Setting up a dynamic dashboard

Dashboards are essential communication tools to provide different levels of information. They are made up of widgets. These widgets can dynamically animate depending on the data selection and the period observed. This article explains how to configure a dashboard.

When the number of dashboards starts to grow, it is important to be able to present them in an orderly and categorized manner.

A dashboard to a name, description, he has a position in the list of dashboards and can be part of a category.

In the dashboard editing panel, you can classify it in a category by entering a category name or by selecting an existing category.

In the list of dashboards, you can select a dashboard and move it within a category or move it from one category to another. When a category is empty, it disappears from the list of categories. You can also order the categories among themselves. Dashboards that are not classified appear in the “other” category.

The dashboard description appears under the name of the selected dashboard.

A dashboard should not be static. It must allow its users to be informed on a subject through a set of resources and at different periods.

In the dashboard editing panel you can activate the options devices/assets selectors which will make it possible to define one or several data sources or the date picker.

Note that the dashboard module in the Device manager application is limited to devices and in the Asset manager application is limited to assets.

In the Device manager application:

“Add device selector” in the “Selectors” panel allows you to define a selection of devices by device type or by tags.
It is possible to create several selection boxes. These are independent of each other.
The use of tags and filters makes it possible to target logical sets (e.g. all “LoRa” devices regardless of their type)
Two modes of representation of the selectors are offered: vertical view or combo box.

In the Asset manager application:

“Add assets selector” allows you to define a selection of assets by asset type or by tags.
There is a way to define multi-level selections by clicking on the “+” icon and defining the selection criteria for each level. It is necessary to ensure that the organization of assets is designed from the ground up to allow the selection of interdependent sets and subsets.
The use of tags and filters makes it possible to target logical sets (e.g. all “IAQ” assets regardless of their type)
Two modes of representation of the selectors are offered: tree view or combo box.

The options next to each selection box allow you to define the behaviors of the selection box. The selection can be single or multiple, the element(s) can be preselected or not, the selection box can be visible or hidden.

For the creation of dashboards whose purpose is to allow a comparison between two sets, it is possible to create a second group of selection boxes independent of the first by clicking on “Add assets selector”

The panel date selector, allows you to define the behavior of the date picker. It is possible to activate the desired periods (days, weeks, months, years), to define the granularity of the step (quarter hourly, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) relating to each period and to define the default period type.

The use of selectors by widgets.

The devices or asset selectors created can be used as a dynamic data source for the widgets.

In the “data sources” tab by “object” you can choose “Devices / Asserts selector”, then in “Object” appears the list of selectors defined at the dashboard level.
In the “source date” by filter” tab you can choose a selector as the “parent” element of a subset of assets to compose your filter.

If several selectors have been defined, their generic name appears in the form of selector 1 - 1, selector 1 - 2, … where the first number represents the group and the second the level. Note that if the selector allows multiple selection and multiple elements are (pre)selected, then the widget will have multiple data sets to process.

The date selector can be used to define the timeframe of a widget or a time series.

The definition of the time frame of a widget or a time series can either inherit the parameters of the date selector (eg year 2025), or via the “custom” option allow you to define a period from the parameters of the date selector (eg year 2025 - 1 year).

On the other hand, in addition to choosing the period for data selection, you can indicate how the data should be grouped or split. Among all the options offered, “Period selector” only takes into account the type of period selected “ex Monthly consumption” if the selected period is per month.

While the “Dynamic step” option takes into account the period AND the step division corresponding to the currently selected period. Ex: daily consumption of the selected month if the selected period is per month.