Edit1 Creating and Editing Dashboards
The first step in adding your own reports and metrics to Insight is to add or modify web parts on an existing dashboard or add a new dashboard.
To add a new dashboard, logon to Insight as a member of the IssueNet “Administrators” group. When you logon as an administrator Insight will display a
Modify icon on the toolbar. Clicking on the Modify icon will enable buttons for adding, editing, removing, and cloning dashboards. Clicking on the
Add button will open the Dashboard Editor. In the dashboard editor you can specify appearance options and security settings for the dashboard.
Edit1.1 Appearance Options
The appearance options allow you specify:
- Name– The label for the dashboard which identifies it on the Insight homepage
- Description– Descriptive text which will appear beneath the name
- Layout– The number of vertical columns into which the dashboard will organize its web parts
- Image– An image file which will identify the dashboard on the Insight homepage
Edit1.1 Security Settings
Below the appearance options you can specify the user and group privileges to the new dashboard. Each privilege type can be granted for either users or groups by selecting items in the left box and clicking the arrow buttons to add them to the right box.
You can specify the following privileges:
- View – Allows a user to view the dashboard on the Insight homepage and open the dashboard to view its web parts.
- Modify Shared Scope– Allows a user to modify the common view of the dashboard available to all users.
- Modify User Scope– Allows a user to modify a personal version of the dashboard which is specific to their account.
Edit1.3 Editing, Removing and Cloning Dashboards
The modify mode of the dashboard home page also provides buttons for editing, removing, cloning, dashboards on the home page. To edit remove or clone, click the button and then click the dashboard to which you want to apply the action.
Edit2 Positioning and Connecting Dashboards
Once you have added dashboards to the Insight homepage you can position them and connect them to indicate relationships between them. To begin positioning and connecting dashboards, click
Modify on the Insight homepage and click
Design.
Edit2.1 Positioning Dashboards
Once you have entered design mode you can drag dashboards into position on the homepage. By positioning the dashboards you can create an organized summary view of available dashboards for your users. The positioning is saved automatically when you exit design mode.
Edit2.2 Connecting Dashboards
In many instances users can more easily navigate the Insight homepage if similar dashboards are grouped together. For example, an organization may have one dashboard for the entire organization and other dashboards for specific projects and sub-projects. Dashboards may also be designed for specific managers, executives, team members or organizational units. To allow users to more easily identify the dashboards they are interested in on the homepage, Insight allows you to create connectors between dashboards which allow you to indicate relationships between the dashboards on the homepage. Using the connectors you can clearly organize dashboards as dashboards for projects and sub-projects or place dashboards for individuals in an organizational hierarchy.
To connect two dashboards:
- Click Modify and then Design on the Insight homepage
- Click Connect
- Click one of the dashboards you wish to connect
- In the Connections Editor select the two dashboards you with to connect and click Add
Follow the same steps and click
Remove to remove a connection between two dashboards.
Edit3 Adding Web Parts
Once you have at least one dashboard on the Insight homepage you are ready to add web parts to display the information your users are interested in. This section covers the basics of adding web parts to dashboards and continues to the specific features and capabilities of each web part type.
Edit3.1 Adding a New Part to a Dashboard
To add a new web part, log on to Insight as a user with privileges to modify the dashboard you want to add the web part to. While in view mode, click on the dashboard you want to modify to open it. Once you have opened the dashboard, you will want to open the web parts
Catalog. If there are no parts on the dashboard, the Catalog will open automatically, otherwise you can click on the
Catalog button to open it.
The web parts catalog allows you to add new blank parts or re-open closed parts previously added to the dashboard.
- Blank parts– parts based on the web part types discussed later in this section
- Closed parts– parts which have been hidden from view by being closed
If you are adding a new blank part, select the type of part you want to add and select the zone you wish to add the part to using the
Add To box and click
Add.
Edit3.2 Positioning Web Parts on a Dashboard
Once you have added a part to a dashboard you can re-position it by dragging it on the dashboard while in modify mode. You can reposition a part within a zone or move it from one zone to another. As you drag the part, a blue cursor will indicate when you have moved the part to a position into which it can be located.