Managing dashboards¶

About the Dashboards app¶

The Dashboards app makes it possible to present a high level overview of your data, including displaying analytical objects such as maps, charts, reports and tables, as well as displaying text-based information, resource links, and app widgets.

Features of the Dashboards app include:

View and print dashboards
Create and edit dashboards
Share dashboards with users and user groups
Apply temporary filters while viewing dashboards
Responsive view on mobile devices and small screens
Access dashboards while offline

Dashboards app layout¶

Dashboards have a title, description, and any number of dashboard items. Above the dashboard is the dashboards bar, which shows all your available dashboards, a dashboard search field, and a + button for creating a new dashboard.

The Dashboards app has two modes: view and edit/create. When you first log in to DHIS2, your most recently used dashboard will be displayed in view mode, if you are on the same computer as you were previously. If you are using a different computer or browser, then the first starred dashboard will be displayed. If there are no starred dashboards, then the first dashboard (alphabetically) will be displayed. Starred dashboards always show first in the dashboard list.

Below is an example of a dashboard named "Antenatal Care", which has been populated with charts and maps:

Personalization¶

The Dashboards app can be personalized in the following ways:

Responsive view on small screens¶

When viewing dashboards on small screens (for instance, portrait orientation on a mobile phone ), the dashboard will adapt to the screen and show all items in a single column. Some options, including editing, filtering and sharing, will not be available.

Searching for a dashboard¶

You can search for a specific dashboard using the search field in the upper left of the dashboards bar entitled “Search for a dashboard”. The search is case insensitive, and as you type, the list of dashboards will be narrowed down to those that match your search text.

Personalizing the height of the dashboards bar¶

You can set a specific height for the dashboards bar by down-clicking and dragging the bottom edge of the bar. When you finish dragging, the new height will be set. Clicking on the down arrow at the bottom of the dashboards bar will expand the bar to its maximum height (10 "rows"). Clicking on the up arrow will reset the height to your personalized height.

Creating and editing a dashboard¶

To create a new dashboard, click the + button in the left corner of the dashboards bar to enter create/edit mode:

To edit an existing dashboard, click the Edit button next to the dashboard title (you must have edit access to see this button):

In create/edit mode, you can add or change the dashboard title, description and dashboard items. If you do not add a title, the dashboard will automatically be titled "Untitled dashboard".

Adding items to the dashboard¶

Add items to the dashboard by searching for items using the Search for items to add to this dashboard drop down selector. Item types are:

Visualizations (charts and tables)
Maps
Event reports
Event charts
Reports
Resources
Apps
Messages
Text boxes
Spacers

The list of items in the drop-down initially displays 10 visualizations (charts and tables), and 5 from each of the other categories, based on the search text you enter. Messages (Email), text boxes and spacer items are also found in the list. To view more items, click on Show more, and the list for that type will be extended to 25 items. If you still do not find the item you want, try typing a more specific search text.

Dashboard layout and placement of new items¶

When adding items to the dashboard you can choose an overall layout by clicking on Change layout button. You can change this layout setting at any time.

With Freeflow layout, the added items can be moved using the mouse by down-clicking on the item and dragging it to the desired position. Items can also be resized with the mouse by down-clicking on the drag handle in the lower right corner of the item and dragging to the desired size.
With Fixed columns layout, you can choose the number of columns to have on the dashboard, and the dashboard will automatically be layed out for you. Items cannot be moved or resized in Fixed columns layout.

You can also configure whether newly added items are automatically placed at the start or end of the dashboard by choosing the desired option. This option can be changed at any time.

Spacer items¶

When adding items to the dashboard using Freeflow layout, they will "rise" upwards until they bump into another item. In order to force empty vertical space between items (like an empty row), you can add spacer items to the dashboard. They are only visible in edit/create mode. In view mode, they are not displayed, but take up the defined space.

Spacer in edit/create mode:

Spacer in view mode:

Removing items¶

Remove items by clicking on the red trash can at the upper right of the item. Be aware that when you remove an item while in Freeflow layout, the items that are positioned below the removed item will "rise" upwards until they bump into an item above.

Actions in create/edit mode¶

In create/edit mode you will see the following buttons in the actions bar at the top of the page: Save changes, Print preview, Filter settings, Translate, Delete, and Exit without saving. The Translate and Delete buttons are only shown if you are editing an existing dashboard.

