Research

Research Questions

• How do BI products expose table links for cells, headers, and rows?
• How do headless/component table libraries structure formatting configuration?
• What option inventory should Dataface support now vs later?

Deep Inventory (As of 2026-03-22)

1) Metabase table formatting + linking

Documented table capabilities include: - Table structure and utility controls: rearrange/add/hide columns, custom columns, row numbers, resize columns. - Column-heading operations: filter by column, distribution, distinct values, combine columns, extract date parts, extract URL parts, sum over time. - Cell click behaviors and detail views from key columns. - Per-column formatting: - Text: title, text alignment, wrap, display as text/link/email/image/automatic. - Date: date style, abbreviation, show time, time style, alignment. - Number: mini bar chart, style (number/percent/scientific/currency), separators, decimals, multiply, prefix/suffix. - Currency: unit, label style, where currency unit is shown. - Conditional formatting: - Single color rules (numeric or text match/contains), optional whole-row highlight. - Color range rules for numeric columns. - Rule ordering with precedence. - Dashboard-context behavior: custom destinations for columns, table pagination on dashboard cards.

2) Apache Superset / Preset table formatting + linking

From Preset Table Chart and recent Superset changes: - Table chart controls include: - Row limits. - Column rearrangement (viewer interaction). - Per-column customization (width, alignment, number format via D3/small-number formatting controls). - Color +/- conventions for numeric sign coloring. - Conditional formatting rules. - Recent Superset table conditional formatting expansion introduces explicit target/object concepts including: - ENTIRE_ROW - BACKGROUND_COLOR - TEXT_COLOR - CELL_BAR - String conditional formatting support and handling fixes for empty/null values are called out in release notes.

Note: Superset table options vary across legacy table and AG Grid table modes; the above reflects currently documented Preset/Superset table-chart controls and recent upstream changes.

3) Looker table chart + LookML formatting/linking

Looker table chart formatting (visualization-level) includes: - Sizing/layout: - Size Columns to Fit. - Minimum column width. - Per-column width. - Per-column customization: - Custom label. - Numeric value format (predefined or custom Excel-style format). - Cell text layout controls: font color, background fill, bold/italic/underline, horizontal alignment. - Cell visualization (in-cell bars), palette selection/customization, value labels. - Collapse subtotals. - Formatting menu: - Color collection and palettes. - Row text size. - Header font size, text color, background color, horizontal alignment. - Conditional formatting: - Up to 3 rules. - Rule ordering/precedence. - Apply to all numeric fields or selected fields. - Scale-based or logical-condition-based formats. - Scale options: custom palette, steps, mirrored ranges, min/mid/max control with numeric or percentile anchors. - Include totals toggle. - Include null as zero toggle.

LookML formatting and clickable behavior includes: - value_format (Excel-style value formatting). - value_format_name (named/built-in reusable formats). - style (tier formatting behavior). - html (HTML field formatting). - Click/drill behavior control via field parameters (e.g., drill_fields, link).

4) TanStack Table (headless)

TanStack is intentionally unopinionated on visual style, but exposes a strong formatting model through column defs: - Column categories: accessor, display, grouping. - Data/value extraction: - accessorKey, accessorFn, unique id rules. - Rendering hooks: - cell, aggregatedCell, header, footer. - Clear separation of data model concerns (sorting/filtering/grouping) from renderer output.

5) MUI Data Grid

Documented formatting/styling surface includes: - Value pipeline: - valueGetter (derive value used by filter/sort/render baseline). - valueFormatter (display formatting only). - renderCell (custom React rendering). - Header formatting: - headerClassName, headerAlign. - Cell formatting: - cellClassName, column align. - Row formatting: - getRowClassName for row-level dynamic class styling. - Theme/system styling: - sx prop and custom CSS overrides. - striped rows and section styling patterns.

6) DataTables

DataTables formatting-related primitives center on renderer + row callbacks: - columns.render: - Per-cell render function or config. - Orthogonal data support by operation (display, filter, sort, type, plus extension-specific types). - Can return DOM node for display in newer versions. - createdRow: - Hook for row creation styling/manipulation. - rowCallback: - Hook for row-level post-processing each draw.

7) Tabulator

Tabulator has one of the broadest table formatting surfaces: - Column styling/layout props: - hozAlign, vertAlign, headerHozAlign, width/min/max, resizable, frozen, tooltip, cssClass. - Formatter architecture: - formatter, formatterParams. - titleFormatter, titleFormatterParams. - export-specific formatters: formatterPrint, formatterClipboard, formatterHtmlOutput (+ params variants). - rowFormatter for row-level styling. - Built-in formatter catalog includes (documented page list): - plaintext, textarea, html, money, image, link, datetime, datetime diff, tick/cross, color, star, traffic light, progress, array, lookup, json, toggle, row number, row handle, row selection, responsive collapse, adaptable, button variants. - Interaction linkage: - cellClick and related callbacks.

8) AG Grid

AG Grid formatting/styling surface is split across column, cell, and row APIs: - Cell/column: - valueFormatter, valueGetter, cellRenderer. - cellStyle, cellClass, cellClassRules. - headerName, headerClass, headerTooltip (and related header customization). - Row: - rowStyle, getRowStyle. - rowClass, getRowClass. - rowClassRules with dynamic re-evaluation on data change. - Hover/interaction style helpers: - row and column highlight options (ag-row-hover, ag-column-hover behavior patterns).

9) In-cell visuals across tools (bars/sparks)

Cross-tool evidence supports treating bars/sparklines as formatting-owned cell visuals: - Metabase: number columns can display mini bar charts in cells. - Looker: table options include cell visualizations (bars) alongside value/text formatting. - Superset: conditional formatting includes a CELL_BAR object type. - Tabulator: progress/traffic/star and related formatters are cell formatter variants, not separate chart objects.

