Create and Run Dashboards (BI)

1. On the top navigation menu, click the Reports tab.
2. Click the Add BI Report button and choose the Dashboard report type from the drop-down menu. The Dashboard Designer is displayed.
   

   To create another new BI dashboard while already working in the dashboard designer, click the button on the left-most pane.

3. Add new tiles and modify the dashboard as needed.
4. On the dashboard designer , click the Save button on the toolbar. The following fields are available on the Save Report dialog box:
   • Report Name: Add a name for the dashboard report. This is a required field.
   • Report Description: Add a description for the dashboard report.
   • Report Permissions: Specify users who can access the dashboard report. The following permission options are available:
     • This report is available only to me: Select this option to have the report be available only to you. The report will be saved in the My Personal Reports folder.
     • This report is available in the following folder and to all users: Select this option to have the report be available only to all users.
     • This report is available in the following folder and roles: Select the roles with access to the report from the All Roles field and add them to the Roles With Access field using the arrow buttons.
   • Folder: Select the folder to which the dashboard report is saved. This field will be displayed only when the This report is available to all users option or the This report is available to the following roles option is selected in the Report Permissions field.
5. Click Okay to confirm your changes and save the dashboard.

The top of the Dashboard Designer contains a Toolbar for creating and interacting with the canvas and the tiles.

This toolbar contains the following buttons and menus:

• New Tile: Add a new tile or element by clicking the new tile button and dragging it to the dashboard canvas. Once added, it can be resized and dragged to the proper location.
  

  Right-click the Tile Menu iconon the tile to access the Tile Menu where you can delete or duplicate the tile.

  The following types of content are available to select from:

  • New Visualization: Add a graphical representation of data that can be designed directly on the dashboard canvas without first creating a report.
  • URL: Embed another web page inside the dashboard.
  • Text: Enter text that can be formatted and styled.
  • Image: Select and upload an image from your computer.
  • Filter: Add several styles of interactive filters which can affect multiple reports on the dashboard.
  • Existing Report: Add an existing report with any filters or parameters applied to it.
• Refresh: Refresh the data in all the tiles on the canvas. The Refresh Reminder iconindicates that one or more tiles on the canvas may not have the most up to date information. The data will be entered in the database only when the Refresh button is clicked.
• Filters: Add filters to the dashboard. Prompting filters applied to existing reports on the dashboard will also be displayed.
• Parameters: Edit parameters for reports that contain parameters. This button will be enabled only if report tiles on the dashboard contain parameters.
• Canvas: Control how the tiles fit onto the canvas and set default styling options. Click the Canvas icon to open the canvas pane and set the Fit and Style options.
• Save: Save the dashboard. Use the drop-down list options to change the name and description of the dashboard when saving.
• Export: Export the contents of existing reports and visualizations on the dashboard as different export types (Excel, PDF, RTF, CSV) and then use it as needed.
• Run: Launch the dashboard viewer.

The canvas is a grid on which tiles can be arranged.

Each element on a dashboard is placed on the canvas within a tile that can be dragged to the desired location, resized and styled. These tiles are arranged on a grid, and can snap into place next to each other.

Tiles contain the following elements:

• Content: View and interact with the content of the tile in this area.
• Tile Header: Add an optional header to be displayed in the tile.
• Refresh Reminder: Each visualization or existing report tile has a small Refresh icon in the top right corner. Clicking this icon will reload the content of the tile from the data source.
• Tile Menu: Click the icon to view additional options for tiles.
• Move handle: Click and drag the move handle to move the tile around on the canvas. Hold the Shift key while dragging the move handle to stretch the tile to fit the available space.

The following types of tiles can be added to the canvas:

• Visualizations: In the dashboard designer, you can perform the following actions for a data visualization tile:
  • Drag data fields onto the canvas to create a chart or a tabular report.
  • Use the toolbar and the tile properties pane to filter, name or modify other settings of the visualization.
  • Save the data visualization as a new Standard Report.
    

    A data visualization must have at least two data fields in order to display a chart, one of which must be numeric.

• URL: To add a web page to the dashboard, drag and drop the URL tile onto the dashboard canvas. On the Content tab in the Tile Properties pane, enter the desired URL and click Apply. You can specify image fit and tile settings on the Style tab of the Tile Properties pane.
• Image: Drag and drop the Image tile onto the dashboard canvas, to add an image to the dashboard. Click Browse to search for and select an image to upload to the dashboard. You can specify image fit and tile settings on the Style tab of the Tile Properties pane.
• Text: Text items can be formatted using the Fit, Tile and Text settings on the Style tab in the Tile Properties pane. You can specify text options like the font, font size, color and alignment. You can also select a background color and border settings.
  

  A text tile must be selected for these changes to be applied.

• Parameters: When a report is added to the dashboard and it contains one or more parameters, those parameters are imported to the dashboard in the Parameters popup menu. Click any of the parameter items in the popup menu to open the parameter item detail menu. For each parameter, you can add and modify the following settings:
• Existing Reports: Any existing report can be added to a dashboard. Existing filters and parameters can be modified using the dashboard designer. The fit settings for report tiles can be formatted using the Fit settings on the Style tab in the Tile Properties pane. You can also select the tile header color and border settings using the Tile settings.

  A text item must be selected for these changes to be applied.

• Filters: When you add a report with prompting filters to a dashboard, the filters will be displayed in the Filters popup menu. You can then drag the desired filter and drop it onto the canvas to apply it to the report. For each filter, you can add and modify the following settings:
  • Filter Field: Allows you to select the data field to filter on.
  • Operator: Allows you to change the filter operator. Click the lock icon to toggle whether other users are allowed to select an operator when running the dashboard.
  • Value: Allows you to set the value or values for the filter or parameter. If the filter or parameter is interactive or prompting, then other users can select different values when running the dashboard.

A web page may not be displayed in the dashboard if embedding within another web page is not permitted for the web page.

To add a tile to a dashboard

1. On the dashboard designer page, click the icon.
2. From the New Tile popup menu, click and drag the desired type of tile onto the dashboard canvas.

Alternatively, you can click and drag the icon onto the canvas to add a new tile placeholder to the canvas. Click the icon in the placeholder corresponding to the type of tile you want.

Tile Properties Pane

In the Title field, you can add a title for the tile. This title will be displayed on the canvas when editing the dashboard and can be toggled on or off using the button. You can also select the font size, color, font style and alignment settings for the title from the popup menu displayed when clicking the button on the Tile Properties pane.

On the Tile Properties pane, you can modify the settings for a tile using options on the following tabs:

• Content: Use this tab to change the report or visualization in the tile. Only reports of the same type as the existing tile can be selected.
• Style: Use this tab to specify how the tile appears on the canvas and the fit settings. Data visualization tiles have additional settings like color, labels and number formats.
• Advanced: Use this tab to specify dashboard designer refresh settings, dashboard viewer settings and navigation settings for reports and refresh settings and data display settings for visualizations.