Support Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

We know that when it comes to Support, there is not always a simple question or answer, and as products grow they become more complex to support for our customers.

To help combat that challenge, we have grouped together questions that are most commonly queried by our partners through our Service Desk, both at the start of a partners journey with us, so when they are getting the dashboard for the first time, right through to those who have used it for many years. The intention being that these Q&A’s can help direct your support staff to knoweldge articles, FAQ’s and How To Guides that can help them more easily when investigating queries that your own customers may pose to you.

The content on this page (and the whole site) is ever evolving, and therefore be sure to continue to check back for more materials and updates as time goes by. We look to update the information found on this page specifically weekly, and therefore if it didnt help the last time you checked it, perhaps it could in the future. It’s well worth bookmarking this page as a useful landing page for those of you who providng support to your customers. More content will be added.

The following headings have been created to group questions of a similiar releavnt together. Below each section, we’ve also added a useful links to other articles that you may find useful for that topic.

1 General Information
2 Technical / System Requirements
3 Initial SetUp & Deployment (inc Embedding)
4 Authentication & Access (inc Passwords)
5 Data Connectivity
6 User Management & Licencing
7 Building & Formatting Charts
8 Dashboard Look & Feel (Styling & Themes)
9 Chart/Table Display & Filters
10 Reports & Scheduling
11 Exporting

General Information

1	I have an issue that I need to raise with your Service Desk. What information do you need me to provide and how do I contact them?	Everthing you need to know about raising a Support Case can be found HERE.
2	Where can I get a copy of the latest software to perform any upgrade for one of my customers?	News about our Product Releases and how to gain access to the different repositories to download it, can be found HERE. We also have some Upgrade guides that we recommend that you follow BEFORE attempting to upgrade - especially when jumping though multiple versions.
3	Do you have an A-Z of terminology you use in your dashboard?	Yes - check out our Glossary. It may have some terms you are more familiar with, so this could help relate to what we call things in the dashboard
4	How do I add a Licence to the dashboard?	This article will give you the information you need.
5	From a support point of view, what are the standard basic checks that you recommend we look at when trying to diagnose a dashboard issue?	Dashboard Services - ensure all services are running use the ‘Stop’ or ‘Remove Services’ options in the Configuration Tool, before restarting the dashboad with the ‘Apply and Run’ button Check logs for error messages Timeout Settings Data Connection - green light Memory Allocation System Variables - verify configuration User Permissions - verify these are correctly defined Port Numbers - check there are no conflicts
6	How can I check what version of a dashboard a customer is using?	We have a short How To Article for this one - see it HERE
7	How can I get access to your DockerHub repository	May 1, 2023 we no longer add new members to our DockerHub repository, as we have transitioned over to GitHub. We have several ways that you can obtain our latest softer - see Software Download Repositories. Raise A Support Case with our Service Desk team to gain the access you need.
8	Do you have documentation around your API that you can share with me please?	We do indeed - here is a link to our API documentation. This also includes a link out to our SwaggerHub page for even more information on the API.

Technical / System Requirements

1

What browsers are supported / recommended to use the dashboard with?

We cover this off in our Technical Datasheet, or you might sometimes know this type of document as System Requirements - either way, its HERE for you

Initial SetUp & Deployment (inc Embedding)

1	Will I be able to tailor the dashboards content?	Yes, you’ll be able to add new charts, amend existing charts and change the dashboard layout without any technical training and you’ll also be able to change the default colours used on charts. You can update and change the content as often as you like to keep it relevant. Have a look at these articles for more information - Replacing a chart , Changing the chart type , Layouts , Colours
2	Can the dashboard be made visible over the web?	Yes! The dashboard is fully web-enabled and secure logins can be provided over the web. This allows you to share restricted content with third parties.
3	Can the dashboard update data?	You can call a web service from the dashboard to update data in your source application.
4	Will the dashboard work on my smartphone?	Yes! The mobile dashboard will run on any device with a browser that supports SVG. On some older devices this might mean using a different (free) browser such as Opera; however, SVG is supported native on most current platforms. For further information, see here: http://caniuse.com/svg .
5	Can I deploy the pi dashboard over the internet as well as locally on our own internal network?	Yes. This is one of the most popular ways to deploy the dashboard, enabling our clients to share data not only with remote workers but also with their partners, customers and suppliers. Charts can be dynamically filtered by user logon, so the user will only see data that refers to them, without the need to build separate charts for each user.

