Introduction to Automate dashboards#

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Overview#

Dashboards are customizable pages made up of widgets that provide quick access to frequently used tasks and data visualizations. They can serve as default landing pages or be added to user menus.

Widget types#

Dashboards can include:

  • Counters: Show numerical data

  • Tables: Display structured data

  • Charts: Visualize trends and metrics

  • Text: Add notes or instructions using Markdown or HTML

  • Links: Provide quick navigation to other pages

Data filtering and sync behavior#

  • Widget data values and counts are filtered based on the hierarchy level where the dashboard is viewed.

  • Dashboard fields showing the item hierarchy (similar to “Located At”) update only after a full sync and not during real-time refreshes. For example, if users are added and moved to a site, any dashboards (at system or site level) won’t reflect the change until a full sync is run. Refer to Dashboard sync and refresh.

Dashboard access#

API access#

Dashboards can also be accessed via direct URLs:

/portal/#/admin/dashboard;name=<dashboard_name>

Use URL encoding for spaces, for example, /portal/#/admin/dashboard;name=Dashboard%20Call%20Groups. This link format allows support for cross-launching from portals where the name of the dashboard is known.

Admin permissions#

Admins with roles that have access profiles for creating and updating dashboards can design and add dashboards to menus. For details, refer to the Dashboard permissions section in Access profiles.

By default, admins have permissions to modify their own menu layouts and dashboards. If the menu layout or dashboard is at a higher hierarchy, they can clone and then modify the menu layout or dashboard at their hierarchy.

Related topics

Landing page conversion (v24.1 upgrade)#

When upgrading to Automate version v24.1:

  • Landing pages are automatically converted to dashboards. New data/Dashboard records are created from data/LandingPage records.

  • Welcome headers become Markdown-formatted dashboard Text widgets, with with the header prefix as ## and the text prefixed with ###.

  • Sections become dashboard Links widgets.

    Where a landing page link setting had Set default Model Type enabled for a link, this setting is also enabled in the dashboard Links widget for each corresponding link. Long lists of links may result in a scrollbar showing on the widget. In this case, the number of links can be divided into multiple widgets by modifying the converted dashboard.

  • Counters are grouped into dashboard Counter widgets

    Each widget will have up to three counters. The counters use Automate models as their source. Converted counters can be modified as required.

  • Charts from landing pages are not converted but can be manually recreated. Refer to Introduction to Automate dashboards.

    Examples are:

    • Cisco Headset Summary

    • Number Inventory Chart

    • Cisco UCCX Agent Stats Chart

    • Usage Growth Chart

    • Webex Teams License Chart

Additional changes

  • Saved searches now appear on the user’s Account page.

  • Default and custom landing page names with LP suffix are renamed with Dashboard.

    For other custom landing pages (landing pages without this suffix) detected on an upgraded system and converted, the original landing page names are retained as dashboards with the same name.

  • Conditions from landing page sections are applied to individual dashboard links using logical AND.

    This describes instances where a condition is set on the landing page as well as a condition at section level, where the converted Links dashboards provide both conditions for each individual link, joined with a logical AND.

  • A new database and resource model for its data has also been added: Insights reporter resources (data/ReporterResource).

    An additional resource model called data/CustomResourceModel has been added to allow for the custom creation of calculated fields for a reporter resource, which can then be selected for use when creating a widget based on the resource. For details, see: Custom Reporter Resource fields.

Dashboards created from converted landing pages allow for the same functionality as landing pages, but have an enhanced editing interface where, for example, a wide variety of chart widgets can be added to enrich the dashboards.

Note

It is recommended that dashboard conversions be inspected and edited if needed. For more details on dashboards, their maintenance and initial sync requirements after adding dashboard widgets, refer to Introduction to Automate dashboards.

Related element updates

During the conversion of landing pages to dashboards in an upgrade, the following related elements are also migrated:

  • Roles referencing landing pages are updated to dashboards.

  • Access Profiles get new dashboard permissions to Insights reporter resources. Refer to the Dashboard Permissions section in Access Profiles: Access profile permissions and operations.

  • Menu Layouts: Menu items containing landing pages as type are replaced with dashboard and the converted dashboard is matched and added. Any landing page display_as entries are converted to dashboard entries.

  • Configuration Templates are updated to reference dashboards instead of landing pages.

  • Field Display Policies: The groups and field_overrides roles containing references to landing pages are updated to reference dashboards instead of landing pages.