Dashboards

Following sections provides help for creating, saving, publishing and managing dashboards.

Contents

• Manage Dashboards Folder in Report Manager
• Basic Data for Dashboards in IFS EE
• Create a Report as a Dashboard
• Save a Dashboard in Report Manager
• Define and Publish a report in IFS EE
• Access a Dashboard

Manage Dashboards Folder in Report Manager

Before you can manage and save a report as a dashboard, the Dashboards folder in Report Manager must have been created. Check the Configuration of Report Manager in the installation section for more information >>.

A report publisher can create subfolders in the Dashboard directory and create a folder structure to arrange reports as needed. This is recommended if the number of dashboards is high.

To manage dashboards in Report Manager:

1. Open the Dashboards folder in Report Manager and click the New Folder. Specify the name of the folder and give an appropriate description. Security settings of a newly created folder will be inherited from the top folder by default. E.g., all report users that have permissions to view the Dashboards folder, will also have permissions to view reports saved in the subfolders.
   The name and description of an existing folder can be modified through the General Properties page of the folder.

When saving a report as a dashboard, it can be saved in the Dashboard top folder or in any of the subfolders.

Basic Data for Dashboards in IFS EE

When defining a dashboard as a Quick Report in IFS EE the report must be connected to a quick report category and a quick report type. The report publisher defines the quick report categories needed for dashboards. If the number of dashboards is high it is recommended to save the report in categories that will facilitate for the report viewers to locate the dashboards.

To add a quick report category in IFS EE:

1. Open Business Reporting & Analysis/Administer Quick Reports/Ad-hoc/Quick Reports Categories page in IFS Enterprise Explorer.
2. Select Quick Report Administrator, right-click and click Add Category.
3. Type an appropriate report category name. To distinguish the dashboards from other Quick Reports, it can be advisable to start the report category name with e.g. BI or AM

Figure 1: Define a Quick Report category

There is a system defined quick report type named DASHBOARD for the purpose of defining dashboards as quick reports in IFS EE.

Create a Report as a Dashboard

To create a dashboard reports:

1. Go to IFS Enterprise Explorer. Click Report Builder in Business Reporting & Analysis/My Reports page, to start Microsoft Report Builder 3.0 and create a blank report.
2. Create a data source and a dataset as mentioned in Data sources and Datasets section.
3. Plan a dashboard report to decide which data you are going to present and what visualization items will be used.
4. Create the dashboard  in Report Builder by using charts, gauges, indicators etc. Refer to Getting Started section and the example dashboard reports described below the Report Design section.

Save a Dashboard in Report Manager

In order to save a report in the Dashboards folder, you must belong to the Report Publisher user group.

To save a dashboard in Report Manager

1. Click Report Builder and then Save As, to save the report in the report server.
2. Select Recent Sites and Servers. Select or enter the name of the report server and select Dashboards folder to save the report. Type a name for the report and click Save. A report can also be saved in a subfolder to the Dashboards folder.

Define and Publish a Dashboard in IFS EE

To define and publish a dashboard in IFS EE you must have permissions to use Quick Reports in IFS Solution Manager.

1. Open the Business Reporting & Analysis/Administer Quick Reports/Create New Quick Report page in IFS Enterprise Explorer.
2. Click New.
3. Follow the procedure below to define a Report Builder dashboard as a quick report.
   1. Enter a report title and select DASHBOARD as the report type.
   2. Select a category.
   3. Open the Add Report Reference dialog by clicking the button next to the Report Reference field. Add a value to the Report Reference by choosing a dashboard in the dialog.
   4. You may also add comments to the report in the Comments field. The presentation object is automatically generated when you publish the dashboard.
   5. Click Save. 
      
      
      Figure 2: Quick report definitions for a Report Builder dashboard.
       
4. Follow the procedure below to define a Web Dashboard as a quick report.
   1. Enter a report title and select DASHBOARD as the report type
   2. Select a category
   3. Enter a hyperlink of a web dashboard in the Report Reference field
   4. You may also add comments in the Comments filed. Click Save and then click Publish to automatically generate presentation object for the quick report.
      
      Figure 3: Quick report definitions for a web dashboard,
5. For end users to execute the report they must be granted access to the report. One way to do this is to click on the Publish link in the report detail header. For more information on granting permission to dashboards and other ways of publishing reports, check the IFS Applications Technical documentation.

Access a Dashboard

To access a Dashboard:

1. Open the Business Reporting & Analysis/Published Content/Dashboards page in IFS Enterprise Explorer. All available dashboards will be listed.
2. Click on a dashboard name.
3. The dashboard will be generated and opened.

You can also find the dashboards categorized under DASHBOARD type in Business Reporting & Analysis/Explore Quick Reports/By Types.