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How to create a dashboard

Documentation Team
  • Updated

How to create a dashboard

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 one resource. You can create one perspective and have it dynamically show you the data for the resourcethe user has drilled down to view.

See Working with perspectives

This article covers:

For detailed information about dashboard layout, adding columns, rows, and split tiles see How to use the dashboard designer (v5).

If you're looking for some real-life examples of Dashboard Server dashboards, check out our GitHub Samples repository. You'll find dashboards built by the community as JSON exports you can use as templates for configuring your own dashboards.

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:

Dashboard Server Azure Edition > Dashboarding > Tiles

The dashboard is saved as you go along so there's no need to save your changes. You can find your 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 unpublished.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 Dashboard Server 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:

Dashboard Server Azure Edition > Dashboarding > Tiles

Publishing your dashboard

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

A newly created dashboard will not be visible to others until you publish it. If you made changes to an existing dashboard, the changes will only be visible to others after you published the dashboard again.

You can identify a dashboard that has not been published yet or has unpublished changes by the unpublished button at the top:

When you click on the unpublished button, you'll have two options:

  • Publish will make the dashboard or changes visible to others.
    Note: A newly created dashboard will appear on the menu where you created it. To move the dashboard to a different place on the navigation bar see How to edit the Navigation Bar.

  • Discard will delete your draft dashboard if it has never been published or, if you made changes to an already published dashboard, discard the changes.

Publishing dashboards to different audiences

Find out how to publish dashboards to a subset of users using Team Folders or visible to anyone even unlicensed users with Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access.

Who can view the dashboard?

On the main menu your dashboard will be visible to everyone.

If it is within a Team Folder then it will only be visible to those with access to that Team Folder (see 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 (see Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access).

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

Edit mode buttons

Discard a draft

If a dashboard or perspective is not published yet (draft), the discard and discard changes buttons will delete it.

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

If you unpublish a dashboard or perspective and then discard changes then the dashboard or perspective 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 easiest way to delete a dashboard, perspective, or pinned perspective is to navigate to it, click the edit button and then click the delete button.

Note: If you are deleting a pinned perspective, you only delete the pinned perspective, not the original perspective.

Note about the discard button:

If a dashboard or perspective is not published yet (draft), the discard and discard changes buttons will delete it.

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

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

More options to delete a dashboard or pinned perspective

Note: These options only work for dashboards and pinned perspectives, not for perspectives. If you delete a pinned perspective, only the pinned perspective will be deleted, not the original perspective.

Other options to delete a dashboard or pinned perspective are:

  1. You can delete the dashboard or pinned perspective from the navigation bar. Deleting it from the navigation bar will delete it completely, not just from the navigation bar.

    The global navigation editor is accessible only by Dashboard Server administrators (How to make a user a Dashboard Server administrator) from the right-hand menu ☰ > edit navigation or system > dashboards.

    This allows Dashboard Server administrators to reposition globally viewable folders and Team Folders on the navigation bar, as well as the ability to move any globally viewable dashboards.

    Globally viewable (normal) dashboards are shown simply by the dashboard name.

    Globally viewable folders (normal folders that appear on the navigation bars for everyone) are shown by a folder icon:

    Team folders are shown with this icon:

    Managing the dashboards within Team Folders is done from the Team Folder settings page.

    Click on the dashboard 'handle' to drag it to a new position, for example, drag it to the right to move it into a subfolder.

    Reordering content is saved automatically and any changes are instantly reflected.

    There are 3 icons across different elements of the navigation editor when hovering on a folder:

    The edit team folder icon is shown next to Team Folders and clicking it will take you to the Team Folder settings page where you can view and sort the dashboards within the Team Folder.
    The view folder button takes you to the folder itself to view or edit that folder.
    The delete button will delete items. This deletes the dashboard or folder and sub-contents completely, not just from the navigation bar.

  2. If the dashboard or pinned perspective is in a folder, you can go to the folder settings , click the edit button, and delete it from the folder. Deleting it from the folder will delete it completely, not just from the folder.

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.

For more information see Action buttons for dashboards and perspectives.

Edit JSON

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

  1. Click on the edit dashboard button

  2. Click on the edit JSON button.

    You see the dashboard's JSON.

Settings

Dashboard settings apply to the whole dashboard.