Authentication & Access (inc Passwords)

1	Can I reset the Administrator password?	Yes you can. Please have a look at this how to guide for more information.
2	We are unable to login to the dashboard - what could it be?	URL issue Password expired Licence has expired Admin user password reset User not the admin user, and has no categories assigned to them Services Running Cache User Enablement Flag - User Details System Variables Environment Variables Configuration Tool
3	How do I configure Single Sign On?	Our how to guide will give you the instructions for configuring Single Sign On.

Data Connectivity

1	Do I need a data warehouse to use the dashboard?	No. The pi dashboard connects directly to most SQL databases, these can be OLTP, data warehouses or a mixture of both. No data is moved as part of our dashboard and no data is stored locally on the client. The user models their data dictionary in the dashboard which then uses this ‘data connection’ to connect to the underlying database(s). However, if the underlying OLTP database is especially complex, if you are consolidating data from multiple disparate systems or dealing with very large amounts of data (hundreds of millions of rows) then a Data Warehouse may be desirable.
2	Can the dashboard connect to multiple data sources?	Yes! The dashboard can combine data from multiple data sources, giving you a full view of all your company data.
3	Can I build dashboards against data held in the cloud?	Yes, you can connect to SQL based ‘Cloud’ services such as Amazon RDS. We can seamlessly connect to ‘NoSQL’ databases such as Mongo, Amazon, Hadoop.
4	Can I connect the dashboard to existing data views?	Yes! Our pi dashboard can connect to views and treats them in the same way as tables.

User Management & Licencing

1

How do I set up User Access and restrict access to certain dashboards for different users/roles?

User Access is a method of providing access to categories either by assigning access to a role and then adding users to the role or by giving access to categories to individual users.

To setup category access for a user you will need an account with Admin level access. Once you have logged into the Admin level account you will need to go into the ‘Dashboard Configuration’ page by clicking the icon in the top-right corner of the dashboard.

In the ‘Dashboard Configuration’ screen, click the ‘User Access’ tab. You can then choose to manage access by:

Category – Select a category you would like the user to have access to on the left of the screen and then select the user(s) that you want to be able to access this category from the middle section of the screen. You can also remove category access for a user here by removing the tick next to their name.

Role – This is a lot quicker and more efficient way of providing category access – any changes that you need to make i.e. removing or adding new categories only need to be done at role level and they will automatically apply to all users who have been assigned to that role. Select the role that you want to amend and then choose the categories that you want to assign to that role.

User - Select the user on the left of the screen, the categories that they already have access to are shown in the ‘Overall Available Categories’ section. To add or remove categories, tick or untick the relevant category in Category section.

2

I have several customers whos licences are due to expire soon, who do I need to speak to about this and obtain a new license for them?

You should be in contact with your Customer Success Manager for this one - they will be able to work through the renewal with you and issue you with the new licences, including the parameters that you agree upon during the renewal - should any changes be needed.

Building & Formatting Charts

1

Can I build a chart that uses data from different connections?

Using a Merged charts, allows you to build charts with data from up to 3 different Data Connections or data sources.

2

What’s the difference between a Measure and a Dimension?

Dimensions are typically character based database table columns that go into the group by of the chart you are creating. These object types are used to break the data up into various groups. For example, Departments could be split into Sales, Marketing, Development etc.

Measures are typically aggregated number values that will be shown as collapsed rows of your chart e.g. Age of employee could be shown as either a 1-1 relationship with the name of a user or as an average for a Department.

3

Is there a quick way to change the colour of the bars in my chart?

