Exploring and Creating Dashboards

Dashboards provide insights into your Datasets and allow you to see “at-a-glance” how your intended target such as an application or network currently performs. Observe provides a quick and easy method of creating Dashboards from your Datasets.

Figure 1 - Video - Creating a Dashboard

Exploring Dashboards

Logging into Observe, and clicking Explore: Dashboards, displays a list of all available Dashboards on your instance:

Figure 2 - Displaying All Available Dashboards

Observe organizes the Dashboards by the associated App and displays them alphabetically. The list uses the following categories:

• Name - The default name of the Dashboard or one created for it.

• Last Viewed by me - select the last dashboard you viewed on the instance.

• Last Modified by - The name of the user who modified the Dashboard.

• Date modified - The date when the Dashboard was modified.

• App - The App associated with the Dashboard.

From the More menu, you can select from the following options:

• Copy Link - copy a link to send the location of the dashboard to another user.

• Edit - edit the dashboard.

• Duplicate - duplicate the dashboard and perform edits on it.

• Delete - remove the dashboard from the instance.

From the left panel, select an App to view only dashboards for that App, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can also select the creator or a modifier of a dashboard.

In the Search bar, you can enter filters to narrow your search to a specific dashboard or dashboards.

Creating a New Dashboard

1. From the Dashboards landing page, click New Dashboard.

2. Add cards to the Dashboard by clicking Add card or clicking Add to dashboard.

3. Select from the following types of Dashboard cards:

• Dataset table - Add a Dataset to your Dashboard.

• Dataset visualization - Add a visualization directly to the Dashboard.

• Metric visualization - Add a Metrics visualization directly to the Dashboard.

Add any of the following Objects to your Dashboard:

• Section - Add a new section to the Dashboard.

• Text - Add text to the Dashboard.

• Image - Add an image to the Dashboard.

For example, create a new Dashboard for the Dataset, Resource Set, and Metrics that you created as part of the Weather Tutorial. You created a Dataset, Weather Events, a Resource Set, Locations, and a Metrics set, Weather Metrics which you can add to a central Dashboard. Use the following steps to create your Weather Dashboard:

1. From the Dashboards interface, click New Dashboard.

2. Click Add Card, and then select Dataset Visualization.

3. Select Weather Events from the list of Event Streams.

The visualization doesn’t look exactly right, so now you can edit the card to improve the presentation.

1. Click the Pencil icon on the card to edit the visualization.

2. On the Expression Builder tab, in the where field, select country ~ ***, Plot = over time using function = Average of temp by city.

Figure 3 - Improving Weather Events Visualization

3. Change the Stage Name to Weather Events.

4. Click back to dashboard.

5. Click Add card, and select the Locations Resource set.

6. Click the Pencil icon on the card to edit the visualization.

7. On the Expression Builder tab, in the where field, select country ~ ***, Plot = over time using function = Average of temp by city.

8. Change the Stage Name to Locations.

9. Click back to dashboard.

10. Click Add card, and select the Metrics visualization.

11. From the list of Weather Metrics, select temperature_f.

12. Change the Stage Name to Temperature Fahrenheit.

13. Click back to dashboard.

Add a card with the weather temperature in Centigrade for your Weather Metrics.

1. Click Add card, and select the Metrics visualization.

2. From the list of Weather Metrics, select temperature_c.

3. Change the Stage Name to *Temperature Centigrade`.

4. Click back to dashboard.

All of your weather events conveniently display in a single Dashboard. To save the Dashboard, use the following steps:

1. Click the Pencil icon in the Untitled Dashboard field and name it Weather Events.

2. Click Save changes, and then click Leave editor.

Figure 4 - Completed Weather Dashboard

Editing Dashboards

After you create your new Dashboard, edit the existing cards by clicking the Pencil icon on the Dashboard. Edit your existing cards by changing any aspect of the displayed visualization or Dataset. To display or hide cards, click Editing card, and then click the Eye icon to toggle the card.

Figure 5 - Editing Dashboard Cards

Clicking the More icon, you see the following options:

Figure 6 - More Options on a Dashboard Card

Organize your cards on the Dashboard by clicking on a card and moving it to the desired location.

Adding Parameters and Filters to a Dashboard

If desired, add Parameters and filters to the Dashboard:

Figure 7 - Additional Options for Dashboard Cards

• Parameter - A form that allows filtering on charts and tables, or can filter on other parameters.

• Filtered dataset - Links worksheets to datasets so they can be filtered within the worksheet and are a destination in GraphLink.

Adding a New Parameter

Clicking Parameters displays Create new parameter and allows you to enter the following information:

• Type - select from the following types of Parameters:

  • Dropdown

  • Text

  • Number

  • Resource Instance

Figure 8 - Adding the Parameter Type

• Parameter ID (Token) - add the Token for the Dataset.

• Display Name - enter a name for the Parameter.

• Data Source - select a data source for the Parameter.

  • Dataset

  • Stage

  • Custom

• Select Dataset - select a Dataset from the list of available Datasets.

• Select Column - select a Column in the Dataset.

Click Add to dashboard to add the new Parameter to the Dashboard.

Adding a Filter to the Dashboard

Add Filters to a Dataset by clicking Filters from the Parameters and Filters menu.

Figure 9 - Adding Filtered Datasets

A filtered Dataset links Worksheets to Datasets and filters within the Worksheet and provides a destination in Graphlink.

To add a filtered Dataset, use the following steps:

1. Click +Add to Dashboard, and then select Filters.

2. On the Edit dataset filters, select the Input Source from the Data source list.

3. The Input Name defaults to the name of the selected Data source. Click Apply or add more Filters.