Dashboard FAQs

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

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:

Themes

Styles

What are Magic Variables and how do I use them?

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]]

Have a look here for a list of Magic Variables.

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.

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.

How do I set up User Access?

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.

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

Our new chart type, Merged charts, allows you to build charts with data from up to 3 different data connections or data sources. Please take a look at this section for more information.

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.