How to create a dashboard – SquaredUp Support

Dashboards and perspectives are both pages that show tiles of data and graphs that update every minute. The difference is that for dashboards each tile on the page is configured separately to show information about whichever resources you choose, whereas perspectives can be configured so that all the tiles on the page dynamically change to show information about the one resource you have browsed to.

You should create a dashboard if the page will show information about a variety of resources.

You should create a perspective if the tiles will be showing various information related to one specific resource. For example, memory, CPU, alerts, for an resource. You can create one perspective and have it dynamically show you the data for the resource the user has drilled down to view. See How to create a perspective.

This article covers:

Creating a new dashboard
Edit tile - Configure tile
Publishing your dashboard
View mode buttons

For detailed information about dashboard layout, adding columns, rows, and split tiles see How to use the dashboard designer.

For a series of short videos taking you through building and designing your own dashboards see the Fundamentals video series.

There are detailed articles for each of the different tiles, that take you through all the configuration options and a walkthrough to get you started.

For more information about how to configure each tile type see the list of tile articles here:

Squaredup for Azure > Dashboarding > Tiles

The dashboard is saved as you go along so there's no need to save your changes. You can find your draft dashboard by clicking on the right-hand menu ☰ > system > unpublished. Your draft dashboard is not visible to anyone other than you until you publish it.

You can toggle between Edit mode and View mode by clicking the edit this dashboard button at the top right.

Creating a new dashboard

In SquaredUp navigate to where you'd like the dashboard to be created. Hover over the + button and click dashboard.
This image shows creating a dashboard at the top level of the navigation bar:

Or you might prefer to navigate to a subfolder and create the new dashboard there:

Edit tile - Configure tile

The most important part of any dashboard is the data. The edit tile (cog) button and configure tile links both allow you to choose the kind of tile you want to add and then configure it.

There are detailed articles for each of the different tiles, that take you through all the configuration options and a walkthrough to get you started.

For more information about how to configure each tile type see the list of tile articles here:

Squaredup for Azure > Dashboarding > Tiles

Publishing your dashboard

The dashboard is saved as you go along so there's no need to save your changes.

Your draft dashboard is not visible to anyone other than you until you publish it. You can view a list of all your unpublished dashboards on the right-hand menu ☰ > system > unpublished.

Clicking publish will make the dashboard available to users who can view dashboards in the location where you placed your dashboard. To find out more see How to edit the Navigation Bar.

Who can view the dashboard?

On the main menu your dashboard will be visible to everyone, but if it is within a Team Folder then it will only be visible to those with access to that Team Folder.

SquaredUp adheres to Azure AD Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), meaning that any Azure AD user can log on to SquaredUp and RBAC will be applied. In addition to RBAC access to dashboards can also be controlled using Team Folders.

If the dashboard has Open Access enabled, or is added to the Open Access navigation bar, then it will be visible to anyone, even unlicensed users.

Edit mode buttons

Discard a draft

The discard and discard changes buttons delete a draft dashboard.

If the dashboard has been published, but then you make changes, then discard will discard the changes and leave the previously published dashboard live.

If you unpublish a dashboard and then discard changes then the dashboard will be deleted.

Unpublish

Once your dashboard is published you will see an unpublish option if you click on the cog to edit the dashboard.

Unpublishing the dashboard removes it from view. You are asked to confirm this, as the dashboard will return to only you being able to view it.

If you discard a dashboard after unpublishing it then the dashboard will be deleted.

Move

This allows you to move the dashboard to a new location on the navigation bar. See How to edit the Navigation Bar

Delete a published dashboard

The bin or trash button allows you to delete a published dashboard, and you are asked to confirm the delete or cancel.

Clone

This creates a copy of the dashboard in the same location, ready for you to edit.

Edit actions

This allows you to add a button at the top of a dashboard to a web link.

Edit JSON

This allows you to see and edit the JSON behind the dashboard, which can be useful for troubleshooting with the help of Support.

Settings

Dashboard settings apply to the whole dashboard.

Performance tile colors are set to match by label by default, meaning that the same colour will apply to an resource with the same label across several graphs. See Line Colors