Working with Dashboards

In this section:

Dashboards appear to PMF owners (users) the same as other Today pages. Dashboards can be designated by the PMF Administrator for use by particular users. This can be changed at any time by selecting a personalized dashboard as a Today page on the Today page.

When an owner first selects a dashboard, it automatically populates itself with data appropriate to their access role or owner access (depending on how this is configured in PMF). Metrics are displayed using the default choices set up by the dashboard designer.

PMF users can personalize each gadget to display the metric information that is important to them. As a user, you can group, filter, and select the data points that are displayed in the gadgets on your dashboards. The available choices for each gadget depend on how the gadget was designed.

PMF includes a set of gadgets that use HTML5 technology with local intelligent caching. As you navigate through data, the intelligent caching agent determines if data is already in your browser. If it is, the data is instantly delivered to the HTML5 gadgets. If not, the agent requests the needed data.

Dashboard Designer

In this section:

How to:

The Dashboard Designer is available to the user if the user was given Administrator rights to the dashboard.

To access the Dashboard Designer, from the Today page, click the dashboard icon Dashboard icon, select Content, and then click the Edit Dashboard icon Edit Dashboard icon.

The Dashboard Designer opens, as shown in the following image.

Dashboard Designer

Dashboard Designer includes:

Dashboard Design Tips

When designing a dashboard, use the following guidelines:

  • Provide enough space for gadgets. Configure and position your gadgets to provide enough space to display properly in the dashboard.
  • Avoid scroll bars. The best designed dashboards show all of the important Information without requiring the use of scroll bars. If scrolling is required, place the most important information and indicators in the most significant locations of the dashboard, either close to the top left corner or near the center of the dashboard.
  • Design for different screen resolutions. The PMF Dashboard Designer enables you to design for any target screen resolution, but cannot automatically reconfigure and deploy your dashboard design to a lower resolution screen. Make sure you know the target resolutions your consumers will be using, and design alternate versions of the dashboards as needed.
  • Mix contexts so users can see everything. Where possible, avoid requiring users to switch flags or options to see all of the data that is important to them. PMF enables you to configure each dashboard by owner, scorecard, or gadget, so you can point different gadgets to different contexts and avoid making users perform unnecessary clicks.
  • Appropriate metrics. PMF can automatically detect and display valid metrics for each dashboard and scorecard. However, because PMF cannot select the most appropriate metric to display for a scorecard, you should set up appropriate default metrics for each scorecard.

Procedure: How to Design a New Dashboard

  1. From the Today page, click the dashboard icon Dashboard icon and then click the Add Dashboard icon .

    The Gadgets catalog opens, as shown in the following image.

    Gadget Catalog
  2. Use the scroll bar to display the entire list of available gadgets. You can also search for a specific gadget by clicking the Gadget Preferences icon and typing its name in the search field.

    To see more detailed information about the available gadgets, hover over the gadget. A tooltip opens, which shows information about the gadget, such as its accepted filters and whether it can receive a broadcast. The following image shows an example of the tooltip.

    Gadget tooltip
  3. Drag the desired gadget or gadgets onto the design canvas.

    PMF retrieves the default size for each gadget that you add to the canvas.

  4. Perform the following actions to achieve the desired result.
    • To reposition a gadget on the canvas, click anywhere inside the gadget and drag the gadget to the desired location.

      Dashboard Designer automatically aligns the top edges of gadgets that are in proximity.

    • To resize a gadget on the canvas, click the lower-right corner of the gadget and drag the borders of the gadget to the desired height and width.
    • To delete a gadget from the dashboard, click the Delete Gadget icon on the title bar of the gadget.
    • To change the values used to display the data for a gadget, click the Gadget Preferences icon on the title bar of the gadget. Make your selections from available list items. For details, see Changing Dashboard Gadgets and Preferences.
    • To add WebFOCUS content, click the WebFOCUS panel button and select the folder that contains the content you want to use. Drag the content to the desired location on the dashboard.
  5. Optionally, click the Listens to filters icon to specify whether or not run-time changes will affect the selected gadget.

    For details on Broadcast, see Setting Up Broadcast on a Dashboard.

  6. On the side toolbar, click the Save Dashboard icon Save Dashboard icon when you are satisfied with your design.

    The following image shows the Save Dashboard window.

    Save Dashboard window
  7. Type a name for the new dashboard and select whether the dashboard is public or private in the check box.

    If you select the Private checkbox, the dashboard will be visible only to the owner who created it. You can create a private dashboard with Edit or higher dashboard access. If you leave the dashboard as public, it will be visible to all owners in PMF. Administrator access is required to create a public dashboard.

    Note: If you exit the designer without saving your changes, you will be prompted to either save or cancel your changes.

