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[guides] dashboards kpi charts reports ui

Dashboards

Build per-folder dashboards from configurable tiles — KPIs, charts, pivots, and more. Pin tiles from any folder to your personal home dashboard.

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Dashboards

A dashboard is a landing surface for a folder, built from small configurable tiles called web-parts. Each tile wraps something dForge already knows how to do — a query, a report, a chart — and presents it at a glance. Dashboards are per user: a module or admin can ship a default, and the moment you edit it you get your own private copy.

Where dashboards live

Every folder can have a dashboard, and you also get a personal home dashboard that aggregates tiles pinned from anywhere you have access.

  • Folder dashboard — tiles run in that folder’s context, so they automatically respect the folder’s row-level security and settings.
  • Home dashboard — your personal start page. Tiles you pin from different folders keep running against their original folder, and each shows a small breadcrumb so you remember where it came from.

Tile types

TileShows
KPIA single number from a query — count, sum, average, min, or max — with optional formatting and a comparison value.
ChartA bar, line, pie, funnel, or heatmap built from a query, grouped by a field.
PivotA cross-tabulated table with rows, columns, and aggregated values.
MarkdownStatic text — instructions, links, section notes.
Section headerA divider to group related tiles.
Folder listNavigation tiles for sub-folders, mirroring the sidebar tree.

KPI, chart, and pivot tiles reference an existing query rather than embedding their own. Edit the underlying query once and every tile that uses it updates — the tile only stores display options (which aggregation, which chart type, colors).

Editing a dashboard

Click Edit dashboard in the toolbar to enter edit mode. From there you can:

  • Add a tile with the + button and pick a type.
  • Drag and resize tiles on a 12-column grid. The grid prevents overlaps and respects each tile type’s minimum size.
  • Configure or Remove a tile from its menu.
  • Pin to home to copy a tile onto your home dashboard.

Changes save when you leave edit mode. If you were looking at a module or admin default, your first edit quietly forks it into your own copy — from then on you’re editing your version, and later changes to the default won’t disturb it.

Tile limit: a dashboard holds up to 10 tiles. When it’s full, the Add tile button explains why; remove a tile to make room, or move detailed analysis into a report.

Pinning tiles to home

The Pin to home action on a folder tile copies it to your home dashboard. Pinning duplicates the tile — the folder copy stays put, and the two drift independently after that. Pinned tiles keep executing against their source folder, so security and context are preserved, and a breadcrumb in the tile header links back to that folder.

Refreshing data

  • ManualRefresh all in the toolbar reloads every tile; each tile’s menu can refresh just that tile.
  • Automatic — a module author can set a refresh interval on a tile so it reloads on its own. Auto-refresh pauses when the tab is in the background or the tile is scrolled out of view, so it never burns cycles on data you aren’t looking at.

On small screens

On narrow screens tiles drop to a single column and stack top-to-bottom, following their grid position (top rows first, then left to right). There’s no separate mobile layout to maintain — your desktop arrangement defines the reading order.

  • Reports & Queries — the query and visualization primitives dashboard tiles are built on
  • Views — grids, kanbans, calendars, and other ways to work with records
  • Core Concepts — folders, security, and how context flows through dForge
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