Online Help | Desktop App

Working with dashboards

Retired in 2025.2

IMPORTANT: This page describes a feature from the Desktop App, which was removed in Fall 2025. See how this feature is enhanced in the Web App

By default, the dashboard is the first thing you see when you start. You can also open it anytime by navigating to My Work > Dashboard in the sidebar. The dashboard displays key information and provides shortcuts to frequently used actions, allowing you to monitor important data and quickly access the tools you use most often. For an illustration, see Dashboard.

The dashboard consists of informative panels called widgets. Several widget types are available, each serving a different purpose.

ClosedClick here to view the full list of supported widget types.

  • Announcements: Displays a list of Announcements and allows opening each Announcement in a separate window for viewing. For details on Announcements, see Announcements.

  • Chart: Displays a chart or graph built from the data retrieved from the Alloy Navigator database in accordance with the specified shared view or SQL query. For details on operations available for charts, see the corresponding tasks below.

  • Counter: Displays numeric values and trends to track important metrics.

  • Create Actions: Displays a list of Create Actions for creating various Alloy Navigator objects and allows creating new objects using these Actions directly from the dashboard. For details on other typical ways of creating objects, see Adding records.

  • Latest Activities: Displays the most recent activity on certain objects, typically related to the current user.

  • Links: Displays a collection of links to internal and external resources. This widget can include both pre-configured links, such as a link to the Alloy Software Web page, and custom links, such as links to files (including shortcuts to applications), folders, hyperlinks to HTML pages on the Internet or Intranet.

  • Report List: Displays a list of reports and allows opening these reports for viewing, printing, or exporting directly from the dashboard. For details on Reports, see Reports.

  • Table: Displays a portion of Alloy Navigator data. This widget allows users to view important data (for example, overdue Incidents) on the dashboard and easily open the details of any Alloy Navigator object this widget contains. For details on operations available for table widgets, see the corresponding tasks below. Operations available within most of other Alloy Navigator data grids are listed in Common actions and Customizing data grids.

  • View: Displays a list of shared views for various Alloy Navigator data grids and allows opening these views directly from the dashboard. For details on Views, see Working with views.

NOTE: The title of a widget does not depend on its type. Titles and other properties of widgets are specified by the Alloy Navigator administrator.

NOTE: When there is no data to display, all widgets may be automatically hidden from view. The only exception is Chart widgets, which are always shown.

Some widgets are interactive, others just display information. You can do the following with widgets on a dashboard:

  • ClosedTo collapse and expand widgets:

    If a widget has a Minimize icon in the upper-right corner of its header, you can minimize this widget by clicking the header. To expand it again, click the header once more.

    NOTE: You can open a chart from a chart widget in a separate resizable window by right-clicking the chart and selecting Zoom In from the pop-up menu.

  • ClosedTo change a chart filter:

    If a chart has multiple filters, you can preview the chart with a specific filter by selecting it from the drop-down list in the upper-right corner of the chart widget.

  • ClosedTo zoom in a chart:

    1. Open a chart in a separate window by right-clicking it in the chart widget and then clicking Zoom In (or by clicking Zoom in button on the widget's toolbar).

    2. Resize the opened window to the necessary extent.

  • ClosedTo drill down into chart data:

    When chart elements are displayed as clickable, you can drill down into chart data. Clicking on a chart element opens a detailed view, showing the data records that make up the selected value.

  • ClosedTo resize a table widget:

    • To resize a table widget, hover over the resize icon in the bottom-right corner of the table and drag it to the desired size.

    • To restore the default table size, click the Refresh icon.

  • ClosedTo view details of table records:

    • To view details of a single record displayed within a table widget, double-click it.

    • To view details of multiple records, select them within the table, right-click any of them, and choose Open from the pop-up menu. For details on selecting multiple records, see Selecting multiple records.

  • ClosedTo view details of an Announcement:

    If the dashboard includes an Announcements widget, you can view the details of an announcement by clicking on it, which opens the Announcement window.

  • ClosedTo create objects using Create Actions:

    If the dashboard includes a Create Actions widget, you can create new objects by clicking the entries listed. For details on creating objects, see Adding records.

  • ClosedTo open a list of views within a Views widget:

    If the dashboard includes a Views widget, you can open Views listed within it by clicking their names. For details on Views, see Working with views.

  • ClosedTo open reports listed within a Reports widget:

    If the dashboard includes a Reports widget, you can open Reports listed within it by clicking their names. For details on Reports, see Reports.

  • ClosedTo open links listed within a Links widget:

    If the dashboard includes a Links widget, you can open links or application shortcuts by clicking their names.

Refresh the dashboard

The currently displayed dashboard refreshes automatically every few minutes. You can also refresh specific widgets or the entire dashboard manually.

  • To refresh a widget, click Refresh in the upper-right corner of the widget.

  • To refresh the whole dashboard, press F5 on your keyboard.

  1. In the Customize Dashboard pane, open the Sharing tab.

Customizing the dashboard

Default properties of widgets and your dashboards are configured by your Alloy Navigator administrator. However, you can locally customize dashboards by selecting particular widgets to be displayed, choosing a dashboard layout, and more.

To personalize a dashboard, click the Customize button on the Module menu. For details, see Customizing dashboards.

To learn how this feature works in the Web App, see Customizing dashboards.

Related Information:

Dashboard

Customizing dashboards

Announcements

Summary Reports

Working with views

Adding records

Related Information for Administrators:

Managing dashboards

Understanding security roles