Default Colours, introduced in our March 2021 release, allows you to quickly change a colour in charts that only use one colour by choosing a colour and pasting the hex code into the default colour field or by typing the name of a colour into this field. Please have a look at this section for more information.

Dashboard Look & Feel (Styling & Themes)

1	Can I change the dashboard Theme for a particular user?	Yes you can. You can set a different theme for each user if you want to. Take a look at this article for more information.
2	Can the dashboard use our corporate branding?	Yes, the default colours can be changed via a style sheet to match your corporate branding and you can even display multiple logos driven by the user logon. Have a look at these articles for more information on Themes and Styles
3	Themes are not being applied when I log in - what can I check to see if I can resolve this?	System Variables Choosing an Existing Theme Dashboard Configuration > Settings Environment Variables

Chart/Table Display & Filters

1	How can I apply a filter, that is a known variable included in a data source - so that I dont need to manually apply filters?	Magic Variables are system made global variables that help you filter your data on specified values by using the Variable Names. The variables allow users to set dynamic date values in various places of the dashboard that are automatically calculated and updated. For example, if you would like a chart to always be restricted to TODAY, you can add a filter as normal, select the date object you want to be restricted on and enter [[TODAY]] into the value field. This will then automatically replace that variable with today’s date in yyyy-MM-dd format. These can be used in Default Values for Category Filters too, this means a whole category could always default to TODAY for example. If you require a range in the default filter use four colons (::::) to split the two values. So, if you would like a category to always show the current month’s data dynamically you could set the default value of a date range filter to be: [[START_OF_MONTH]]::::[[TODAY]] These values can also be used in numerous elements of the data connections too i.e. in a WHERE clause or SELECT statement. In order to use your chosen Variable, you will need to enclose it within double square brackets as follows [[TIMEZONE]] DATE type variables need to be used on DATE type objects. Have a look here for a list of Magic Variables.
2	I have some charts that previously showed data, but now they show errors instead, what should I check for to investigate this further?	User Restrictions Data Connection Port Numbers - check there are no conflicts Timeout Settings Number of Rows
3	A chart is very slow to load, but then errors - what should I check for?	Number of Rows Timeouts Data Connections > Query Timeout Seconds Environment Variables
4	One of our charts is really slow to load and then filter on, but it does eventually show the data - what should I look at to improve the speed?	Configuration Tool > Environment Variables > Memory (Server & Tomcat) Data Connection > Chart Cache Minutes > Max Rows Category Objects > Free Text filters Run the query directly on the database to compare times - if they are similiar the database field may need an index Check if Manual SQL has been used - if so, is this optimally coded?
5	A user cannot see the dashboard/category that another user can see, when they should be able to - what can I do to ensure this is resolved?	User Access Roles User Permissions / Privileges Default Layout / Manage Layout Category Access User Type (Admin vs Non Admin)
6	A chart is not displaying as expected, it is unreadable and all squashed - what could be causing this?	Browser / Settings Operating System Browser Zoom Level Display Ratio Device Used Themes
7	Two different users have access to the same charts, however the data on the chart looks different for each user - why would that be the case?	User Variables Data Connections
8	We are not seeing all the data from the database, however data is coming through - what could be causing this?	Data Connections Max Rows Timeouts Table Joins Manual SQL Category Objects > Hidden

Reports & Scheduling

1	Scheduled report has been emailed however the report is blank and contains no data -what could be causing this?	Scheduler Services - ensure its running Themes
2	Scheduled Report is corrupt when trying to open it - what be causing this?	Report size Log Files - see if errors are showing Renderer - check this is running
3	Scheduled reports are not being sent through the Scheduler - would could be causing this to happen please?	Scheduler Monitoring - check for any errors TimeZone settings - ensure these are defined correctly SMTP settings - validate these are correct and working Port Numbers - check there are no conflicts Services running - ensure the scheduler service is running Licence - ensure correct options have been enabled

Exporting

1

Unable to export to to PDF or Excel, but CSV works everytime - what areas would you recommend that we look into further to get to the bottom of this please?

Services Running > Renderer
Port Numbers - check there are no conflicts
URL