Creating Custom Dashboards

A getting started guide to creating your own custom dashboards.

Introduction

Whilst Additionality comes with a range of pre-built dashboards to meet the majority of your requests, we recognise that sometimes you just want to make your own! This guide shows you how.

Before you start, check that you have access to the “Create Dashboards” feature – click on your profile picture in the top right of the screen and check that the “Create Dashboards” slider is switched on.

If you do not have access, you will need to request this from your organisational admin.

Before you start

Altitude provides you with access to a very broad range of data. Before you dive into dashboard design within Altitude, it is worth thinking through what you are trying to achieve. This will then help you use the tool more effectively to create the dashboards you need. For example, some questions you may wish to answer include:

• What questions am I trying to answer with this dashboard?
• Who is the audience?
• At a high level, what is the data I need to include? What does it relate to? (e.g. apps, users, encryption, policies, device compliance state, updates etc)
• Do I know enough about the data to select the right tables? Looking at the existing dashboards might help you here.

• How can it be presented to be easy to interpret? – e.g. am I looking to highlight issues, compare different numbers, demonstrate success? – this will help you choose the best type of visualization.

Selecting your data

Once you have access to the Create Dashboards feature, select “Reporting” and then “Create Dashboards” from the main navigation menu.

Start by giving your dashboard a name and a description, then click the +Visualization button to start designing your dashboard.

Select the Data Source you want to work with. You may initially need to experiment to find the best way of representing the data you are looking for.

Select your data options:

• Refresh Data: Refresh rates ranging from continuous to weekly. Select your refresh rate based on the criticality and risk indicators of the data in your dashboard.
• Process Data on Server: This is selected by default, and will give you the fastest results. Switch it off if you want the visualisation to pull the data from your tenant each time it is opened; however, be aware that this will give you a much slower load time.

You can then select your data from the database tables and views available. Do this by either scrolling through the list or, if you know the name of the table you are looking for, using the search bar at the top.

You can only select one table or view to include; to check you have the right one, click the magnifying glass icon to preview the data.

 

Click “Select Data” when you have chosen the table or view that you want to work with.

Designing your dashboard

You will then be taken to the dashboard design screen:

1. Data tab: this is where you add data to your visualization.
2. Settings tab: switch to this tab to edit colours, chart appearance and links.
3. Chart Type: click displayed chart type drop down to select your desired visualization type from the wide range of options available.
4. Fields: All fields in your selected table or view, with data type displayed to the left. This field list can be scrolled or searched, and you can use the + sign to add a calculated field or fields from another data source (see below).
5. Buckets: drag fields from the list into the relevant bucket to start building your visualization.
6. Visualization title: this will automatically be set as the name of the table or view you have selected. Click the pencil icon to edit this.
7. Workspace: view your visualization here!

The Settings options will vary depending on the visualization type you have chosen.

 Example 1

In this example, we have created a grid visualization, showing installed apps by last modified date and type.

Three Visualization Filters have been added, to allow the grid to be filtered by publisher, last modified date, and app type (i.e. source).

 

 

No filters have been applied to the Publisher and LastModified fields as the default view.

The data has been filtered to show only iOS apps, and sorted to show most recently modified apps first. These settings will be carried through.

To amend column headings or other field settings, click on the item in the bucket.

 

In this example, you can change the column name, and set the default sort order. Make your changes, and click Update.

 

 

Click the tick in the top right corner to save the visualization and add it to your dashboard.

 

Once the visualization has been added, you can click on the pencil icon or the three dots to edit it, or to copy (in order to paste onto a different dashboard), duplicate (onto the same dashboard), rename or delete it.

You can also click into it to display a blue border, allowing you to resize or move the visualization on your dashboard.

Save the overall dashboard by clicking the tick in the top right corner.

The filters don’t show in the full dashboard view – users need to click on the maximise arrow (circled below) to access the full functionality of the visualization.

 

 

Click the three dots in the top right to re-enter edit mode.

Example 2

This example uses a Stacked Column chart to combine Installed Device Count and Failed Device Count for applications across the estate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No visualization filters have been added.

 

 

 

However, in Settings, the Zoom level has been increased, which adds a scroll bar to your chart and makes the data easier to read.

 

 

Again, you can click on a selected field name within the bucket to edit settings. For example, we could change the field name to make it more readable for users, and change the sort order to Descending, to display by highest installed device count first, rather than alphabetical order.

 

 

 

 

This allows you to tailor your visualization to highlight what is important to you.

 

 

 Example 3

 It can be helpful to use Views rather than Tables – in these views, field names have been configured to be more user friendly.

This example uses the Device Info view, and a Pivot visualization to explore Enrollment Type by device ownership, operating system and Entra join type.

 

 

 As with pivot tables in other applications, you can create a data hierarchy within the rows – you may wish to experiment with this to group the data in a way which makes most sense.

Note that you will need to drop the same field into the values and columns section to make the visualization display correctly.

This has been created with a date filter – when maximised on the dashboard, this will allow end users to filter within a date range.

 

Combining multiple tables

You may notice that you are only able to add one table or view when first creating your dashboard.

 When you are editing a visualization, you can add extra fields or calculated fields, to essentially create your own custom view.

To do this, click the + sign at the top of the Fields column.

 

 

 

 

 

To add a field from another table or view, click Fields from another Data Source, select the item you want to add, and then select a field from each table to provide the join required for queries to run:

 

 

 

Tick the boxes to select the fields you want to include, and click Join Data.

The additional fields will be added to the Fields list, with a heading to indicate their source.

To add a calculated field, click the plus sign and click New Calculated Field.

Use the wizard to create your calculated field – you will generally do this by selecting the function first from the list on the right, and then using the list of fields to complete the parameters. 

Click Create Field when done, and your calculated field will be available for use.

 

Refining your Custom Dashboard

Once you have added your visualizations to your dashboard, you have a few additional options to refine the presentation.

 

Add filter

 In Edit mode, click “Add Filter” to add a filter which will apply to all selected visualizations.

 Select either Add Dashboard Filter or Add Date Filter:

 

 

 

If you choose Date Filter, you will be able to give the filter a name, and then choose which visualizations you wish to filter, by clicking Connect.

If only one date field is available, this will automatically be selected. If more than one is available, you can select the field you wish to use. If no date field is available, you will not be able to connect the visualization to your filter.

 If you choose Add Dashboard Filter, you will need to select a data source:

Then, as with creating a visualization, select the table or view and click Select Data:

You can then configure your filter by:

• editing the name
• selecting the field you wish to display
• selecting your selection type – select or deselect Multiple to determine whether multiple filter selections are possible, and determine whether at least one filter must always be selected.
• selecting the data filters you want to make available, along with any default settings
• connecting your visualizations.

Click Create Filter when you are done, and click the tick to save the dashboard.

Adding text boxes

In edit mode, click the arrow next to the Visualization button:

 

This allows you to add a Text Box to your dashboard, adding a narrative or user instructions.

Select your desired text size and alignment, enter a title and text, and then click the tick to save it.

The text box will automatically be added to the bottom of your dashboard. You can resize and move it by dragging and dropping.

Click the tick to save the dashboard when you are done.

The user can then see your default filters but is able to change the settings and apply their own filter criteria.

Finding your Custom Dashboard

Once you have created your dashboard, you can find it (along with any other dashboards created within your organisation) under the Custom Dashboards main navigation menu.