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Move, mirror, clone to organize the view

Create multiple views of the same data

Updated at 2019-06-26 17:30:50 UTC
Conceptual diagram illustrating drag and drop functionality. On the left, a hand cursor points to a bar chart with five blue bars. On the right, three outlined placeholder rectangles with five bars each represent potential drop targets.

Drag + drop elements in Protobi to change the order of questions or create different views of the same question. 

When your drag + drop a dialog with three options pops up:

  • Move - Puts the element in a new spot.
  • Mirror (copy by reference) - References the same element in multiple spots. Edits to the element in one spot will apply to it everywhere.
  • Clone (independent copy) - Creates an independent element. Edits to the clone do not apply to the original element.

Drag + drop elements within the main panel

In the main panel we can drag S1 between two charts to move it. The yellow line marks the new spot.

When you drag an element make sure you select the blue rectangular pill with the question's displayKey (i.e. S1).

Protobi dashboard showing multiple visualizations and data elements. A yellow callout box labeled 'Text automatically generated from data' appears on the right side. The main view displays various chart types including a pie chart, bar charts, column charts, and a word cloud. The interface shows tabbed navigation at the top and left sidebar with project elements.

Drag + drop elements within the tree

You can also drag elements within the tree to move them.

Protobi left sidebar tree view showing a hierarchical list of survey elements. Element 'Q7 coded' is highlighted in yellow and appears to be selected for dragging. The tree includes items like Screener, Report, S1, Intro, and various Q4 chart types. In the main panel to the right, a pie chart shows data split between Practice Nurse and General Practitioner.

If you drag an element onto a group instead of specifying a position, it will place the element last in that group. 

Protobi interface showing the tree view in the left sidebar with 'Section 2' highlighted in yellow. The element labeled 'Q1' appears below it with a light blue background. The main panel shows the Report tab with visualizations including pie charts and bar charts displaying sample overview data.

Drag + drop elements from the tree into the main panel

You can also drag from the tree into the main panel. Drop between elements to specify a location.

Protobi interface showing a drag operation from the tree to the main panel. The left sidebar displays the element tree with 'Country' highlighted in blue. The main panel shows a 'Report' tab with visualizations. An arrow indicates dragging from the tree element 'Country' toward the main panel workspace between existing charts.

Drag to the "+" sign to add the element to the end of the tab.

Protobi interface showing the bottom of the main panel with a large yellow horizontal bar spanning the width. At the bottom center is a blue pill-shaped button labeled 'Country' with the text 'Protobi can use Google Translate' next to it. The left sidebar shows various survey elements in a tree structure.

Drag + drop elements from the main panel to the tree

Protobi recently enabled moving elements from the main panel to the tree.

Protobi interface showing a drag operation from the main panel back to the tree. The left sidebar tree structure shows 'Section 1' with a yellow highlight and 'Q1' element with a light blue circular indicator. The main panel displays the Report tab with various survey visualizations and a yellow text box containing Lorem ipsum placeholder text.

Copy/paste elements

Another way to mirror or clone elements is to 1) select the element, 2) press Shift+C to copy, and 3) press Shift+V to paste

This dialog will show up and you can select Mirror or Clone:

Dialog box titled 'What should we do ?' showing three radio button options for element manipulation. The dialog shows Element Key Q1 and provides choices for Mirror (identical copy), Clone simple (independent copy) with a text field containing 'Q1_copy', and Paste Attributes. Cancel and Ok buttons appear at the bottom.

 

See Copy/paste elements to create different views or apply attributes from one element to another

Mirror vs clone

The key difference is that mirror copies are the same element referenced in multiples spots and clones are independent elements that point to the same data column.

Mirror

Mirroring an element just means you're showing the same chart in more than one spot. Mirror copies have the same key, if you edit the element in one place it will change it everywhere.

Delete a mirror copy

Because they share a key, you cannot hide or delete a mirror copy without affecting the original element and vice versa. You can remove an element from a group's list of children and that will delete it from one group without removing it from any other groups where it's referenced.

Element properties dialog box showing details for 'Section 1'. The dialog displays various properties including key, displayKey, headline, title, footnote, type, field, element, and children. At the bottom, the children property shows a blue-bordered text field containing a comma-separated list of child element keys: 'Q1,Q2v1,Q2pmap,Q2v1,Q2,Q...'

Clone

Cloning allows you to create an independent copy of an element. Cloning is useful when you want to see a question in a different chart type or create a banner element from a question without changing the original chart.

You can drag + drop to create a clone, or select the element, press the "Advanced" button in the toolbar and choose "Clone".

Dropdown menu showing Advanced design actions. The menu includes options like Hide/unhide (D), Group (G), Dissolve (U), Clone (simple) with a light gray highlight (E L), Change key (E K), Edit properties (E M), Edit JSON (E J), and Translate (BETA) (X T). Each option shows its keyboard shortcut in gray on the right.

