Creating Dashboards¶

Your First Dashboard¶

A dashboard provides an at-a-glance view of your data and lets you track metrics through different visualizations.

Dashboards are composed of individual panels arranged on a grid, each representing a part of the story you want your dashboard to tell.

Every panel consists by a query and a visualization. The query defines the data you want to display, and visualization defines how the data is displayed.

In addition to the panel, query, and visualization, plugins are tools you can use in conjunction with a visualization to change the way data displays on a panel.

Panel Edit Page Tabs¶

The "Panel edit" page contains 3 tabs on the left side.

• Query tab: where you create the query that brings data to your panel.
• Visualization tab: where you select a plugin to visualize data and/or change the visualization settings to your preference.
• General tab: where general settings for the panel are located, like the panel title and links to another panel or dashboard.

How to Create a New Dashboard¶

Follow these steps to create a new dashboard:

1. Hover over the + button on the side panel, and click Dashboard to create a blank dashboard with an empty panel.
2. Click "Add Query" to open the 'panel edit page.
3. If you have asset data available, you can continue these steps using your data; if not, you can use the provided test data.

Getting Data into Dashboards¶

Follow these steps to read your data from its location and write it to your dashboard:

1. Click "Select metric" to select the asset that has the data you want to read. Enter an asset name in the asset field to search and filter.
2. Select an 'aspect' in the next select metric box.
3. Select a 'variable' in the next select metric box.

If no data is available, sometimes it's because the default time range does not contain asset data. To remedy this, try the following:

Click the time picker drop-down and try various time ranges. If you still have issues getting data, try the next steps using generated test data.

Using Generated Test Data¶

I you are already reading data from your data source locations, you can skip this process.

Follow these steps to use generated test data:

1. Select testData from the drop-down.
2. By default, 'random walk' (random data) is used. Feel free to try other data scenarios.
3. Once data shows, click the Esc key or Back button. Your dashboard with the new panel displays.
4. Continue to add panels by clicking the "Add panel" button.

Specifying Visualization Options¶

Follow these steps to specify visualization options for a panel, beginning on the Panel edit page:

1. Click the "Graph" drop-down and select "Singlestat" from the list of available plugins.
2. Click the "Query" tab.
3. Select the name of the data you want to use from the drop-down list.
4. Once data shows, click the Esc key or Back button. Your dashboard with the new panel displays.
5. Continue to add panels by clicking the "Add panel" button.
6. Resize the Singlestat panel by clicking and dragging its lower right corner.
7. Duplicate the panel by selecting "More" from the drop-down at the top of the panel, then select "More", and "Duplicate". We recommend giving this duplicate panel a different query to bring in different data.

Saving your Dashboard¶

Follow these steps to save your dashboard:

1. Navigate to the "Panel edit" page and select the "General" tab.
2. Enter a name for the panel in the "Name" field.
3. Repeat for any unnamed panels on your dashboard.
4. Click the "Save" icon in the top right corner of the dashboard.
5. Enter a name for your dashboard and select a folder where you want to store it (optional).