Graph colors are set to match by label by default, meaning that the same color will apply to an object with the same label across several graphs. See How to enable graph color matching.

View mode buttons

When you are not in Edit mode you will see the following buttons at the top-right of the dashboard:

Page timeframe

If you're looking for general information about what kind of timeframes can affect a tile please read Timeframes for tiles.

The page timeframe is the timeframe setting a dashboard or perspective is currently using. When a user changes the page timeframe, all tiles that use the page timeframe will adapt to the new timeframe. Tiles that don't use the dynamic page timeframe aren't affected and won't change.

Default page timeframe

The default page timeframe affects two areas:

  • Within Dashboard Server, it decides which timeframe a dashboard or perspective uses when a user goes to the dashboard or perspective. Tiles that use the page timeframe according to their settings (not a fixed, specific timeframe) will use the default page timeframe every time the dashboard or perspective is opened. Users can change the page timeframe temporarily while they are on the dashboard or perspective, but their setting will only last until they leave the page. Their setting will only affect their view of the dashboard or perspective, not other users' views.

  • On Open Access dashboards, tiles that use the page timeframe according to their settings always use the default page timeframe.

Settings for the default page timeframe

Since Dashboard Server 5.3 you can change the default page timeframe for dashboards. Changing the default page timeframe of a dashboard will affect this individual dashboard and it's Open Access representation. The default page timeframe for perspectives can't be changed individually, they always use the system-wide default page timeframe. Pinned perspectives are treated as dashboards, which means you can change their default page timeframe settings.

Note: The system-wide default page timeframe is "last 12 hours" for any Dashboard Server installation, but you can change this setting since Dashboard Server 5.3. This will affect all dashboards (including Open Access dashboards) that don't have an individual default page timeframe setting. Perspectives always use the system-wide default page timeframe since their timeframe can't be changed individually.

Note: If you are sharing the dashboard or pinned perspective via Open Access, these changes will also affect the Open Access dashboard.

Note: You can't change the individual default page timeframe of a perspective.

  1. Go to the dashboard or pinned perspective you want to change the individual default page timeframe for.

  2. On the dashboard, click the edit button

  3. Click the settings button.

  4. Choose the new default timeframe under Default timeframe.

  5. Click on the publish button to make the changes go live.

    The dashboard will now by default use the page timeframe you chose. Users can still temporary change the page timeframe while looking at the dashboard.

    Tip: If you want to undo the individual page timeframe setting to let the dashboard use the system-wide default timeframe again, you need to switch to the JSON view of the dashboard and delete the parameter that defines the dashboard's page timeframe (for example "timeframe": "last7days").

Note: This setting affects all dashboards and perspectives (including Open Access dashboards and pinned perspectives on Open Access).

  1. On the SquaredUp server, run Notepad as administrator (Start, Run, type notepad, and then right-click and select Run as administrator).

  2. In your Dashboard Server folder, go to \User\Configuration and find the extensionpacks.json file.

    Name of the Dashboard Server folder

    The name of the Dashboard Server folder is SquaredUpv followed by the product version number.

    Location of the Dashboard Server folder

    If you deployed Dashboard Server via the Azure Marketplace:

    The default location for the Dashboard Server folder is F:\SquaredUpv[Version Number].
    For example, for Dashboard Server Azure Edition v5 the default location is F:\SquaredUpv5 and for v4 F:\SquaredUpv4.

    If you installed Dashboard Server using the installer:

    The default location for the Dashboard Server folder is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUpv[Version Number], but a custom location may have been chosen during the installation.
    For example, for Dashboard Server v5 the default folder location is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUpv5 and for v4 C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUpv4

  3. Open the extensionpacks.json file and add the property default-timeframe with the value for your new default page timeframe for all your dashboards and perspectives.

    Example for a default timeframe of 24 hours:

    Copy
    {
        "default-timeframe": "last24hours"
    }

    Possible values for the default-timeframe property:

    last1hour, last12hours, last24hours, last7days, last30days, last3months, all

  4. Save the json file.

  5. Recycle the Dashboard Server application pool.

 

Export dashboard to Excel

See Export to Excel

Share this dashboard

Find out how to publish dashboards to a subset of users using Team Folders (see Team Folders), or visible to anyone even unlicensed users with Open Access (see Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access).

Related articles:

How to scope tiles

Working with perspectives

Team Folders

Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access

How to edit the Navigation Bar