Dashboard designer overview

General information

You can create custom dashboards in the application. Custom dashboards can include reports that come pre-packaged with the application and custom reports created with the ad hoc editor. The ad hoc editor can be launched from within the dashboard designer to create a report as part of the new dashboard. The ad hoc editor can also be accessed separately; see Chapter 21, Ad hoc report design.

Note: Previously created custom reports cannot be added to a custom dashboard. To add a custom report to a custom dashboard, the report must be created in the dashboard designer.

Reports are added to the dashboard with default input values applied, for example, the current date and time and all NE types. Add filters to specify input parameters, and use parameter mapping to apply the same filter to multiple reports in the new dashboard.

Dashboards can be saved to the Results folder. Running the dashboard runs the reports and displays the dashboard with the results. Opening the dashboard opens it in the dashboard designer.

Custom dashboards can be scheduled. The filters in the dashboard are available as parameters when a schedule is created. For example, if you have two reports that need to be run overnight with two NE types of interest, you can create a dashboard composed of the two reports with a filter for NE type. Create one schedule to run the dashboard with one NE type and one to run it with the other NE type. You will receive output showing results of both reports together, for the NE selected.