Table of contents
Prerequisites
To be able to use custom dashboards, you must first have purchase the custom dashboards license. This can be done by contacting support.
Custom dashboards can be created on the following pages:
Charts and widgets can also be created on the metrics page for use later on. To confirm that you have the correct license, visit any of the Dashboard, Issues or Power pages on your site. In the portal sidebar on the left side, down the bottom you should see an Edit button. If you do not see this, then you do not have the correct license. You should also see a link to the Metrics page in your sidebar if you have correct license.
Creating a dashboard
Enter edit mode by clicking the Edit button in the portals sidebar on the left hand side. This will enter edit mode for the currently selected portal. You will have a portal for the site and one for each tenancy. The top bar will change appearance and provide you with extra buttons. The edit button will also change to an Exit button. These changes help to let you know that you are currently editing a dashboard.
By default, you will only have our automatically created system dashboards on your site. These are read-only and cannot be edited as stated in the red alert box at the bottom of the screen.
You can click the link in the alert if you want to edit the dashboard. This will automatically clone it and assign it to the portal you are on which will allow you to make changes and save them.
If you want to create a new blank dashboard or assign/clone an existing one, click the Add dashboard button in the top bar.
You will be met with a popup dialog. By default it will be set to Blank dashboard. Just enter a heading and optionally select an icon for your dashboard and click Add and your dashboard will be created straight away and will be automatically selected for you. The heading and icon can be changed at any time after you have created it.
The other two Create types are assign and clone dashboard. These two options require selecting an existing dashboard, either a system or a user made one, and will add it to your current portal. The important difference between the two is that cloning will create a copy of the selected dashboard whereas assigning will reference the exact same dashboard as the selected one.
This means that any changes you make to the dashboard after assigning it will also be reflected on any other portal that the dashboard is assigned to. When assigning the dashboard, a big red warning text appears to reaffirm this information and that it is what you want to do. When saving changes on an assigned dashboard, a warning dialog pops up to tell you how many other dashboards will be affected by your changes so that you are aware of it.
Editing a dashboard
After your dashboard is created, it's time to edit it. General dashboard settings can be found by clicking Settings on the right side of the top bar. Heading, icon and background colour are straight forward settings.
On the dashboard there is an underlying grid that is used to position each of the panels. The Column count setting controls how many columns this grid has. If you need more finite control over the width and placement of the panels, increasing this number will help with that. When changing this number, you will notice the panels on the dashboard change size and will most likely require adjustment as the number of available columns increases.
The Padding setting is a value, in pixels, that controls the spacing between each panel on the dashboard. This value applies to all side - top, bottom, left and right. Modify this setting to get the look and feel that you desire for your dashboard.
The next setting alone the top bar, Compaction type, controls how the panels in the dashboard are compacted together. By default it is set to None so you can freely move panels around and position them where you like. Vertical compaction type will push all panels to the top of dashboard. Similarly the Horizontal option will push all panels to the left of the dashboard. These settings are useful when you always want them compacted in a certain direction.
The next buttons are your undo, redo and save buttons. All changes made to a dashboard are not made immediately and get queued up. If you change your mind about something, you can undo the previous change by clicking the undo button or pressing the hotkey Ctrl + Z. Similarly if you undo something but didn't mean to and want to redo it, click the redo button or press the hotkey Ctrl + Y.
When you are finished editing your dashboard and want to save your changes to the cloud, click the save button. The number of outstanding changes will be shown next to the save button. If you try and leave the page or exit edit mode with outstanding changes, a warning will appear alerting you of such. This way you don't forget to save any outstanding changes.
Finally, the last button on the top bar, Add panel. Clicking this will open up another dialog where you can add a new blank panel or clone from an existing one. You can clone one of our pre-made system panels or a user created site panel from another dashboard. Once you have selected a new panel or a panel to clone, click Add.
Your new panel will be added to your dashboard and placed at the next available position. It will flash green so you can easily identify it on more complex dashboards. From here you can click and drag on the panel to move it around. You can also click and drag the bottom right corner of the panel to resize it.
Arguable the most important part of the panel is the dropdown arrow in the top right. This allows you to remove the panel, add it to a group or enter the panel editor to edit the chart or widget. For more information about editing widgets or charts, see our FAQs below.
Groups are just ways of putting several similar charts or widgets together into a grouped panel. You can add the panel to an existing group or make a new one. You will have to enter a label for the new group. You will notice panels inside of groups have an extra button in the top right of the panel. This is used to move the panel around within the group. Clicking elsewhere to try and move the panel will result in the entire group being moved around.
The button in the top right of the group allows you to edit the group. This allows you to change the label of the group and its colours to style it how you like. You can also remove the group which will put any panels in the group back outside into the main dashboard area.
If you already have a similar panel to the one you wish to create you can save time by duplicating the existing panel and them making modifications to the duplicate. to do this click the button on the top right of the panel and then select Duplicate panel. This new panel can then be modified without affecting the original panel.
Don't forget to save your changes.
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