Implication for Dataface: - In-cell bars/sparklines should live under the same formatting schema as number/text/link behavior. - Existing spark support should be migrated into this unified formatting namespace, not kept as a parallel feature path.

Tableau: Full Table Formatting Feature Set

Tableau’s table/crosstab-related formatting is broad and layered. The full documented feature set relevant to tables includes:

A) Workbook-level formatting

• Global font settings across workbook views.
• Global line settings across workbook views (including grid line behavior).
• Workbook theme selection (default/legacy themes) and reset-to-default workflows.
• New custom formatting themes (JSON import/export, Tableau Desktop 2025.1+) for reusable workbook-wide style rules.

B) Worksheet-level formatting (table-centric core)

• Font formatting for pane/header/title and special handling for totals/grand totals.
• Alignment formatting:
• horizontal, vertical, direction/rotation, wrapping behavior.
• Shading formatting:
• pane/header/worksheet background.
• row and column banding with band color, size, and level controls.
• Border/divider formatting:
• pane/header/cell border style, width, color.
• row/column divider style, width, color, and level controls.
• Line formatting:
• grid lines, zero lines, trend/reference/drop lines.
• on/off, type, thickness, color, opacity.
• Interactive control formatting:
• legends, filters, highlighters, parameters (collectively and individually in current web authoring flows).

C) Field and value formatting

• Field-scoped formatting in-view (without globally affecting unrelated fields).
• Number formatting:
• automatic, number standard/custom, currency standard/custom, scientific, percentage, fully custom patterns.
• locale, decimals, negative style, units, prefix/suffix, separators.
• Null-value formatting behavior:
• indicator/default-value/hide-connect/hide-break style handling depending on context.
• Date formatting through custom date format patterns.

D) Table size and cell geometry controls

• Table resizing commands (taller/shorter/wider/narrower, bigger/smaller).
• Manual row/column header resizing.
• Cell aspect modes for table-like views:
• square cell mode.
• text cell mode.

E) Text elements and tooltip formatting

• Title/caption show/hide and formatting.
• Tooltip editing with static/dynamic content, inserted fields, and command button behaviors.
• Per-control show/hide title behavior for interactive controls.

F) Totals and subtotals in table workflows

• Row/column grand totals and subtotals display controls.
• Total/grand-total font emphasis available in worksheet font formatting workflows.

G) Scope and copy behavior

• Copy/paste worksheet formatting to other worksheets (with documented exclusions).
• Distinct scope boundaries:
• workbook-level defaults,
• worksheet-level overrides,
• field/control-level overrides.

Cross-Tool Synthesis

• Scope layering is universal (global -> worksheet/table -> column/field -> row/cell -> conditional rules).
• Linking and drill behavior belong in the same conceptual family as formatting and interaction behavior, not as ad hoc chart hacks.
• Rule ordering and explicit precedence are required once row-level and cell-level formatting coexist.
• The strongest designs separate value semantics from rendered representation.

Recommendation Impact for Dataface

• Keep table presentation under chart style.table + style.columns for M2.
• Model links explicitly at table/column scope with row-scoped URL sourcing via source-column mappings.
• Include style.columns.<id>.visual for in-cell bars/sparklines so micro-viz and formatting compose cleanly.
• Keep conditions/looping in query/data output for M2; formatting config should map values to presentation attributes.
• Preserve query semantics boundary; formatting config should not redefine analytic meaning.

Sources

• Metabase table docs: https://www.metabase.com/docs/latest/questions/visualizations/table
• Preset table chart docs: https://docs.preset.io/docs/table-chart
• Preset release notes: https://docs.preset.io/docs/update
• Superset PR (conditional formatting target/object expansion): https://github.com/apache/superset/pull/35897
• Looker table chart options: https://docs.cloud.google.com/looker/docs/table-options
• Looker formatting data values (LookML): https://docs.cloud.google.com/looker/docs/formatting-data-values
• Looker value_format: https://docs.cloud.google.com/looker/docs/reference/param-field-value-format
• Looker value_format_name: https://docs.cloud.google.com/looker/docs/reference/param-field-value-format-name
• Looker link: https://docs.cloud.google.com/looker/docs/reference/param-field-link
• TanStack Table column defs: https://tanstack.com/table/latest/docs/guide/column-defs
• MUI Data Grid column definition: https://mui.com/x/react-data-grid/column-definition/
• MUI Data Grid styling: https://mui.com/x/react-data-grid/style/
• DataTables columns.render: https://datatables.net/reference/option/columns.render
• DataTables createdRow: https://datatables.net/reference/option/createdRow
• DataTables rowCallback: https://datatables.net/reference/option/rowCallback
• Tabulator columns: https://tabulator.info/docs/6.4/columns
• Tabulator formatters: https://tabulator.info/docs/6.4/format
• AG Grid row styles: https://www.ag-grid.com/javascript-data-grid/row-styles/
• AG Grid column definitions: https://www.ag-grid.com/javascript-data-grid/column-definitions/
• AG Grid column options reference: https://www.ag-grid.com/angular-data-grid/column-properties/
• Tableau format overview: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting.htm
• Tableau workbook-level formatting: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_workbook.htm
• Tableau worksheet-level formatting: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_worksheet.htm
• Tableau individual view parts: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_specific_titlecaption.htm
• Tableau numbers and null values: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_specific_numbers.htm
• Tableau fields/labels formatting: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_specific_fields.htm
• Tableau table and cell resizing: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_resizetable.htm
• Tableau totals: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_totals_grandtotal_turnon.htm
• Tableau custom formatting themes: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_custom_themes.htm