Procedure: How to Edit an Existing Dashboard

  1. From the Today page, click the dashboard icon Dashboard icon and then click the Edit Dashboard icon .

    The dashboard opens in the Dashboard Designer.

  2. Make any desired changes to the dashboard, such as adding or deleting gadgets, moving the position of the gadget, or adding WebFOCUS content. To rename the dashboard, click the title bar with the Scorecard - Dashboard name. A Rename Dashboard window opens, as shown in the following image.
    Rename Dashboard

    Note: You can also rename a dashboard using the Looks and Properties panel. For more information, see Styling the Dashboard.

  3. On the side toolbar, click the Save Dashboard Save Dashboard icon or Save As Dashboard icon Save as Dashboard icon when you are satisfied with your design.

    Note: If you exit the designer without saving your changes, you will be prompted to either save or cancel your changes.

Controlling the Look of a Gadget

You can make changes to a gadget when its title bar appears. To display the title bar, hover anywhere over the gadget.

The gadget controls include the following:

  • Moving. You can position the anchor point of any gadget. To move a gadget, click inside the gadget and drag the gadget to the desired position.
  • Resizing. You can interactively adjust the height and width of a gadget. Click the lower-right corner of the gadget and drag the borders of the gadget to resize it as desired.
  • Deleting. The Delete Gadget icon Delete Dashboard icon removes the selected gadget from the canvas.
  • Gadget Preferences. A separate Gadget Preferences icon Gadget Preferences icon exists for each gadget on a dashboard. The icon opens a panel on which you can change the values used to display the data for that gadget. For more information on specifying preferences for a gadget, see Changing Dashboard Gadgets and Preferences.
  • Renaming the gadget. You can change the default title of a gadget and rename it by going to the Dashboard Designer and clicking the title bar of the gadget. Enter the new title, as shown in the following image.

Procedure: How to Search the Gadget Catalog

There is a built-in search capability in the Gadget Catalog, which makes it easier to find specific gadgets for your dashboard.

To search for a gadget:

  1. In the Dashboard Designer, click Gadgets.
  2. Click the more icon .

    The Gadgets panel button expands, as shown in the following image.

    Gadget search box
  3. In the search field, enter the first few letters of the gadget type, as shown in the following image.
  4. Select the desired gadget from the list that appears.

To clear the search and show all available gadgets, delete the search term in the field.

Editing a Gadget

How to:

Gadgets can be edited directly from the catalog in the Dashboard Designer. Gadgets that are edited and configured from the catalog are immediately available to use in dashboard designs.

Procedure: How to Editing a Gadget From Inside the Catalog

From the Dashboard Designer:

  1. Click Gadgets.
  2. Click the Edit Gadget icon Edit Gadget icon next to a gadget in the catalog.

    The Edit Gadget Designer panel opens, as shown in the following image.

    Edit Gadget Designer
  3. Complete the fields in the Edit Gadget Designer panel, as described in the following table.

    Field

    Description

    Name

    Type the name of the gadget.

    Scorecard filters

    Specify whether the current scorecard filters should be used.

    Preview image

    Shows the preview image of the gadget.

    Receive Broadcasts

    Select to enable the broadcast feature for the gadget.

    Enable Moonbeam

    Select to enable the moonbeam feature.

    Content Type

    Select which type of content will be added as the gadget.

    Content Display

    Select which type of content will be displayed.

    Aggregation at Level

    Select the appropriate level of the dimension at which data will be aggregated.

    Reset Dashboard defaults

    Select to reset Dashboard default values.

    Description

    Type a description of the gadget.

    Custom Parameters

    Allows you to pass WebFOCUS parameters to your gadget.

    Display

    Select from the following Display elements, to include in the gadget being created.

    • Actual
    • Benchmark
    • Forecast
    • Stretch Target
    • Target

    Groupings

    Select up to three Groupings elements to include in the gadget being created. Use the drop-down menu next to each element to select Required or Optional.

    The following options are available:

    • Perspective
    • Theme
    • Objective
    • Measure
    • Project
    • User Specified Dimension
    • Time

    Filters

    Select up to three Filters elements to include in the gadget being created. Use the drop-down menu next to each element to select Required or Optional.

    The following options are available:

    • Perspective
    • Theme
    • Objective
    • Measures
    • Projects
    • User Specified Dimension
    • Time
    • Scorecard
    • Red and Yellow indicators only
    • Red indicators only
  4. After you have entered your data in the fields of the Edit Gadget Designer panel, click Save.

Resetting Dashboard User Preferences

How to:

Dashboard user preferences can be reset to the default preferences in the original dashboard design.

