Visual KPI site users can configure custom profiles, profile groups and dashboards in the user interface, or admins can configure profiles and dashboards sitewide using Visual KPI Designer.
Admins can either lock down default profiles and dashboards, or allow site users to customize both. Whether a new profile or dashboard is created in a Visual KPI site or added and configured in Visual KPI Designer, upon refresh both will mirror the new profile or dashboard. For example, if a user adds a new dashboard, it will be added in Visual KPI Designer, and vice versa.
There are three layers to profiles and dashboards settings:
- Profile Groups: profiles belong to profile groups, which gives you the ability to lock down, show/hide and manage multiple profiles as a group
- Profiles: a collection of multiple dashboards, a single watchlist, and a bookmark bar. Profiles can be associated with anything, such as a person (e.g. Sara’s profile), role (e.g. supervisor, executive, maintenance), site (plant 7), asset (satellite 2), etc.
- Dashboards: always a member of one or more profiles, dashboards are a custom layout of visualizations, KPIs, links, trends, tables, embedded content and any other object supported by Visual KPI.
To configure profiles and dashboards in Visual KPI Designer, use the Site Settings icon () to access Profiles & Dashboards.
For each Profile Group, Profile or Dashboard, add a Name. The names you choose will appear in your Visual KPI site under the appropriate icon. If you have more than one profile group, more than one profile, or more than one dashboard per profile, the list will appear in a pull-down menu.
Each has various attribute you can configure sitewide. All have the option to show or hide on your Visual KPI site if for some reason you don’t want to delete the item from Visual KPI Designer. Generally, you’ll want to Show a group profile, profile or dashboard to users, but if for some reason you want to hide something, but not delete it from Visual KPI Designer, you can set Show to FALSE.
Select & Configure Profile Groups
Access Profile Groups from the Profile icon () in Visual KPI sites and choose Change Profile. Use the drop-down menu to select a Profile Group.
To configure profile groups in Visual KPI Designer, use the Site Settings icon () to select Profiles & Dashboards and then Profile Groups. The Profile Groups configuration worksheet opens.
The default settings for profile groups are set to show (TRUE), the group is not private (FALSE), and it is not locked (FALSE).
Make a group private and specify the appropriate user (domain\user) if you only want certain users to have access (hidden from all other users). Note: This is usually done for you when creating private profile groups in the web browser, so there is rarely a need to edit these fields in Visual KPI Designer.
Lock a profile group if you don’t want users with access to customize or edit the group. In other words, they can’t add/delete/edit profiles in the group.
Select & Configure Profiles
Access Profiles from the Profile icon () in your Visual KPI site. Once you’ve selected a Profile Group, select a profile that belongs to that group.
To configure profiles in Visual KPI Designer, use the Site Settings icon () to select Profiles & Dashboards and then Profiles. The Profiles configuration worksheet opens.
Assign each profile to a Profile Group (will be given a default when created).
You can change the default behavior to Lock a profile (FALSE) so it can not be deleted/edited.
For each site, you must configure one profile as default. If multiple profiles are listed as default, the one that appears first in the list will always be considered the default. For each profile group, you must configure one profile as the default.
Select & Configure Dashboards
Access dashboards from the Dashboard icon () in Visual KPI sites. Once you’ve selected a Profile, you’ll see any dashboards that belong to the selected profile.
To configure dashboards in Visual KPI Designer, use the Site Settings icon () to select Profiles & Dashboards and then Dashboards. The Dashboards configuration worksheet opens.
You can change the default behavior to Lock a dashboard (TRUE/FALSE) so it can not be deleted or customized by end users.
Set a start and end time if you want the entire dashboard to conform to a specific time range (or relative time function) for all KPIs on the dashboard. The default is blank (meaning each object can have its own independent range) and users can adjust this for themselves on their device/browser individually.
Assign each dashboard to one or multiple profiles. To specify more than one profile, enter them separated by semicolons in the Profile field.
For each profile, you should configure one (and only one) dashboard as the default, otherwise, new users will see an empty dashboard and they’ll have to choose one. If you’ve assigned a default dashboard to a profile, but no other dashboards, the default dashboard will automatically open, and the user will only see the option to create a New Dashboard.
If you want every new user (or new device that is accessing the site for the first time) to go to a certain dashboard, set it as default.
If you want to make a copy of a dashboard (for example, to make your own custom version of a dashboard that has been locked down), there are two ways:
- Designer: copy the row in the worksheet and paste it into another a new row. Then you can edit the attributes for the duplicate dashboard. This will create the new dashboard, but will not change the contents of it, which is done in the browser.
- Browser: In the dashboard selection dropdown, choose New Dashboard and when creating the new dashboard be sure to check the box labeled Copy Existing Dashboard. This will make a copy of the current dashboard which you can then edit in the browser on your device.
Add Automated Dashboards via RCS
You can add automated dashboards coming from SQL or other sources via the Visual KPI Remote Context Service. When you have hundreds of sites or assets, this is a good way to automatically generate dashboards following the same pattern, rather than creating them manually.
If you would like to explore automating dashboards, contact us.
Learn more
Visual KPI Designer Site Settings
Customize Your Visual KPI Dashboard
Enroll in the Visual KPI Designer Online Training free. You can learn more about Dashboards, Profiles, and Sitewide vs Override Settings.