Creating a dashboard
Dashboards allow you to combine multiple reports into a single page for a quick overview. ManageEngine Analytics Plus provides a simple and intuitive drag-and-drop interface to efficiently organize your dashboards as required. Drag-and-drop the reports, widgets, user filters, and rich-formatted text to create a visually rich and interactive dashboard.
The following is a sample dashboard.
The following is the same dashboard in the Edit Design mode.
1 - Custom title added in the dashboard
2 - User Filter added in the dashboard
3 - KPI widgets added in the dashboard
4 - Reports added in the dashboard
5 - List of reports in the workspace that can be dragged into the dashboard
This is the default layout of the dashboard. Once you have created a new dashboard, you can alter the layout as needed.
Creating a new dashboard
ManageEngine Analytics Plus allows you to create dashboards with multiple tabs and flexible m x n layouts. You can drag-and-drop reports and other components to your dashboard and organize them based on your requirements.
Once your reports are ready, you can start designing a dashboard. To create a new dashboard, click the Create button on the side panel and select the Dashboard option.
You can also create a new dashboard using the Create New Dashboards option under the Dashboard button in the side panel.
The Edit Design window will open as shown in the image below:
Add the required components to your dashboard. Refer to the following sections to know more about adding various components to your dashboard.
Adding reports
Follow the steps below to add the required reports to your dashboard:
Open the dashboard in the Edit Design Mode. The reports that are available in the workspace will be listed on the left panel.
Drag the required ones into the Design Area on the right.
Click Save.
Adding tabs
Analytics Plus allows you to add multiple tabs to your dashboards, to give you additional layers for your analysis. Each tab can accommodate an entire dashboard or a few reports. A maximum of ten tabs can be added to a dashboard and can be added either while creating a new dashboard or added to existing dashboards.
Follow the steps below to add tabs to the dashboard:
While creating a new dashboard, click the Add Tab button. The existing views will be listed under a tab named New Tab 1, and a new tab will be created.
To add more tabs, click the + icon. You can add a maximum of ten tabs within a single dashboard.
To add tabs to existing dashboards, click the Edit Design button, and click the Add tab button that appears in the Edit Design window.
You can also edit existing tabs easily. Follow the steps below to do this:
To Rename a tab, click the More Options icon that appears on the mouse over on the tab name, and select the Rename option.
The Duplicate and Remove options will allow you to duplicate or delete the selected tab.
Adding Formatted Text, Images, and HTML
Analytics Plus allows you to enrich your dashboard with relevant contextual information, by adding rich formatted text, images, and HTML content. Follow the steps below to do this:
To add text, click the Text option from the toolbar and enter the content in the Text Editor that opens.
To add images, click the Image button.
You can also insert HTML content using the Insert HTML button in the Text Editor pop-up, or use the Edit HTML to edit the content in HTML format.
Click the Insert button. The content you have added will be inserted.
Analytics Plus allows you to organize the newly added text and components as required. Click here to know more about layouts in the dashboard.
Adding KPI Widgets
ManageEngine Analytics Plus offers a widget-based model for creating and adding single number and chart type widgets within dashboards. These are called KPI Widgets. This is a useful feature that highlights any key metric in a dashboard for easy comprehension. The key metrics can also be accompanied with associated comparison indicators to highlight the trend.
Analytics Plus offers two types of KPI widgets:
Single number widget
Chart type widget
Click here to read the detailed help document about adding KPI Widgets.
Adding User Filters
ManageEngine Analytics Plus allows you to include dynamic filtering capability in the dashboard view mode using the User Filter option. This enables viewers of the dashboard to apply filters dynamically and view the required information. You can add User Filters to the entire dashboard or to individual reports embedded.
The following sections explain the process of adding user filters in Analytics Plus.
User Filters for dashboard
Navigate to the User Filters section in the Edit Design mode, and click the Add User Filter button.
Columns from all the tables used in the dashboard will be listed in the column panel on the left. Drag and drop the required columns to be used as user filters.
Editing a user filter in dashboards is similar to editing a user filter in charts, pivot, and summary views. Click here to learn more.
- You can choose to expand or collapse the user filter as required.
Auto add User Filters
Analytics Plus allows you to automatically add a report's user filters to the dashboard. This is an easy and convenient way to add user filters to a dashboard, without having to create them again.
Follow the steps below to do this:
Select the Auto Add User Filter check box in the User Filters field.
Add reports that have existing user filters to the dashboard. The user filters in these reports will now be automatically added to the dashboard.
User Filters for Individual Reports
You can also add user filters to individual reports that have been added to a dashboard. Follow the steps below to do this:
- Add a report that has user filters to the dashboard.
- In the Edit Design mode, click the More icon that appears on mouse over the report, and select Options.
- Select the Show Report Specific User Filter checkbox in the popup that appears, and click Apply. The user filters will be added only to the corresponding report.