Saving the dashboard¶

When creating or editing a dashboard, changes are saved when you click the Save changes button. If you don't want to save your changes, click the Exit without saving button. You will then be returned to view mode with the dashboard you were previously viewing.

Print preview¶

Click on the Print preview button to view what the dashboard will look like when being printed with the Dashboard layout option.

Click on Exit print preview to return to editing the dashboard.

Note that some items may be moved to the next page to avoid being split between two pages. Items may also be shortened to fit on one page. Items that are shortened show an info icon in the upper right corner of the item in preview. The info icon is not visible in the actual print.

Restricting dashboard filters¶

By default, users will be able to filter dashboard items by any dimension defined in the DHIS2 instance. Dashboard filter settings can be edited for a dashboard by clicking on Filter settings.

To restrict available filters, you can click Only allow filtering by selected dimensions and select the filters you wish to allow on the dashboard. Period and Organisation Unit are selected by default but can be removed if desired. When the dashboard is viewed, users will only be able to choose from among the filters selected.

In order to save updates to filter settings, you need to first click Confirm to close the Filter settings dialog and then click Save changes to save the dashboard changes.

Translating dashboard title and description¶

If you are editing an existing dashboard, then there will be a Translate button. Click on this button to open the Translation dialog, which provides a list of languages to translate to, and shows the original dashboard title underneath the name input field. First choose the language you want to translate for, then fill in the dashboard name and description translation.

Deleting a dashboard¶

If you have access to delete the dashboard, then there will be a Delete button. When you click the Delete button, a confirmation dialog will first be displayed to confirm that you want to delete the dashboard.

Viewing a dashboard¶

From view mode, you can toggle showing the description, star a dashboard, apply filters, print the dashboard, make the dashboard available offline, and share the dashboard with other users and user groups.

Show description¶

To toggle the description, open the ...More menu and choose Show description (or Hide description). This setting will be remembered for all dashboards that you open. This setting applies to you, not other users.

Star dashboards¶

Your starred dashboards are listed first in the list of dashboards for quick access. To star a dashboard, click on the star button to the right of the title. You can also toggle the star from the ...More menu. When the star is “filled”, that means the dashboard is starred. Starring a dashboard only applies to you, not other users.

Filtering a dashboard¶

Applying filters to a dashboard change the data displayed in dashboard items containing visualizations. The filters are applied to each dashboard item in the same way: each added filter overrides the original value for that dimension in the original chart, table or map. It is possible to filter on Organisation Units and Periods, as well as dynamic dimensions, depending on the DHIS2 instance. You can apply multiple filters to the dashboard.

To add a filter, click on the Add Filter button and choose a dimension:

A dialog opens where the filter selection can be made.

Click on Confirm in the dialog to apply the filter to the current dashboard.

Filters are not stored, so when switching to a different dashboard they are reset. Black filter badges appear above the dashboard items to indicate which filters have been applied to the dashboard's visualizations.

Current filters displayed as badges above the dashboard

You can edit a filter by clicking on the filter badge to open the filter selection dialog. A filter can be removed by clicking on the Remove button on the badge. Whenever a filter is added, edited or removed, the dashboard items reload to show the updated data. The filter badges are always visible at the top of the page when scrolling the dashboard content.

By default, users are able to filter dashboard items by any dimension defined in the DHIS2 instance. To limit available filters, see Restricting dashboard filters.

Making dashboards available offline¶

To make a dashboard available offline, choose the Make dashboard available offline option in the ...More menu. This will cause a reload of the dashboard where requests to the server are recorded and saved in browser storage. Note that offline dashboards are only available on the computer and browser where you set it to offline. If you currently have a filter applied when requesting the dashboard be made available offline, a dialog will appear to confirm the removal of the filters.

Dashboards that have been saved for offline have an indicator on the dashboard chip in the dashboards bar, as well as a tag showing the time it was saved.

If the dashboard has been changed since you made it available offline, either by you or someone else, you'll need to choose Sync offline data now from the ...More menu to save the latest version of the dashboard.

You can remove a dashboard from offline storaged by choosing Remove from offline storage in the ...More menu.

