This topic is organized into the following sections:
A dashboard can summarize data from the following eRoom sources in the same facility:
single database (regular or approval process)
single or multiple instances of an enterprise database
one or more project plans
one or more calendars
Each time you view a dashboard, its content is updated to reflect the most current information in the data source. Like other eRoom items, dashboard items have their own access lists, and you can create, copy, and paste them. Dashboard items also have a command bar, which includes the "print view" and "export" buttons. They can also optionally have a comments section and an attachments box.
You can create a dashboard anywhere in your eRoom, but using a dashboard-specific notification setting, you can display and organize dashboards on the Dashboards tab of your My eRooms page. In this case, if you log directly into My eRooms, you can immediately see an up-to-date overview of project data, without using bookmarks to navigate to different eRoom pages. For example, suppose you keep track of customer issues for multiple projects.
A dashboard for multiple instances of a shared enterprise database can give you a snapshot of the relative quantity of open versus closed issues for all of the projects. The dashboard displays a row for each database (data source) in the specified scope (one or more eRooms in the same facility). Columns show each field summarized, each database's name, and the eRoom in which each database resides. A "total" row shows the appropriate summary value (such as total, average, min., max., etc.) for the counts in each column for all the data sources shown.
See also: Organizing your dashboards
You can create a separate (standalone) dashboard item to summarize a database. You can also expose that same information on the summary page of the same database. To do so, on the Dashboard Options page in the Create/Edit Database wizard, select the check box labeled "Show a dashboard on the summary page of this database". Further, you can display that same summary information for a single database on your My eRooms page without creating a separate item. To do so, open the Notification page for the database and select the check box labeled "Summarize this database in My eRooms".
Note: An enterprise
overview can have a built-in dashboard, but you cannot create a standalone
dashboard to summarize it since the information summarized would be the
same. To turn on a built-in dashboard for an enterprise instance or overview,
go to the enterprise template
and edit its Dashboard Options page.
Stand-alone dashboards have their own Open and Edit lists. However, in order to see a data source's row in a dashboard, you must have rights to that data source (that is, you must be a member of the eRoom it is in, and you need Open rights to it). This is true even if you have Open rights to the dashboard. Further, you need at least Open rights for a standalone dashboard so you can add it to your My eRooms page.
Open and Edit rights for a built-in dashboard are determined by the data source's access lists, and cannot be independently modified.
A dashboard is marked unread when its settings are changed, but it does not show the unread status of the data sources it summarizes. A dashboard has the same notification settings as other eRoom items, plus the option of showing it on the Dashboards tab of your My eRooms page.
You begin to create or edit a dashboard item just like you do other items. When creating a dashboard, click the dashboard icon on the Create page to open the Create Dashboard page. When editing a dashboard, the Edit Dashboard page opens, which has the same fields as the Create Dashboard page.
The Create/Edit Dashboard page has two tabs:
The Name and Contents tab has controls for specifying the items that will be summarized.
The Display Options tab has controls for hiding or showing available fields, and, where allowed, setting their display options. The available fields and options are based upon the type of item and which item(s) you selected on the Name and Contents tab. For new dashboards, this table is populated with the defaults from the selected data source.
On the Name and Contents tab, type or edit the dashboard's name.
Optionally, describe your dashboard.
Pick what type of eRoom item this dashboard summarizes. Choices are as follows:
instances of an enterprise database -- Pick an enterprise database from the drop-down list of all the enterprise databases available in the current facility (if any).
(single) database
Choose which items this dashboard summarizes. The item picker only shows items of the type you picked that you have Open rights to, in eRooms to which you belong. Choices are as follows:
Items from all eRooms in the facility (unavailable for single databases) -- This choice selects all items of the specified type in all eRooms in the facility.
Selected items -- Click "Browse", and then on the "Select dashboard scope" page, navigate to the items you want to pick. For a non-enterprise database item, you can only pick one. If you select an eRoom, all items of the specified type (enterprise database instances, calendars, project plans) in that eRoom are summarized in the dashboard.
Decide whether members can add comments and take votes on the dashboard page.
Decide whether to include an attachment box on the dashboard page.
Specify the access control properties for the dashboard.
Specify what the dashboard's icon looks like.
On
the Display Options tab, pick the options
for the fields appropriate to the item(s) the dashboard summarizes. These
options determine which fields from the data source appear in the dashboard,
and how they are summarized. Databases have dashboard
options that determine which fields a dashboard summarizes, and the
dashboard's default display options.
