Managing data visualization

The article describes how to work with the module and create new dashboards based on existing ones.

Module interface

The Home page contains the Dashboards, Charts and Saved SQL queries blocks. The information in the blocks is gathered into groups:

• Favorite — items marked with ;
• Mine — items created by the current user;
• All — the first five items recently accessed by the user.

The blocks contain buttons:

• View all — go to the appropriate section of the module;
• +Dashboard, +Charts or +SQL query — go to the creation of items for data visualization.

To change how element thumbnails are displayed on the main page, use the Thumbnails switch.

In the top menu, there are buttons for quick navigation through the module sections:

• Dashboards;
• Diagrams;
• Datasets;
• SQL:
• • SQL editor;
  • Saved queries;
  • Query history.

  Click Settings to access the security, data, and profile management sections.

  To return to the home page, click on the logo in the upper left corner of the page.

  You can change the interface language by clicking the flag button in the upper right corner and selecting a language.

  Dashboards

  Dashboards are information panels that present data and their graphical display.

  The module contains several preset dashboards, which you can use immediately after installing it.

  Actions with dashboards:

  • edit dashboard properties. Here you can change the basic information about the dashboard;

    Editing the object in the More details section is recommended to advanced users only.
  • export a dashboard, where a zip-archive with the yaml files will be downloaded;
  • delete a dashboard, confirmation will be required;
  • add to favorites ;
  • multiple selection to delete or export several selected dashboards;
  • import dashboards  to the BI analytics panel.

  You can customize the sorting and filter for easier viewing and searching of dashboards.
  

  Working with the dashboard

  On the dashboard, you can explore the contents of charts, edit and manage the dashboard, and customize the data filter for display in charts.

  Hover your cursor over the required item to see the information the charts contain. Each chart has an menu with available actions:

  • Forced refresh the data of the selected chart;
  • switch to Full-screen mode of the chart view;
  • Edit chart — switch to the chart builder;
  • View query in the window with the query code for the selected chart;
  • View as table — see the tabular data of the selected chart. To copy the table to the clipboard, click the  icon;
  • Cross-filter scoping — configure the selection of charts to which you want to apply the filter;
  • Share:
  • • copy permalink to clipboard — copy the link to the chart;
    • send the chart by email.
  • Download:
  • • export the chart as CSV;
    • save the chart as a JPEG image.

    Actions available in the dashboard menu:

    • Refresh dashboard — Update the data of charts and reports on the dashboard;
    • enter Full-screen mode — Disable the top menu from the BILLmanager interface;
    • Save as — copy the dashboard to create new ones based on it. Read more in Creating a dashboard:
    • • Overwrite dashboard — activate the option to write changes to the current dashboard;
    • Download as image — download JPEG file;
    • Share — copy the link to the dashboard to the clipboard or send it by email;
    • Set auto-refresh interval — set the interval of data update on the dashboard.

    Creating the dashboard

    To create a dashboard, a builder without code is used.

    To create a dashboard based on a preset:

    1. Open the required dashboard → in the upper panel click the icon → select Save as:
    2. 1. Enable the Save as option to create a new dashboard.
       2. Specify the name of the new dashboard. By default, the panel adds [copy] to the dashboard name.
       3. Enable the also copy charts option to copy the same charts and reports to the new dashboard.
       4. Click Save. You will be redirected to the created copy of the dashboard.
          
    3. Click Edit dashboard.
    4. Select the data and charts to display and drag them to the dashboard.
       If there is no suitable chart in the list, you can Create new chart.
       To customize the layout, go to the Layout Elements tab and drag the required blocks onto the dashboard.
       Pull the edge of the item to resize it.
    5. Click Save to save the changes.
    

    For more information on creating a dashboard from scratch and setting up filters, see the  Apache Superset documentation.