Other notes about Dashboards app when you are offline:¶

If you manually log out of the DHIS2 instance, all cached dashboards will be cleared and they will no longer be available offline.

If you are offline, any buttons or actions that require a connection to complete successfully are disabled. They will be re-enabled once connectivity is restored.

Printing a dashboard¶

From the ...More menu you can print the current dashboard. There are two styles of dashboard print: Dashboard layout and One item per page. For both styles, a title page is added that shows the dashboard title, description (if the Show description setting is enabled), and any applied dashboard filters.

For best print results:

use Chrome or Edge
wait until all dashboard items have loaded before printing
use A4 landscape setting with default margins set and background graphics turned on

Print dashboard layout¶

Dashboard layout print will approximate the dashboard layout as it is shown in the browser. Note that some adjustments may need to be made to the layout in order to prevent items being split onto multiple pages: items that would be cut off by a page break are moved to the next page, and items that are taller than one page are shortened to fit on one page.

Once in print mode, click on the Print button in the upper right to trigger the browser print functionality.

Print one item per page¶

This style of print will print each dashboard item on a separate page, maximizing the use of the paper size.

Click on the Print button in the upper right to trigger the browser print functionality.

Dashboard items with charts, pivot tables or maps¶

Dashboard items with charts, pivot table or maps may have an item menu button in the upper right corner of the item with additional viewing options, depending on the system settings that have been configured for the DHIS2 instance. If all the relevant system settings have been disabled by the DHIS2 instance, then there will not be an item menu button. Here are the possible item menu options:

Switching between visualizations¶

It is possible to toggle the visualization view for items containing charts, pivot tables and maps. Click on the item menu button and choose the desired view (e.g., View as Table, View as Map, View as Chart):

View item in fullscreen¶

To view the chart, table or map in fullscreen, click on the View fullscreen option. To exit fullscreen, you can either press esc key or click the exit button in the upper right corner of the fullscreen view.

Open in app¶

To open the visualization in its corresponding app (e.g., Data Visualizer, Maps) click on the Open in [app name] app option.

Show interpretations and details¶

You can write interpretations for the chart, pivot table, map, event report, and event chart items by clicking on Show interpretations and details:

The item will be expanded vertically underneath to show the description, interpretations and replies. You can like an interpretation, reply to an interpretation, and add your own interpretation. You can edit, share or delete your own interpretations and replies, and if you have moderator access, you can delete others’ interpretations.

It is possible to format the description field, and interpretations with bold, italic by using the Markdown style markers * and _ for bold and italic respectively. The text field for writing new interpretations has a toolbar for adding rich text. Keyboard shortcuts are also available: Ctrl/Cmd + B and Ctrl/Cmd + I. A limited set of smilies is supported and can be used by typing one of the following character combinations: :) :-) :( :-( :+1 :-1. URLs are automatically detected and converted into a clickable link.

Interpretations are sorted in descending order by date, with the most recent shown on top. Interpretation replies are sorted in ascending order by date, with the oldest shown on top.

Sharing a dashboard¶

In order to share a dashboard with users and user groups, click on the Share button to the right of the dashboard title to display the Sharing and access dialog.

There are three levels of sharing permissions available for a dashboard:

No access

The user or user group cannot view or edit the dashboard. If they try to access the dashboard with the url, the Dashboards app will display the message "Requested dashboard not found".

View only

The user or user group can view the dashboard but cannot edit it.

View and edit

The user or user group can view and edit the dashboard. This level of sharing allows for all types of changes, including altering the layout, resizing and removing items, renaming and deleting the dashboard, etc.

All dashboards have the All users group set to No access by default. The All users group includes all logged-in users.

Add users and user groups¶

To share a dashboard with specific users and user groups, type the name in the input field, choose the desired access level and click on Give access.

You can provide users with the url of the dashboard, allowing them to navigate directly to the dashboard. To get the dashboard url, just open the dashboard in view mode, and copy the browser url. For example, the url to the Antenatal Care dashboard in play.dhis2.org/dev is:

https://play.dhis2.org/dev/dhis-web-dashboard/#/nghVC4wtyzi

To ensure that all charts, maps and tables on the dashboard are shared with the chosen users and user groups, click on the Apply sharing to dashboard items button.