Dashboard editor

The Dashboard editor provides a way to manage customized charts. You can use the Dashboard editor to view charts in a separate window, change chart properties, print charts, and drill-down to view detailed information and run queries. You can also copy charts to the clipboard, and then paste them into another application, such as an email.

The dashboard editor displays pre-defined dashboards for various tools, such as Patch and compliance. You must have previously launched a tool in order for its dashboard to appear in the dashboard editor. You can also create new dashboards.

To open the Dashboard editor, click Tools > Reporting/Monitoring > Dashboard editor. The Dashboard editor opens in the lower panel of the console. From the Dashboard editor toolbar, you can access the following features. Many of these features are also available from the menu that appears when you right-click a chart.

  • New dashboard: If you have a folder selected in the console, click the New dashboard button to create a new dashboard.
  • Add charts...: If you have a dashboard selected in the console, click the Add charts... button to add a new chart to the dashboard. You can add the same chart to a dashboard multiple times. For example, you may want to add the same chart more than once in order to apply custom properties to each chart and then view them side-by-side. To see if you already have a chart included in your dashboard, look for a message appended to the title that says, “on dashboard n times,” where n is 1 or greater. To change the order of the charts in a dashboard, simply click and drag the chart to the desired location.
  • Properties: Click to open the Properties dialog for the selected chart. The Properties button is only enabled if the selected chart can be edited. You can also edit a chart by right-clicking the chart and clicking Properties.... Some charts allow you to apply filters, some charts have editable properties, and some charts don't have either. For example, with some charts, you can specify a color palette and other charts have hard-coded colors that are defined in the Properties dialog. The options in Properties dialog vary by chart.
  • Delete selected items: Click to delete a chart. The Delete selected items button is only enabled if the selected chart or dashboard can be deleted. You can’t permanently delete the pre-defined dashboards.
  • Refresh: Refreshes the data in the charts in the dashboard. The charts in other dashboards will automatically synchronize.
  • Display dashboard in a separate window: Click to pop out the dashboard as a new window. When you view a dashboard in a separate window, you have access to additional functionality, including filtering by definition type, filtering by scope, applying custom filters, and customizing the auto-refresh. You can view multiple dashboards at a time. For example, you may want to view multiple dashboards for the same tool but employ different filters for each one. For more information about using filters, see Customize item lists with filters.

NOTE: Separate dashboard windows remain on top of the console. If you double-click a chart to drill down, you may need to reposition the dashboard in order to view the chart-generated query in the console.