Dashboards

A dashboard is a grid of cards laid over an artifact's tables. Where a view reads a table as rows, a dashboard reads it as numbers and small charts.

Opening a dashboard

Every artifact has a dashboard. Above the artifact, a switch reads Data and Dashboard. Data shows the tables. Dashboard shows the cards. The switch is kept in the page's address, so a link or a refresh lands on the same side.

The first time an artifact's dashboard opens, it holds one empty tab named Overview. A dashboard can hold several tabs, shown beneath the cards. Add, rename, reorder or delete them from there. Deleting a tab asks first, and its cards go with it. The last tab stays.

A card is a layout plus content

A card has two parts. The layout is fixed and the content is yours. The layout arranges the pieces. The content is the wording and the formulas that fill them. The product controls the layout so cards stay consistent and readable. You control the content.

There are four layouts.

Cards are formula-driven

A card's number and its chart are formula slots. They use the same formula language as a formula column, and they reach any table in the artifact by name (see Formulas). A KPI's big number might be =SUM([Weekly check-ins.Shipped]). Its chart might be =SPARKLINE([Weekly check-ins.Shipped]).

Because cards read the tables live, they are always current. Nothing is copied in.

Adding a card

Press Add a panel above the dashboard, or Add a card on an empty one. A card is added in three steps.

1. Pick a chart type from the list on the left. The types are Sparkline, Bars, Waterfall, Rank, Horizon, Likert, Bullet, Delta, Progress and Heat cell.
2. Pick a layout. The chosen chart is drawn in all four layouts, and you pick the one you want. Continue moves on.
3. Fill it in. Edit the wording and the formulas while the layout stays fixed. A live preview beside the form draws from real rows. Add card saves it.

The first formula is filled in for you from a real column, so the preview draws from the start. A card saves only when it draws. If a formula has a problem, the reason shows beside the buttons.

Arranging cards

• Move a card by dragging its head. The other cards make room as you drag.
• Resize a card by dragging its edge.
• Rename a card by double-clicking its title, or from its menu.
• Edit panel in a card's menu reopens its content. The layout stays as it was chosen.
• Delete in a card's menu removes the card. It asks first. The tables it reads stay as they are.

Full screen, beside Add a panel, shows the dashboard alone. Escape returns.

Undo, redo and reset

The Undo and Redo buttons step through the changes to the cards, adding, moving, resizing, deleting and editing. The steps are kept with the dashboard, so they survive a refresh.

Reset returns every card to its default size and closes the gaps between them. It asks first, and Undo brings your layout back.

The period

The Period picker on the right narrows every card to a date range. It starts at All time. Each table is narrowed by its first date column, and a table with no date column is read whole.

The chosen period is saved with the dashboard and carried in the page's address, so a shared link shows the same window. Clearing it returns to All time.

Microcharts

The charts on a card, and the charts inside formula cells, are the same small inline drawings. They are word-sized or slot-sized, drawn as plain SVG, and themed to the brand. A chart that carries a real series (a 60-row trend, say) spreads across its slot so it reads as a trend.

They are drawn with microcharts, an open-source inline-SVG chart library.

See the formula functions for the function behind each of these.

Dashboards and the workspace

Cards are kept in the workspace like everything else. When a card's own content changes it redraws itself, without redrawing the other cards.