Using the Dashboard Manager
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Overview
The Dashboard Manager tool contains two modules: ‘Dashboard Manager’ and ‘Dashboard Backups’. Once installed, a System Administrator will navigate to the ‘Dashboard Management’ panel under the administrative section to use this tool.
The Dashboard Manager module contains the templates you create and push out to your users.
The Dashboard Backup module contains the backups generated when users are pushed dashboard templates. You can also manually create backups for users.
Actions
Follow the instructions below to perform tasks with the Dashboard Manager.
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Create a template |
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Push templates to users |
After you have created a template, you can push it to users from the subpanels in the Detail View of the template using these steps.
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Edit a template |
You can edit a template and push the update to a template’s associated users at any time. Keep in mind this only applies to Forced Tabs and Locked Dashboards association types.
After saving, the associated users will see the changes the next time they reload their home pages. Any filters/options/naming they had configured for dashlets on pushed pages will remain intact as long as those dashlets weren’t changed or removed by the administrator. *Please note that your personal dashboard will be overridden by creating or editing a template in Dashboard Manager. Refer to the instructions to restore the Admin defaults to learn how to create and restore backups easily for your affected admin account. |
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Backups can be created automatically when a new template is associated to a user or manually.
When you first associate a user to a template, the user’s existing homepage will automatically be backed up in case of an issue. These backups will be related to the user and shown in the subpanel Associated User Backups on a template’s Detail View. To manually create a backup:
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Edit a Backup |
It is currently not possible to edit an existing backup. The best approach would be to restore the backup to the user, edit it as desired and create a new backup. |
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Restore a user's backup |
If you need to restore a user's homepage, you can navigate to the Dashboard Backups module and do the following:
Please note that this does not allow you to restore a user’s backup to another user. To push dashboards to users, you’ll need to create a template then associate the template to the desired users. |
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Since the administrator’s personal dashboard is replaced by whatever template you are editing in the Dashboard Manager, it is important to always create a backup of your dashboards prior to editing any templates. On your home page’s upper left-hand side, there is a link that makes restoring your personal dashboard easy. Clicking the link will restore your “default” backup. So, whenever creating a backup for yourself for this purpose, be sure to mark it as default so that the correct backup can be recognized and restored. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q) What happens if I force two different saved dashboards to one user?
A) This isn’t possible. Any time you associate a user to a new dashboard template, they are unassociated from any other templates.
Q) What happens if I push a dashboard template to 20 users. A month later I edit that dashboard and add an additional tab.
A) For users in a Locked or Forced association with the template, a backup will be made of their current dashboard and the changes will be merged on their next visit to their homepage.
Q) What happens if I push a dashboard to 20 users. A month later I want to add an additional tab to only 10 of those users’ home screens. Do I create a second saved dashboard with only that tab to push to the 10 users? Or do I clone the original template, add a tab to the clone, remove the original template from only the 10 users and push out the new to them?
A) In order to preserve the users’ existing modifications to the original template, you’ll need to complete the following steps:
1. Duplicate the existing template.
2. Add new pages or dashlets as desired.
3. Do not remove or replace pages or dashlets unless you want those elements to be removed from the users’ dashboards along with any modifications they may have made.
4. Associate the 10 users to this new duplicated template.
By duplicating the dashboard and then moving users to it, their dashlet settings will remain intact. This will result in a new template with all users attached to it while the old template still exists, but has no associated users.
Q) If I remove a user from a template, does the layout stay or does it disappear for the user?
A) The homepage layout stays and becomes editable to the user.
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