How to create a dashboard

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 dashboards, check out the Dashboard Gallery. You'll find dashboards that users from SquaredUp and the Community have created to help you get the most out of SquaredUp DS:

Dashboard Gallery

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 DS Standalone > 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 unpublished. Draft dashboards are not visible to anyone other than you.

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 DS 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 DS Standalone > 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 unpublished. Draft dashboards are not visible to anyone other than you.

A newly created dashboard will not be visible to others until it is published.

Only admins can publish dashboards, unless you have been given author permissions to a Team Folder see Team Folders

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 Open Access (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 (Enterprise Edition) 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).

Edit mode buttons

Discard a draft

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

If the dashboard has been published, and then you make changes, 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.

Undo / Redo

Whenever you make a change in edit mode, the Undo button is enabled, clicking this button will undo the last change you made to the dashboard.

Whenever you perform an undo action, the Redo button is enabled, clicking this button will reverse the undo and re-implement the change you last undid.

The following keyboard shortcuts are also supported for this functionality:

  • CTRL-Z: Undo
  • CTRL +Y or CTRL-Shift-Z: Redo

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 the 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 then the dashboard will be deleted.

Move

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

Delete a published dashboard

The Delete button allows you to delete a perspective quickly.

You can navigate to a dashboard, click the edit

button and then click the delete button.

Note about the discard button:

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

If the dashboard has been published, and then you make changes, 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.

More options to delete a dashboard

Other options to delete a dashboard are:

  1. You can delete the dashboard from the navigation bar. Deleting it from the navigation bar will delete it completely, not just from the navigation bar.
  2. If the dashboard 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 the dashboard, not just from the folder. Admin users can restore dashboards, see Recycle Bin

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.

Dashboard Settings

Dashboard settings apply to the whole dashboard and override any global defaults.

Graph colors

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.

Dashboard timeframe

The default page timeframe affects two areas:

  • Within SquaredUp DS, it decides which timeframe a dashboard uses when a user goes to the dashboard. Tiles set to use the page timeframe (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, but their setting will only last until they leave the page. Their setting will only affect their view of the dashboard, 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

You can change the default page timeframe for individual dashboards, or globally:

  • Changing the default page timeframe of a dashboard will affect this individual dashboard and it's Open Access representation.
  • The global default page timeframe is "last 12 hours". Changing this default setting will affect all dashboards (including Open Access dashboards) that don't have an individual default page timeframe setting.

See Timeframes for tiles

Dashboard refresh

By default dashboards (and their Open Access versions) refresh every 60 seconds.

This setting allows you to change the refresh interval on a per dashboard basis, both for the normal dashboard and its Open Access version.

This setting overrides the global dashboard refresh interval.

For example, you may need to reduce the load on your external data, or for an API that has an access cost.

You can increase the refresh interval in increments, up to 6 hours. You can also decrease the interval down to 30 seconds on any given dashboard if you need to see the data refreshed more often.

To change the default refresh interval for Open Access dashboards you should change the global setting, see Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access - Refresh Interval Setting.

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 is currently using. These timeframes are all relative to the current time, for example 7 days ago until now. When a user changes the page timeframe, all tiles that have use page timeframe set will adapt to the new timeframe. (Tiles that do not have use page timeframe set (i.e. are set to specific timeframe or custom timeframe) are not affected and won't change.)

The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format

SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.

Default page timeframe

The default page timeframe affects two areas:

  • Within SquaredUp DS, it decides which timeframe a dashboard uses when a user goes to the dashboard. Tiles set to use the page timeframe (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, but their setting will only last until they leave the page. Their setting will only affect their view of the dashboard, 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

You can change the default page timeframe for individual dashboards, or globally:

  • Changing the default page timeframe of a dashboard will affect this individual dashboard and it's Open Access representation.
  • The global default page timeframe is "last 12 hours". Changing this default setting will affect all dashboards (including Open Access dashboards) that don't have an individual default page timeframe setting.

Export dashboard to Excel

SquaredUp DS allows you to export the data shown on a dashboard to an Excel spreadsheet, using the Export to Excel button shown at the top right of the screen:

Each tile is exported to a separate tab within the file which is saved to the user's downloads folder.

Set Home Dashboard

The Set Home Dashboard button at the top of each dashboard allows you to set that dashboard as your personal home dashboard. A panel opens which allows you to Set Home, if no homepage is set, Clear Home if this dashboard is already set as the homepage, or Replace Home if another dashboard is already set as the homepage. The home dashboard will then be shown first when you log in or click the SquaredUp logo. This replaces the default home dashboard, which is the first dashboard on the navigation bar.

If a personal home dashboard is already set, you will have the option to replace it.

In System > Personalization you can see which dashboard is set as your personal home dashboard. Clicking Clear Home will revert you to using the default home dashboard.

Add Favorite / Remove Favorite

The Add Favorite or Delete Favorite button will add this dashboard to your favorites folder.

A Favorites menu will them be shown on the navigation bar, next to the SquaredUp logo.

In System > Personalization you can sort and remove favorites from the Favorite Dashboards menu, (no folder structure is supported).

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).

How to share a dashboard

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