Online Help | Web App

Working with dashboards

By default, when you start Alloy Navigator, you see the dashboard. You can also access it by selecting Dashboard from the navigation menu.

The dashboard provides you with important information and links to frequently used actions. You can have several dashboards available; your set of dashboards depends on your security roles membership. When multiple dashboards are available to you, you can switch between them by clicking the dashboard of your choice 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 many types of widgets for different purposes. 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.

  • 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 grids are listed in Common actions and Customizing 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 shows you the actual data from the database, you may need to refresh it.

NOTE: By default, the dashboard is refreshed automatically every few minutes.

To refresh the dashboard manually:

  • To refresh a specific widget, click the Refresh Data button in the upper right corner of the widget.
  • To refresh the whole dashboard, press F5 on the keyboard.

Working with widgets

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

  • ClosedTo collapse and expand widgets:

    If a widget is marked with the Minimize icon on the right of its header, you can minimize this widget by clicking its header. To restore the expanded size of the widget, click its header again.

  • ClosedTo change a chart filter:

    When there are multiple chart filters specified for a chart, you can preview the chart with one of the specified filtering conditions by selecting it in the drop-down list displayed in the upper-right corner of the chart widget.

  • ClosedTo drill down into chart data:

    Clicking a chart element opens a detailed view where you can see data records making up the value of the clicked element.

  • ClosedTo resize a table widget:

    • To adjust a size of your table widget, point the resize icon at the bottom right corner of your table and drag it to the desired size.

    • To restore the default size of the table widget, 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 anyone 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:

    When a dashboard displays an Announcements widget, you can display details of a particular Announcement by clicking it. This opens the Announcement window.

  • ClosedTo create objects using Create Actions:

    When a dashboard contains a Create Actions widget, you can create new objects by clicking list entries. For details on creating objects, see Adding records.

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

    When a dashboard contains 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:

    When a dashboard contains 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:

    When a dashboard contains a Links widget, you can open links and application shortcuts listed within it by clicking their names.

  • ClosedTo open the About Alloy Navigator page:

    When a dashboard contains a System Information widget with a link to the AboutAlloy Navigator page, you can open it by clicking.

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