to be added to the Salesforce org. You may add it to your org by log in to your Salesforce instance and open files and hit the library option in the menu on the left-hand side. You can then upload any image (animated or non-animated) by selecting a library (or use the default) and click “add files”.

Step 2: Get Image URLs as Strings

Once the images are uploaded, click to preview it, and right-click on the image and copy the "image link address". Don't forget to paste the link in a text editor for later reference.

Step 3: Create your Data table using SAQL (Values or Compare table only)

Create a new dashboard with a table widget and convert the query in SAQL format. In the example below, I am using a simple compare table using the DTC Opportunity dataset. This table has only one Attribute and a couple of measures. The first measure is Current Year (CY) Sales, and the second measure is Last Year (LY) Sales (obviously, more columns can be added in a real use case). Now, I would like to show the difference of the Sales numbers by using an animated arrows (GIFs) in the third column.

Step 4: Add Image URLs to the SAQL code

Update the SAQL code of the query by adding a third column using a case statement with the image URLs (sample code as below):

case when <condition met> then "URL 1" else "URL 2" end as "Arrow"

Once you run the query, you should be able to see the URLs in the third column.

Step 5: Change the column property

In the Design mode, select the newly created table. In the right property pane, on the "Column" tab select the Arrow column (or the column containing the URLs) and navigate to the "Show Data As" property. Change the data type as "Image".

Here you go. Now your plain, simple and boring table is showing cool animated images with insights. Enjoy!!