Dashboards

Dashboards are a valuable addition to homepages or within an app, and they offer a plethora of benefits:

Easy Navigation: Dashboards can feature buttons that act as shortcuts, leading you directly to specific pages. This streamlines the navigation process, making it more user-friendly and efficient.

Visual Insights: With the inclusion of images, particularly graphs, dashboards provide a visual summary of the application or site's performance. This makes data interpretation quicker and more intuitive, especially for those who prefer a visual representation over raw data.

Click-Through Reports: This feature directs you to a pre-filtered list report. It eliminates the need for you to manually sift and filter data, saving you time and ensuring you get the exact view you're seeking.

Comprehensive Overview: One of the standout benefits of a dashboard is its ability to display multiple reports on a single page. This allows for a holistic executive overview, facilitating easy comparison between different data sets or metrics.

Interactive Reporting: The reports within a dashboard are dynamic. For instance, in bar and column charts, you have the option to click on specific sections, enabling or disabling them as per your requirements. This interactivity ensures that you get a tailored view, focusing on the metrics that matter most to you.

Flexible Layouts: Dashboards aren't one-size-fits-all. They can be customized to feature various layouts, utilizing a 9 by 9 grid structure. This flexibility ensures that the dashboard aligns perfectly with your informational needs and aesthetic preferences.

• Example
• Creating a Dashboard
• Cell Type
• Alignment within a Tile

Example

Create a New Dashboard

To add a new Dashboard select the Dashboards folder in the left pane menu and then click on the 'Add Dashboard' button on the end of the banner. This will open a new add dashboard screen where you can define how the Dashboard will look and what information it will contain.

Title: The title is the reference to the Dashboard that will appear in the UI for the Users. It will appear at the top of the Dashboard as a title to the page. It will also be the label that appears when selecting the Dashboard for a Report or Homepage.

Identifier: The identifier is a system ID for referencing a Dashboard. By default, the identifier will take its value from the Label with any white space and special characters removed. The identifier must be a minimum of three characters, only contain letters and numbers and start with a letter. The identifier will be visible to Users in the URL for the Homepage.

Layout Type: This option allows you to select the number of tiles in columns and rows that you would like to appear in the Dashboard grid. a Dashboard layout of Three-By-Two would give six tiles in three columns and two rows

Is Global?: If the 'Is Global?' option is set to true then tiles can contain information across multiple Apps and the Dashboard will be available for selection as a Homepage. If the 'Is Global?' property is false then the Dashboard will be available for selection for a Report at App Level. In this scenario, the tile data must come from only one App and this will be the App that the Dashboard is displayed in.

Cell Types

Toggle between the icons at the top of each tile to choose whether the tile will display an image, an icon, an Action and an iFrame.

Image: To add an image, enter a URL as the source for the image, choose from the existing list of image assets or click on 'Upload New Asset’ which this will pop out an image upload pane from the right of the screen where you can add the image.

App Report: First select the App that the Report appears in and then the Report from that App to display. A Default Global Filter can be selected to be the default view that a user sees when accessing the Dashboard and the filter selection can be shown or hidden on load.

App Level Template: This shows an app level template, great for summary data. You need to select the app you have created this template in and then select the template you want to show. If you cannot see the template make sure that App Level Templated is turn on in the template. 

Action: The button must first be added as an Action to an App. This is where you will configure what action the button will perform such as navigating to a Record Add screen or to a Report in an App. Then in the tile configuration select the App that the Button was created in and the Button Field that was created in it.

iFrame: An iFrame can be used to show reports and charts from external systems like PowerBi and Domo with Softools. To add an iFrame you need one key piece of information which is the source link, this is where the iFrame will look to find the chart to display on the dashboard. You can then set the width, this is a '%' reference e.g. 100% and the height of the frame, just a number, usually around 700 is a good place to start. The height is not for the chart however, rather the iFrame window, the chart height will need to be determined from the source.

Note: If the 'Is Global?' property is false then all tile data must come from the same App.

Alignment within a Tile

Once you have selected the image, report, button or frame to display in the tile you can then configure the alignment of the element within the Tile.

Alignment: This will determine if the element is left, right or centrally aligned in the tile.

Transparent Background?: If this property is checked then the area around the element will take the Background Colour for the Report or Homepage. If it is not ticked then the area around the element will be white.

Hide Title?: Hiding the title will not display the header information at the top of the tile

Hide Cell?: Hiding the cell will not display the entire cell in the dashboard, this can be used to have a tile ready to be published while in development

Once completed you can save your dashboard by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking the 'Create Dashboard' button. The Dashboard will then be available to add as an App Report or Homepage as appropriate.