Category/ Page Navigation

Categories in piDashboard are the pages within the application, which can be configured to hold charts or data tables.

pi Dashboard can be viewed on a number of different devices, from mobile phones and tablets to desktops and laptops.

To access the list of available Categories, click on the icon at the top left of the screen, highlighted below in red. You will only be able to view one category (page) at a time.

The category list will then slide in from the left side of the screen in a tree structure, the parent category will be shown at the top with available sub-categories displayed beneath it.

These can be opened and closed by clicking on the arrow beside each group. In the example below, Dashboarding is the group heading for several additional categories and subcategories. Clicking on the arrow to the right of this category name will open or close the list of available sub-categories.

Clicking the heading 'Dashboarding' will display the child categories beneath it.

Once you have selected a category the list will disappear from the screen again maximising the amount of space available to view charts. The selected category will be displayed in bold text, meaning that you can quickly locate this category in the list.

If you want the category list to be displayed permanently, you can pin the category slider on the left-hand side of the screen with the pin icon as shown below.

If the category list is pinned, space on the category will be reduced slightly and cells will be moved to the right to accommodate it. This may reduce the size of the charts and as a result chart labels may be hidden if there is not enough space to display them in full.

There is also a text box with a search function. If you start to type in the name of a category it will display all those categories containing that string of text, even if they are a nested category. There is no need to use any wildcard symbols in your search.

In the example shown below, by typing 'ce' in the search box, the pi interface will show all possible matches and their location within the category tree structure.

In the example above, the filter is showing 'Insurance', Human Resources' and 'Dashboard User Access' because they all contain the string 'ce'.

The parent and child items are also shown in the list to aid navigation and add context.

Clearing the search box will then show the entire list of available categories again. An additional feature, 'locate active category', shows you where to find the current category in the tree structure. The active category will always be displayed in bold text.

To close the Category menu, either select a category or click anywhere on the Dashboard page itself.

Interface Navigation

The dashboard is designed to work using regular browser controls. If you move from one category to another, or drill down/ up, then you can easily navigate forwards and backwards using the browser controls. Similarly, you can refresh an entire page by refreshing the browser.

The Dashboard is entirely URL driven, so you can bookmark, favourite, copy and send URLs in any way that suits you.

Bookmark/ Favourites

It is possible to Bookmark or Favourite a category with filters applied in your web browser just as you can with any other URL. This will allow you to immediately revisit this set of filters without having to reapply each filter again.

This option also allows you to create several tailored filters for each category, e.g., for your team or department, last week's or last month's data, or a certain product across a specific period.