This tutorial will take you step-by-step through creating and configuring a dashboard in Wink Reports.
I'll assume that you are already logged in to Wink Reports, and have setup at least one connector and selected some reports.
1. Create a dashboard
Use the sidebar on the left to visit the dashboard section of the website.
If it's your first time here Wink will create a new blank dashboard for you. You can either use a preset dashboard, or start adding reports manually. We're going to take the manual option.
If you've been here before and need a new blank dashboard to follow along, use the + tab to create a new one. You can create as many dashboards as you like.
Rename the dashboard by double clicking the title, and call it "Dashboard Tutorial".
2. Add some dashlets
When a report is added to a dashboard it displays as a "dashlet". A dashlet summarises the contents of a report, often in a visual way.
Let's start by adding some reports. Use the Add to Dashboard button:
Since I'm using ServiceM8, I'll choose some relevant reports, and click Add to Dashboard.
A dashlet for each report selected will be added to my dashboard.
3. Arrange dashlets
Now that some dashlets have been added to my dashboard, I'm going to arrange them into an order that makes sense to me.
Dashlets are placed in a grid to help you position them evenly, and you can change the position of a dashlet by clicking and dragging. You can also change the size of the grid using the zoom buttons:
4. Adjust filters
Just like reports, dashlets have filters which allow you change which information is shown.
Use the Filters button to reveal the filter panel:
If you adjust filter values (such as Date Range) you'll see the dashlets below update immediately. The filters shown are combined for the whole dashboard, so filters might be shared between several dashlets.
By default, the dashboard you created is only visible to yourself. If you are an administrator for your organisation you can choose to make this a shared dashboard, and it will then be visible to all users in the organisation. Regular users (non administrators) will not be able to make changes to the dashboard.
5. Adjust dashlet options
Some options can be changed per-dashlet. Hover the mouse over the dashlet heading to reveal the Options menu, identified by three dots:
Options such as Refresh and Remove are fairly straightforward, but the Filter Override is interesting:
This screen lets you manually adjust the filters just for this dashlet so they can have separate values to the overall filters. This means you can add the same report multiple times, but use different filter values to see different data. For example: you could have sales for this month, and sales for last month. Same graph but different date ranges.
You can also override the dashlet title to give a more specific description if needed.
The option menu allows you to resize a dashlet too. This makes it use more than one grid square which can allow more space for crowded graphs.
6. Next steps
After changing a few options, my dashboard now looks like this:
Here's a few things I can do now:
- Click the title of a dashlet to view the full report (using the same filters selected in the dashboard)
- Watch as the dashboard auto refreshes to show the latest graphs
- Create a new dashlet using the report designer
- Use the sharing button to allow another Wink user to have their own copy of my dashboard