The dashboard preferences control settings a user sees, such as metrics and dimensional filters. Preferences are stored for each of the following:

  • User
  • Dashboard
  • Scorecard

Default preferences are stored for each dashboard in the system. These preferences are set during the dashboard design process in the Dashboard Designer.

Users can override preferences set for a dashboard by saving their changes in the Preference panel in the dashboard.

User preferences can be reset from many areas within PMF. Where the reset is performed determines the scope of where those preferences are overridden.

Procedure: How to Reset Dashboard Preferences From the Dashboard Designer

While working with Dashboards, any preferences that are changed from within the Dashboard Designer changes the default preferences for that dashboard, as well as each scorecard that can be selected and configured.

If a user has administrator rights in a dashboard, they have the ability to clear user preferences for any of their dashboard designs and restore the dashboard back to the default values that were designated by the Designer. Dashboard preferences can easily be reset by clicking the Reset dashboard icon Reset dashboard icon.

The Reset Dashboard icon is located on the toolbar of the drawer on the Today page, as seen in the following image.

Reset Dashboard icon

You can also access the toolbar with this icon by clicking the Edit Dashboard icon Edit Dashboard icon to enter the Dashboard Designer.

Resizing and Displaying Gadgets

PMF Gadgets can contain drill downs to many contexts including operational reports, detailed views, websites, mini-dashboards, and graphs.

Gadgets resize responsively to changes in browser canvas size. The content in the gadgets is generally also responsive. If you are running custom content, which you or a developer designed, make sure to have them use responsive content options in WebFOCUS tools.

The following image shows how multiple gadgets may appear on your dashboard.

Dashboard example

If you make the browser canvas narrower, the gadgets respond by expanding to fit into the smaller frame, as seen in the following image.

Dashboard view

Working with Gadget Tracking Menus

PMF tracking captions with instant menus allow you to:

As you interact and drill with chart gadgets on the PMF dashboard, the captions display the initial filter and grouping conditions for each gadget, as shown in the following image.

Gadget example

As you change the gadgets, the captions continue to track so you never lose context of the information you are viewing.

You can change the current applied filter by hovering over the top of the tracking menu. A drop-down menu appears with the filters, as shown in the following image.

Filter menu

To auto-activate the page flip on any client, click the Flip button on the tracking menu. The gadget view will change, as shown in the following image.

Gadget view

To exclude the gadget from receiving any Broadcasts, click the Listens to filters icon Listens to filters icon. This will lock the gadget in place so that it does not respond to broadcasted filters, which allows more control over comparative analysis.

What is Broadcast?

In this section:

How to:

Broadcast enables changes you make to the parameters passed to a gadget to be shared among other gadgets on the dashboard, and enables you to cascade simultaneous changes which you specify across multiple gadgets on the dashboard. As a result, you can quickly compare similarities and differences between multiple Dimension areas, or compare different Measures for the same Dimension areas. With Broadcast, changing the Dimension Preferences on any gadget can change the displayed Dimension data for all gadgets. You can add a gadget or remove a gadget from a Broadcast group with a few clicks.

For all gadgets, (both HTML5 and other), the Gadget Preferences icon Gadget Preferences icon also controls the currently displayed filters. This actually controls all gadgets grouped for Broadcast on the dashboard, regardless of whether they are HTML5 or not.

Setting Up Broadcast on a Dashboard

How to:

Since the Broadcast capability is always on, run-time values specified by a user in Gadget Preferences for a single gadget are applied to all the gadgets in a group. As a result, users can quickly compare similarities and differences among multiple dimensional areas, or compare different measures for the same dimensional areas.

Procedure: How to Disable a Gadget from Receiving Broadcast

To disable a specific gadget from receiving Broadcast:

  1. Hover over the gadget for which you wish you disable Broadcast, and click the Listens to filters icon Listens to filters icon in the title bar.

    Note: This icon is only available if the gadget is capable of receiving Broadcast.

    The gadget is now "locked" and will ignore any changes to run-time values.

  2. To re-enable Broadcast for that gadget, click the Ignores filters icon Ignores filters icon in the title bar.

Procedure: How to Change Multiple Gadgets in a Broadcast Group

For the desired dashboard:

  1. Click the dashboard icon Dashboard icon and then click Filter.

    The Filter list opens.

  2. In the Filters list, select or clear the filters that you wish to broadcast to the gadgets in the group. The changes automatically propagate to all the gadgets in the Broadcast group so they are all showing data.

    Tip: To see which gadgets will be affected by the filter, hover over the filter. Any gadgets capable of listening to the broadcast that would be sent are highlighted on the dashboard

Styling the Dashboard

You can change the overall look of your Dashboard from the Look & Properties panel in the drawer, as shown in the following image.

The following options are available:

 WebFOCUS