Display class label on X-axis instead of ID (relational tables)

General
1

Hello,

I’m working on a Directus dashboard and I want to display:

  • X-axis: the class label (name)
  • Y-axis: the number of students

However, my data comes from multiple relational tables, and by default Directus displays IDs instead of readable labels.

:pushpin: Data model

Tables involved:

  • absence_day_students
    • id, student_id, absence_day_id
  • absence_day
    • id, class_id
  • classes
    • id, class_name

Relations:

  • absence_day_students.absence_day_id → absence_day.id
  • absence_day.class_id → classes.id

:cross_mark: Issue

  • The chart X-axis shows class IDs
  • Calculated fields do not support chained relations (relation → relation)
  • Therefore, it’s not possible to use something like:
absence_day_id.class_id.class_name

thanks in advance
1 Like
2

Try your luck with this Insights for Relational Values
I faced the same issue, so I used the mentioned extension, but unfortunately was using a system table, so I had no luck.
Give it a try and let me know if it works as you expected.

3

Thanks for your suggestion!

I’ve already looked into “Insights for Relational Values”, however in my case the issue is slightly different.

I’m not trying to display relational values on a Chart Map, but on a Bar / Column chart (Insights → Bar Chart).
Unfortunately, this extension seems to mainly target map-based charts and doesn’t resolve the limitation for bar charts where:

  • the X-axis still expects a flat field
  • calculated fields don’t support chained relations
  • relational values are still rendered as IDs in standard bar charts

Because of this, I ended up using a SQL view to flatten the relations and expose readable fields (class label + count), which works reliably for bar charts.

If you’ve managed to get relational labels working on a bar chart using this extension (not maps), I’d be very interested to know how you configured it.

Thanks again for sharing your experience :folded_hands:

1 Like
4

Seems like this is sort of coming very soon, but only for x-axis on bar charts.

2 Likes