Protobi prompts you to give the new element a new key. The key cannot be identical to any other key in the project. 

Dialog box titled 'Clone selected element' prompting to clone element 'state'. The dialog contains a text input field with 'state_cloud' entered as the new element name. Instructions read 'Enter name of new element' below the input. Cancel and Ok buttons appear at the bottom.

When Protobi creates an initial element for each data column, its key is the same as the data column name. When you create a mirror view the references share a same key, but when you create a clone it has a different key than the original element. 

Because this new element has its own unique key, we can change its properties without affecting the original element. In addition to a different key, the new element will have an attribute field with a value that refers to the data column from the original element. You can verify this by selecting "More properties..." from the context menu.

Delete a clone

You can remove clones from view by hiding or deleting them as you would any other element. Since clones have unique keys, removing them won't have an affect on original elements. Select the clone, then press the del key on your keyboard. 

Clone to create a different type of chart

Let's say your survey has a data column "state." By default, Protobi shows each data column as an interactive bar chart. The element state will initially appear like this:

Protobi element showing 'state' data as a bar chart. The chart displays 'State from FIPS code' with a filter box and Apply button. Below is a sortable table showing Value and Freq columns, listing US states with their frequencies. California leads with 177, followed by Texas (104), New York (89), and others. Blue horizontal bars represent the frequency values.

There are many ways you can modify this element. You might want to see the data in a different chart type, language, or as recoded values. By cloning, we can create these different visualizations without changing the original element. 

In this example we've cloned state and entered "state_cloud" for the new element's key.

You now have two different elements pointing at the same data column:

Side-by-side view of two Protobi elements both showing state data. On the left is 'state' displaying the data as a bar chart with frequencies. On the right is 'state_cloud' showing the identical data in the same bar chart format. Both show the same states and frequencies with California at 177, Texas at 104, etc.

You can change the new element without affecting the first. Press the blue edit icon, and from the context menu choose "Chart type..." and select "Word cloud." 

Side-by-side comparison showing the same state data in two different visualizations. Left side shows 'state' as a bar chart with frequencies. Right side shows 'state_cloud' as a word cloud where state names appear in varying sizes and colors, with California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania prominently displayed in larger text.

Cloning groups: simple vs recursive

In the above example, we cloned a simple element state that had no children. It's also possible to create multiple views of an entire group. 

When you clone a group you can clone just the parent group (simple clone) or recursively copy its child elements (recursive clone). 

Simple

If we create a simple clone, both parent groups will refer to the same children by reference. If we change the titles or formats for a child element in one group, it will change it in both. Typically, a simple clone is sufficient when creating a different visualization of a compacted group.  

We have a group q15 that shows ratings as a stacked bar chart:

Protobi element 'q15' displaying a compact stacked bar chart. The question reads 'Do you think young adults & older adults are similar or different today in terms of ?' with a note 'Compact to Somewhat different, or Very different'. Four items are listed with percentages and color-coded stacked bars: Their moral values (75.5%), The way they use the internet (84.0%), Attitudes about racial (71.6%), and Importance of family (60.2%). Each bar uses blue and green segments.

We clone (simple) the element to see it as a tornado chart as well:

Protobi element 'q15_copy' showing the same question data as a tornado chart. The question and items are identical to the previous image, but the visualization now displays as a diverging bar chart with two columns: 'Very or somewhat similar' on the left (showing percentages 21.2%, 12.3%, 22.0%, 35.6%) and 'Very or somewhat different' on the right (showing 75.5%, 84.0%, 71.6%, 60.2%). Bars extend from a center axis in opposite directions.

Recursive

This will not only clone the parent, but also create independent copies of all the children. Changes to both the parent and children in this type of clone will be independent from the original group. 

Rather than specify a new key for the clone element, for recursive clones you specify a prefix that will be prepended to each element's key to generate new keys.

Set heritability on cloned groups

Some changes parent elements propagate down to its children. This includes changing color, format, recodes, filters and crosstab columns. You may want to modify the group without those changes propagating down to the child elements. 

In simple clones, both parent groups refer to the same children. If you want to set a specific format or filter on the cloned parent but you don't want the children to reflect these changes under the original group, turn heritability off.

To do this press the edit icon, select "More properties..." and set "Heritable" to "No."

Element properties dialog for 'state_cloud' element. The form shows various properties including key, displayKey, title, type, field, and others. At the bottom, the 'heritable' property is highlighted with a red border. A blue checkmark appears next to 'No' option, with '(default)' shown below it. Cancel, Ok, and More options buttons are at the bottom.

Video tutorial

Clone elements