Dashboard Designer

Deprecated Documentation

This document applies to pre-v2019.2 of the application. For current Dashboard documentation, refer to the v2019.2+ section.

Dashboards are a way to combine a several related reports into one unified viewing space. You can add preexisting reports to a Dashboard, but you can also create new ExpressViews and visualizations directly on the Dashboard itself. You can also add images, text, embed other web sites side by side with your data, add interactive filters which can work on multiple reports all at once, and export the Dashboard as a Chained Report from the Dashboard Designer.

The Dashboard Designer with several visualizations on the canvas

Double-click a Dashboard to open it in the Dashboard Designer, or click the Menu icon and select Edit.

For more information about the types of content that can be added to a Dashboard, see the following links:

Adding Reports • ExpressView Visualizations • Interactive Filters • Exporting Dashboards

Grid and tiles

Each element on a Dashboard is a rectangular tile that can be resized and dragged to the proper location. Tiles are arranged onto a grid, and they will snap into place next to each other.

Adding tiles

To add a new tile to the Dashboard, drag the New Tile icon onto the dashboard grid. You can drag to an empty location to fill the space, to the side of an empty location to take up a portion of the space, or over another tile to place it adjacent and resize the other tile to fit. You can then drag the resizing handles for fine grained control over the tile size.

A new tile placeholder will be added.

Tile placeholder

Select what type of content should be on the tile:

New Visualization

Create a new ExpressView visualization in the tile. Choose between a chart or a tabular ExpressView. See ExpressView Visualizations for more information.

URL

Embed another web page inside the Dashboard. Enter the URL, or web address, to the textbox and click Finish.

Caution

Some web pages may not be embeddable.

Image

Upload an image from your computer. Drag the image onto the tile or click browse your files and locate the image.

Text

Enter text into a field that can be formatted and styled.

Filter

Add several styles of interactive filters, which can affect multiple reports on the Dashboard. Filter tiles will not display in Dashboard exports. See Interactive Filters and Exporting Dashboards for more information.

Existing Report

Drag an existing report onto the tile. See Adding Reports for more information.

Screen fit and scaling

Tiles can resize and adjust their positions automatically to fit different screen sizes. A Dashboard will automatically resize to fit on a large television or a smartphone screen, so there is no need to make multiple Dashboards for different screen sizes.

You can customize how Dashboards will scale to fit different screen sizes. Click the styleicon to open the Dashboard Style pane. The following Canvas Fit options are available:

All

Tiles will resize to fit the height and width of the screen (default). Tiles must be larger than 3-grid units tall and/or 4-grid units wide or less to automatically resize.

Width

Tiles will resize to fit the width of the screen. Specify the Height of the Dashboard and whether or not to Automatically Reposition Tiles, which dynamically derives an optimal new layout for the Dashboard tiles using the screen size as input. Tiles must be larger than 20 pixels tall or 4-grid units wide to automatically resize.

None

Tiles will not resize. Specify the Height and Width of the Dashboard. Use the Snap to Grid icon to choose if tiles should snap to the grid lines.

You can also use the Dashboard Style pane to set the default options for the Dashboard background color, tile and tile header background colors, and tile border colors and widths. These settings can be overridden for individual tiles.

Managing tiles

Every tile has a formatted header, background color, and border. Some types of tiles can be set to resize differently than the dashboard canvas. Tiles have a menu with some additional options.

Tile menu

Select a tile, then click the tile menu icon to access some additional options for managing tiles.

You can Delete a tile from the Dashboard. You can Copy a tile then Paste it next to another. You can Expand a tile to temporarily fill the screen, then Collapse it back into place. And you can Refresh the data in reports and visualizations.

ExpressView visualizations can be saved as new ExpressViews by clicking Save as ExpressView. You will be asked to name the report, and will be taken into the ExpressView Designer.

Tile style

Select a tile, then click the Style tab to access the options for changing its appearance.

Click Tile Fit to choose how the tile scales fit to he screen. This option is not available for filters or ExpressView visualizations.

Click Tile Header to add header text to the tile. Then choose the text font and formatting.

Click Background and Border to change the background color of the tile and tile header, and the border color and style.

More information

See Adding Reports, ExpressView Visualizations, Interactive Filters, and Exporting Dashboards for more information about their unique features and options.