Working with dashboards

Updated in 2024

By default, when you start Alloy Navigator, the dashboard is the first thing you see. You can also access it anytime by selecting Go > Dashboard from the main menu or by navigating to My Work > Dashboard in the Sidebar.

The dashboard provides important information and quick links to frequently used actions. You may have multiple dashboards available based on your security role membership. If multiple dashboards are available, you can switch between them by selecting your desired dashboard in the Dashboard list in the upper-left corner of the Module menu (see Dashboard).

Each dashboard consists of informative panels, called widgets. There are several widget types, each serving a different purpose. Click 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.
Views: 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.
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.
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.
System Information: Displays information on the currently logged in user, currently used Alloy Navigator server and database details, and/or the link to the About Alloy Navigator window showing the details of the current Alloy Navigator installation.
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.
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.
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.

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.

Refreshing the dashboard

To make sure that the dashboard displays the latest data from the database, you may need to refresh it.

To refresh the dashboard:

To refresh a specific widget, click the Refresh Data button in the upper-right corner of the widget.
To refresh the whole dashboard, do any of the following:
- Press F5 on the keyboard.
- Select View > Refresh from the main menu.
- Click the Refresh Data button on the Standard Toolbar or the Module menu.

Working with widgets

When working with dashboard widgets, you can perform the following tasks:

To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To 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.
To open the About Alloy Navigator page:

If the dashboard includes a System Information widget with a link to the AboutAlloy Navigator page, click the link to open it.

NOTE: You can also access this page by clicking Help > About on the main menu.

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.

Working with dashboards

Refreshing the dashboard

Working with widgets

Customizing the dashboard

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