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The Dashboard Maintenance Screen
This screen lists all of the available dashboards within your database. Along with the dashboard's name, you can also see when the file was last modified.
From this screen you can:
- Upload a new dashboard from a file
- Delete an existing dashboard
- Update an existing dashboard from a file
- Save the selected dashboard to a file
- Design a new or modify an existing dashboard file
How Dashboards Are Used by Acclamare
There are two different widgets in the system. The dashboard designer is available in the Configuration Utility and the dashboard viewer is available in the desktop client. You can think of these as being similar to how reports work; you must design your report in one tool and it is viewed in another.
Both of these widgets utilize a single XML file (per dashboard) to tell them: what data is being used, which dashboard elements to display (charts, grids, pivots, etc.), how the elements are arranged, and any other information that is needed in order to present the data to the user.
In order to make it easier to share a dashboard with multiple users, Acclamare stores the contents of these XML files in a database table. These dashboard records can then be used to assign a dashboard to any user in the system. Since the file contents are being saved to the database, you can make a modification to the dashboard and all users that are assigned that dashboard will get the update.
The system does not actually use the XML file once it's been uploaded to database. However, the file is still necessary if you wish to use the designer to modify a dashboard. As such, even after a file has been uploaded to the database, you should still keep a copy of the file for your use. Keep in mind that the system doesn't know about changes you've made to the XML file until you use the 'Update From File' action (discussed below).
Default Dashboards
When the configuration utility upgrades the database, it will also insert or update any dashboard files that have been included with the latest version. All dashboards that are created by us will have the word 'default' in the title of the dashboard. If you are interested in modifying a default dashboard, I would highly recommend saving the corresponding file with a new name and uploading it as a new dashboard after you have modified it in the designer.
New Dashboards
After you've designed a new dashboard, you will need to upload the contents of the file to the database. You do this by clicking the 'New' button in the menu. You will immediately be presented with the standard Windows file screen. Simply navigate to where the file is stored and click the 'Open' button. The system will create a new record in the database will this file's contents.
Deleting an existing dashboard
Simply select the row you wish to delete and click the 'Delete' button in the menu. The configuration utility isn't is robust as the client software is. You must ensure that the dashboard isn't assigned to any users prior to deleting the record.
Updating an existing dashboard
After you've made modifications to an existing dashboard file, you need to upload the file to the database. Simply select the row you wish to update and click the 'Update From File' button in the 'Actions' menu. Once you've applied the changes, don't forget to save.
Save to File
All dashboards, whether they are defaults or custom creations, should be saved as a file so that they can be easily modified later. If a file has been lost or accidentally deleted, you can, as a last resort, save a dashboard record back to a file. I caution against doing this unless you're familiar enough with XML to modify the file for your usage. As part of the upload process, many elements that are needed in order to design the dashboard must be stripped out of the XML file that is stored to the database. These elements are not only not needed by the dashboard viewer located in the client software, but they actually impede the viewer from functioning in the way that we intend for it to work. This is why we recommend keeping a copy of the dashboard files, should you ever want to modify them easily.