Columns Not Related
ManageEngine Analytics Plus will display an alert over a user filter column when you delete every report that uses this column from the dashboard. This helps you to identify user filters that are no longer relevant and remove them. Hover your mouse over the corresponding column and select Remove from the highlighted options. Please note that you will not be able to save the dashboard without removing it.
Merging User Filters
You can merge duplicate user filters from different tables into one common filter using the drag-and-drop functionality.
You can add or remove the mapped columns from these filters as shown below.
Note:
The primary user filter column over which the other user filters are merged cannot be removed.
Only the primary columns' values will be listed as filter values.
Two columns from a table cannot be merged into the same user filter.
Columns with different data types cannot be merged into a single user filter.
Adding Timeline Filters
Analytics Plus allows you to create a common date or period user filter that can be applied across all reports in the dashboard, independent of the tables over which the reports have been created. This user filter is different from the other filters in that it is not tightly bound to any (date) column in a table.
When you use the timeline filter in a dashboard, Analytics Plus will apply the criteria to all reports, matching it with the best possible date column associated with the report. By default, if the report has a date column, it will be filtered using it. The matching date columns can also be customized.
Since this is a common period filter, you can set up only one timeline filter in a dashboard.
To add a timeline filter,
Click the Add User Filter button and select the Include Timeline Filter check box.
To modify the timeline filter's name,
Click the Edit icon that appears on the mouse over the timeline filter in the Edit Design mode. You can modify the timeline filter's name from the Filter Display Name section, and click Apply.
To modify the values displayed within the timeline filter,
Click the Edit icon that appears on the mouse over the timeline filter in the Edit Design mode. Click the Edit link in the popup that appears.
Select the required values, and click OK.
The timeline filter will be applied across all reports in the dashboard based on each report's corresponding date column. To customize the columns used for filtering,
Click the Edit icon that appears on the mouse over the timeline filter in the Edit Design mode.
Navigate to the Timeline filter column mapping section and enter the date columns to be used for filtering the reports.
You can also specify the order in which the filters should be applied from the Order of Applying Filters section. The following options are available:
On date columns used in the report: This is the default option which applies the timeline filter across every date column present in the dashboard's reports.
On date columns in the table on which the report has been created: This option applies the timeline filters over date columns present in the reports' base tables, even if the reports do not contain a date column.
On date columns in related tables: This option allows you to apply the timeline filter over date columns present in tables that are related to the reports' base table, when the base tables do not contain a date column.
Click OK to reflect the changes to the filter.
Reports as Filters
Analytics Plus allows you to configure reports to act as filters on your dashboard. This allows you to dynamically filter dashboards based on the data points in a report.
To enable this feature, open the required dashboard, click the Settings icon at the top right corner and select the Enable Reports to act as Filters option. Click here to learn more about Dashboard Settings.
Once the feature is enabled, navigate to a report in the dashboard and click on any data point. The following filtering options will be available:
Filter including this value: The dashboard will be filtered to display only data corresponding to the selected value.
Filter excluding this value: The dashboard will be filtered to exclude the data corresponding to the selected value.
Layout components in dashboards
Analytics Plus provides a flexible, m x n layout dashboard. You can organize the dashboard in any way using the simple drag-and-drop interface in the Edit Design mode of the dashboard.
Reorganizing components
You can easily rearrange the components in a dashboard using the drag-and-drop functionality. As you drag one component, the other components will be rearranged accordingly.
You can also reorganize multiple components together. Select components in the same row or column, and drag them to the required location. The following animation explains the process of re-organizing multiple components.
Resizing components
You can resize the components in the dashboard using one of the following options.
Drag to Resize
You can easily resize views by dragging the border. As you drag, a purple line will appear marking the borders of surrounding views. This will be useful to arrange the views in the desired way.
You can also resize multiple components together. Select the components from the same row or column, and drag their border to resize.
Copy and Paste Dimensions
Analytics Plus allows you to apply a uniform dimension to multiple components using the Copy-Paste Dimension option. To do this,
Select the component with the desired dimensions, and select the Copy Dimensions option from the contextual toolbar that appears at the bottom.
Select the components you wish to apply the dimensions too, and click Paste. You can choose to copy the width or height, or both.
Fit Components to Width
The Fit components to width option allow you to resize the components to fill the available space proportionately. Select components from the same row and of the same height, and click the Fit to Width option from the contextual toolbar that appears. The components will be resized with proportionate width to fit in the available space.
Fill Space
You can resize components to fill the space in the dashboard layout. The following animation explains how to resize to fill extra spaces.
Remove Components
You can easily remove the components from the dashboard whenever required. To remove a component, click the Remove button that appears on the mouse over.
To remove multiple components together, select the components you want to remove and click the Trash icon from the contextual toolbar.
