Creating a Dashboard

Overview

Dashboards are powerful visualizations that enable you to share persuasive narratives, demonstrate how KPIs change in different scenarios, and align your business initiatives with convincing data-backed visual metrics.

In this article we focus on using dashboards — some key topics include the following:

• Add and remove charts to/from dashboards
• Customize dashboards via CSS
• View underlying SQL code of charts
• Edit a dashboard's properties, such as owners
• Share charts and dashboards

How to Add a Chart to a Dashboard

There are three ways to add a chart to a dashboard:

• When saving a chart
• When editing a dashboard
• Create new chart from an empty dashboard

Let's have a look at both methods.

When Saving a Chart

When on the Explore page, select Save.

The Save chart panel appears.

If working with a new chart, then the Save as option will be enabled — if not, then you will also have the option to Save (overwrite) the chart.

The Chart Name field is auto-populated with the chart name (if defined); feel free to modify this if needed.

Create New Dashboard

In the Add to Dashboard field, if you would like to create a new dashboard, then enter the dashboard name in the field and then select Create "dashboard name".

Select Save or, to browse directly to the defined dashboard, select Save & Go To Dashboard.

In the example below, we are creating a new dashboard called "Netflix Analytics".

Save to Existing Dashboard

In the Add to Dashboard field, if you would like to save the chart to an existing dashboard, then select the dashboard from the drop-down list.

Select Save or, to browse directly to the defined dashboard, select Save & Go To Dashboard.

In the example below, we are selecting the existing dashboard called "Netflix Analytics".

When Editing a Dashboard

Navigate to the Dashboards screen and select a dashboard.

Select the pencil Edit dashboard icon.

Select the Charts tab.

The Charts tab contains a list of all charts that you have access to (i.e., charts that you have created or a team member has shared ownership access).

To add a chart, just drag & drop the chart card into a space on the dashboard.

Create a New Chart from an Empty Dashboard

When creating a new dashboard

Navigate to the Dashboards screen and select + Dashboard.

In the Content panel, select + Create a new chart.

At this stage, you can proceed with the process of creating a new chart.

When loading an empty dashboard

Navigate to the Dashboards screen and select an empty dashboard.

Select the pencil Edit icon.

In the Content panel, select + Create a new chart.

At this stage, you can proceed with the process of creating a new chart.

How to Remove a Chart

To remove a chart, from the Dashboards screen, select the pencil Edit dashboard icon.

While your cursor is hovering over a chart, select the trash icon in the upper-right corner of the chart:

To delete an entire row of charts, select the trash icon on the far left side of the row:

Dashboard Options

Via Editing Mode

Select the ellipsis icon (3 dots) while in editing mode to view the following options:

• Save as: Select to save the dashboard to a different filename.
• Copy permalink to clipboard: Copies a shareable dashboard link to your system's clipboard (see Sharing and Collaboration).
• Share permalink by email: Launches your system's default e-mail client and composes a new message featuring your dashboard URL (see Sharing and Collaboration).
• Refresh dashboard: Select to refresh all dashboard charts (i.e., retrieve all data).
• Set auto-refresh interval: Select to specify an automatic refresh rate for the dashboard. Options include seconds (10 or 30), minutes (1, 5, or 30), or hours (1, 6, 12, or 24). Note that this will be only applied to the current session.

• Set filter mapping: Enables configuration of filter scopes.
• Edit dashboard properties: See below.
• Edit CSS: Loads the Live CSS Editor, which can be used to make ad hoc stylesheet changes in live editing environment (i.e., changes applied in real time).

Via Dashboards Screen

Additional options available on the Dashboards screen include:

• Embed dashboard: Enables you to configure the dashboard to appear in an external web application. To learn more, please see Embed Dashboard below.
• Download as image: Downloads an image of the entire dashboard in JPEG format.
• Enter fullscreen: Reloads the dashboard without the top Toolbar. Re-select (Exit fullscreen) to return to the default view.

Embed Dashboard

As part of the SDK's requirements, a dashboard ID must be provided. The Embed dashboard option, available via the options menu in the Dashboards screen, is used to create this ID.

Configure allowed domain(s)

To start, open the options menu and select Embed dashboard. The Embed window appears.

In the Allowed Domains field, enter one or more domains in which the dashboard will appear. Separate multiple domains with a comma.

When done, select Enable Embedding.

Retrieve ID

The embed is now enabled — simply copy the provided ID and include into the SDK.

Update domains

To modify the domains, enter domain names (separated by a comma) in the Allowed Domains field and then select Save Changes.

To disable an enabled embed, select Deactivate and then, in the Disable embedding? window, select OK to confirm.

Edit Dashboard Properties

In Editing mode, select the ellipsis icon (3 dots) and choose Edit dashboard properties.

• Title: The title of the dashboard.
• URL Slug: Customize the end of the URL (slug) to a more memorable name.
• Owners: Assign/remove access to the dashboard.
• JSON Metadata: By expanding the Advanced header, the JSON Metadata panel appears. This area is for power users who may wish to alter specific dashboard parameters.

Chart Options

When in View mode (i.e., not editing), select the vertical ellipsis icon in a chart to display a list of chart-specific options:

• Force refresh: Select to refresh the chart's data. The time duration since the last cache is also provided.
• View chart in Explore: Launches the chart in the Explore page.
• View query: Launches the View Query panel, which displays the SQL query used for the chart. Select the Copy icon to copy this SQL code to your clipboard.
• Copy permalink to clipboard: Copies a shareable chart link to your system's clipboard (see Sharing and Collaboration).
• Share permalink by email: Launches your system's default e-mail client and composes a new message featuring your chart URL (see Sharing and Collaboration).
• Maximize chart: View the chart in full screen mode (i.e., just the chart occupies the entire screen). Select minimize icon to return.
• Download as image: Downloads an image of the entire chart in JPEG format.
• Export CSV: Downloads the chart's data to your system in comma-separated value (CSV) format.