Canvas Dashboard
Holistics recommends using Canvas Dashboards.
Holistics Dashboard 3.0 are now called legacy dashboards. See this guide on how to convert legacy dashboards into Canvas Dashboards.
Introduction
Canvas Dashboard helps you create versatile and interactive data presentations. You can combine and customize visualizations, interactive control, and text elements to for various purposes, including executive dashboards, narrative reports, and operational monitoring. Here are the key features of Holistics Canvas Dashboard:
Canvas Layout: Build dashboards that match your narrative with visualizations, filters, and texts as your building blocks. Add, remove, and rearrange blocks on a blank canvas with pixel-perfect precision.
Definition As Code: Define your dashboard as code in AMQL for version control with Git integration, reusable components, and bulk editing at scale.
Dedicated Development Space: Build dashboards in the Modeling layer and deploy your dashboards to production, while preventing in-progress changes disrupt the end-user's experience.
Analytics Blocks in Canvas Dashboard
Canvas Dashboard contains a collection of Analytics Blocks on a plain canvas. There are three analytics block types: Text, Visualization, and Interactive Controls (such as Filters, Period Comparisons, and Date Drills). Together, analytics blocks allow you to present, engage with, and enhance the context of your data in a robust way.
Visualization Block
Visualization blocks allow you to add basic visualizations and custom charts to the Canvas Dashboard. Each block contains a single visualization. A canvas dashboard can have multiple visualization blocks created from different datasets. For more information, you can refer to Visualizations.
Text Block
Text blocks allow you to incorporate context and information to your Canvas Dashboard. They are Markdown-supported, which should serve your most common formatting requirements. For more information, you can refer to Text Block.
Control Block
Interactive Control blocks include Filters, Period Comparisons, and Date Drills that can be used to manipulate data and add interactivity to your Canvas Dashboard. For more information, you can refer to Filter, Period Comparison, Date Drill.
Reused Block
Reused Blocks are Analytics Blocks that are explicitly defined as code. Normally you would leverage our visual editor to develop your Canvas Dashboard, and Holistics generates the code under the hood. But there are use cases when you would want to define Analytics Blocks as code yourself. For more information, you can refer to Reused blocks.
FAQs
How can I get access to the Canvas Dashboard?
Canvas Dashboard is available to customers using Holistics 4.0. Check your current version here.
What’s the difference between Canvas Dashboard and Dashboard (Legacy)?
| Canvas Dashboard | Dashboard (Legacy) | |
|---|---|---|
| Development | ||
| Layout | Freely arrange visualizations, texts, filters, etc. anywhere on Canvas | Visualizations, and texts are arranged onto fixed-size grids. Filters and dashboard controls are always on top |
| As-code definition | Declarative AML as-code definition | Not supported |
| Reusability | Inherit AML’s reusability | Not supported |
| Version control | Version control with Git integration | Not supported |
| Development experience | Develop dashboard in Modeling layer Changes are applied after publishing to production | Develop dashboard in Reporting layer Changes are automatically applied |
| View & Interaction | ||
| Responsiveness & Scaling | Keep the dashboard ratio. Allow users to zoom in/out the dashboard to fit their screen. Control the size of canvas in pixels | Auto-resize the dashboard to fit the users’ screen. Dashboards look differently on different screens |
| Dashboard controls: Filters, Period Comparison, Date Drills | Place anywhere within dashboard Support easy reset to default values | Always stay on top of dashboard Manually reset to default values |
| Cross-filtering | Support ability to selectively apply/exclude cross-filtering to a subset of visualizations Cross-filtering triggers when clicking on Apply controls | When enabled, cross-filtering is applied to the whole dashboard (among visualizations using the same datasets) Cross-filtering automatically triggers on click |
| Drill-through | Support Drill-through between multiple Canvas Dashboards | Support Drill-through between multiple Dashboards (Legacy) |
| Export | Export dashboard: Support export as PNG/PDF Export visualizations: Support export as PDF/Excel/csv | |
| Data Schedules | Support send to Email / Slack / Google Sheets / SFTP | |
| Data Alerts | Support send alerts to Email / Slack / Webhook | |
| Embedded Analytics | Support create Embed Link in Dashboard Preferences | |
| Explore data from dashboards | Admin, Analyst, and Explorer can explore a visualization in a dashboard, but CAN NOT save the exploration results | Admin, Analyst, and Explorer can explore a visualization in a dashboard, and save the exploration results to another dashboard |
| Private dashboards | Not supported | Admin, Analyst, and Explorer can create new dashboards in private workspace |
We're currently using Dashboard Legacy. What will happen to our existing dashboards when we gain access to Canvas Dashboard?
There will be no changes. All existing Dashboards Legacy remains unaffected. You can continue to create new Dashboard Legacy in the Reporting layer as usual.