Decomposition Tree "Explain By" field order

[bselby]

Hi,

The order of the Explain By fields within the Decomposition Tree visual itself doesn't match the order of the field list within the visual's settings.

This is only really noticeable when you add to an existing Decomposition Tree. If I create one with fields "A", "G" and "Z", dragged onto the field list in that order, they will be correctly ordered "A" -> "G" -> "Z" for users. If I later add a new field "C" and drag it onto the field list between "A" and "G", it just gets placed at the bottom of the Explain By list on the visual itself, so the user would see "A" -> "G" -> "Z" -> "C".

This is a bit annoying when there are lots of Explain By fields that we are trying to put into a sensible order for the users, as to add a new field to a specific place in an existing list, we have to remove all the fields below it first, add the new one, and then re-add the old ones in the same order so that it orders correctly for the users.

Is this a known issue or are there any workarounds?

Many thanks.

[lbendlin]

I think this question has largely become obsolete with the "Personalize this visual"  feature.  End users are now empowered to add columns into visuals in any order they want. 

[bselby]

This isn't about letting the end users add/remove/order columns in the visual as they choose, in this scenario we are defining the visual for them and do not want any personalisation on their part using the new feature.

This is about defining/maintaining it from the admin side, and simply about the order of "Explain By" in the field list not matching the order of "Explain By" in the visual itself.

Of course my initial example was very basic, but on our real report we have significantly more fields that we want to present in a sensible order to the users. Whilst this is perfectly achieveable, the maintenance of that list over time becomes a lot more tedious as the reports evolve and we decide to add further fields or adjust fields, because additions always appear at the bottom. Here is an illustration of my initial example:

So if you have 20 fields, and want to add a new one to the list, but want it to appear in position 3, you have to remove fields 3-20 from the visual, add the new field, then add the older fields.

Many thanks.

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

Understand.  Might be better to place this into the Ideas section or - if you feel strongly about it - in the Issues section.