Note: Your dashboard only summarizes
the rows or events to which you have at least Open rights in the data
source.
Click the following links to see the display
options for fields available in the corresponding type of item:
Click "OK" to create the dashboard.
You can view a dashboard in the following ways:
On the summary page of a database, when the database has the option to display its own dashboard turned on. The dashboard appears above the search filter, and is not affected by search filtering or paging of the database summary below it. Approval-process databases show a dashboard only on the main summary page; each step's summary page does not have its own dashboard.
On a dashboard item's own page, by clicking its icon on an eRoom page, or by right-clicking the icon and picking "View" from the pop-up menu.
On the Dashboards tab of your My eRooms page, when a dashboard item is added via its notification setting.
Each time the dashboard is viewed, the summarized item's fields, their order, and their settings are used, with the dashboard's own settings applied on top of them.
A database dashboard summary includes all of the columns specified in the Display Options tab of the dashboard's settings. Fields are summarized according to the settings on the Display Options tab for each type of data.
In a regular database dashboard item, clicking a value in a column of a row opens the database summarized in that row. The database opens in the same window, filtered by the column and its display options, just as if you had constructed a search based on the same criteria. This filter overrides any existing search filter on the database, including search results and a filter imposed by database's built-in dashboard. It's temporary -&endash; it only lasts for the current session. Clicking "Reset" clears the dashboard filter and displays the previous search filter, or the unfiltered rows if there's no filter.
Clicking a database name opens the database; clicking a container name opens the container; clicking an eRoom name opens the eRoom.
Dashboards that summarize approval-process databases show a row for each of the steps. A step column is added to the dashboard after the eRoom column and the name of the step is displayed. Clicking a step name displays that step.
An enterprise database overview can show a built-in dashboard. In this case, the dashboard settings from the enterprise database are used.
A project plan dashboard shows the summary row for each project plan included in the dashboard.
Clicking a project plan name opens the project plan; clicking a container name opens the container; and clicking an eRoom name opens the eRoom. Some fields are also links that open the project plan.
Calendar dashboards show an event's time duration and title in the Event column. For each calendar in the dashboard, all of the events for "today" are shown, plus the next four days. Unless there are events on Saturday and Sunday, those two days aren't counted in the five days displayed in the dashboard (for example, if today is Thursday, the calendar dashboard shows today, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). Events for each day are listed in order of start time. Events that don't have a start time are listed first.
At the top of a calendar dashboard, you can switch between showing "All Events" (all events whether or not you are a participant) and "My Events" (only those events for which you are a participant). You can only see events for which you have Open rights.
Dashboards and data sources must be in the same facility in order for the links between them to work. This section describes what happens when you move, copy, paste, export, and import dashboards.
If you paste copies of a dashboard (including copies made in eRooms created from a template eRoom that contains a dashboard) into either the same eRoom or a different eRoom in the same facility, links should work normally.
If you paste a dashboard into a different facility, the dashboard will work if the scope is set to "All eRooms in the facility", and the dashboard summarizes calendars and project plans.
Moving a data source within the same eRoom keeps the link to the dashboard.
When you move a data source to a different eRoom in the same facility, the link is broken if that item was explicitly added to the dashboard. The link is kept if the item was implicitly included in the dashboard (because its eRoom was included in the dashboard's scope), and if the eRoom to which it was moved is included in the dashboard's scope.
Moving a data source to a different facility always breaks the link to the dashboard.
If you paste a container that holds a dashboard and its data source, the copy of the dashboard points to the copy of the data source.
If a template eRoom contains a dashboard and a data source, an eRoom based on that template contains a dashboard pointing to the database in the new eRoom.
Printing dashboards is the same as printing databases, except that fields not set to show in the dashboard cannot be set to print.
You can export a standalone database or project plan dashboard to a CSV file by clicking "export" in the dashboard's command bar. Calendar dashboards, like calendars themselves, cannot be exported. Any data that's visible in the dashboard is exported to the CSV file, but the dashboard's settings are not exported.
When you import an eRoom containing dashboards into the same facility, the dashboards should continue to work (assuming all the data sources still exist). When you import such an eRoom into a different facility, data sources within the eRoom display properly, but data sources outside the facility do not. If a data source cannot be matched, a message appears explaining the error. If an eRoom that's included in a dashboard's scope is exported, and then imported as a new eRoom, the dashboard does not reference the imported eRoom.