Universal state representations of visualizations for different types of data models

A method comprising:

• receiving a first selection of a data model as a data source for a visualization, wherein the data model specifies data to be organized according to a set of measures and a set of dimensions, wherein a measure stores quantitative data and a dimension stores qualitative data;
• receiving a second selection of a dimension value for a dimension in the set of dimensions, wherein each measure in the set of measures corresponds to a distinct one of a plurality of possible dimension values for the dimension;
• in response to the second selection, generating a state representation of the visualization that includes the selected dimension value for the dimension, wherein the state representation of the visualization is retrieved from a universal state of representations stored locally in a client device, or when not stored locally, generated using a query to obtain underlying data, wherein the state representation of the visualization comprises a data structure that represents a state of a visualization in terms of data to be used to render the visualization;
• and
• generating the visualization based on the state representation of the visualization.

A system comprising:

• a set of processing units;
• and
• a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units cause the at least one processing unit to:
• receive a first selection of a data model as a data source for a visualization, wherein the data model specifies data to be organized according to a set of measures and a set of dimensions, wherein a measure stores quantitative data and a dimension stores qualitative data;
• receive a second selection of a dimension value for a dimension in the set of dimensions, wherein each measure in the set of measures corresponds to a distinct one of a plurality of possible dimension values for the dimension;
• in response to the second selection, generate a state representation of the visualization that includes the selected dimension value for the dimension, wherein the state representation of the visualization is retrieved from a universal state of representations stored locally in a client device, or if not stored locally, generated using a query to obtain underlying data, wherein the state representation of the visualization comprises a data structure that represents a state of a visualization in terms of data to be used to render the visualization;
• and
• generate the visualization based on the state representation of the visualization.