Configuring dashboards with additional customizations

As a reporting administrator or editor, you can configure dashboards with the following customizations:

Related topics

Creating-and-customizing-dashboards

Building-queries-to-fetch-data


To configure the time range for a dashboard 

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can control the time range that is used in the dashboards to further refine your data. To change the time range:

  1. On a dashboard, click the Time Range icon time_range_icon.png and select an absolute time range or a relative time range for your report.
    For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, and so on. To filter data on a dashboard by fiscal time ranges, perform the following actions:
    • Select the fiscal time range and click Change time settings on the Time Range pop-up window.
    • Select the Fiscal year tab.

    • Select the fiscal year start month.
      By default, January is selected. Based on this selection, the data in the dashboard is filtered by the fiscal time range.

      Example

      Jordan, a tenant administrator, wants to view ticket resolution dates for the current fiscal year. He can filter the dashboard by This fiscal year to display tickets that have a resolution date within this fiscal year. However, if Jordan wants to see only those tickets that have a resolution date till date, he can select This fiscal year so far to filter the dashboard.

  2. Apply your time range.

The dashboard displays data for the time range that you selected.


To customize BMC Helix Dashboards Home page

As a tenant administrator or editor, you can customize the Home page of BMC Helix Dashboards. The Home page of BMC Helix Dashboards is a dashboard with multiple panels that can be edited. 

To customize the Home page, do any of the following:

  • Copy and edit the Home page:
    1. Copy the Home page of BMC Helix Dashboards. For more information about copying a dashboard, see To copy a dashboard.
    2. Access and edit the newly created copy of the Home page. For more information about editing the Home page, see To edit a dashboard.
    3. Set the the newly created copy of the Home page as default. To set the default Home dashboard, from the navigation menu navigation_menu.png, click Administration > General > Default preferences and select this newly created Home page under Home Dashboard list.
  • Save and edit the Home page:
    1. Click the save_icon.png icon from the BMC Helix Dashboards Home page and then edit the details and save.
    2. Access and edit the newly created copy of the Home page. For more information about editing the Home page, see To edit a dashboard. 
    3. Set the the newly created copy of the Home page as default. To set the default Home dashboard, from the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Administration > General > Default preferences and select this newly created Home page under Home Dashboard list.

Updating home page videos

The video panels appearing on the BMC Helix Dashboards Home page can be edited to change the videos displayed.


To configure the default data source component

As a tenant administrator or editor, you can configure the default data source component for the BMC Helix data source. While configuring a panel, this default component is displayed in the Query type list.

To configure the default data source component, perform these steps:

  1. Open BMC Helix Dashboards.
  2. In the left pane, click Administration > General.
  3. Click Default preferences.
  4. Under Preferences, select the required query type from the Query Type list.
  5. Save the changes.


To configure the default date and time format

Configure a default format to be used for consistently displaying the date and time.

As a tenant or reporting administrator, you can configure this format at a tenant level. This format is globally applied to all dashboards, panels, and reports for displaying the date and time. You can override this global setting by configuring the date and time format at a user level or by configuring an override property. The user-level setting precedes the tenant-level setting. The override property setting precedes both the tenant-level and user-level settings.

Scenario
  • Jordan is a reporting administrator at Apex Global. He is responsible for generating dashboard reports and sharing them with the stakeholders. He wants to ensure that the date and time format is used consistently. He configures the date and time format at the tenant level.
  • Jim is a Dashboards user. He wants to view the date and format in Japanese. He changes the date and time format in his profile settings.

To configure the date and time format at the tenant level

  1. Open BMC Helix Dashboards.
  2. In the left pane, click Administration > General.
  3. Click Default preferences.
  4. Under Preferences, in the Datetime Format field, select from the available formats or define a custom date format.
  5. Save the changes.

To configure the date and time format at the user level

  1. Open BMC Helix Dashboards.
  2. Select user profile > Profile > Datetime Format.
  3. In the Datetime Format field, select the available formats or define a custom date format.
  4. Save the changes.

To configure an override for date and time for a particular dashboard or a panel, see Modifying-date-and-time-format-in-dashboards.

Important

If you set the Datetime Format as Default at the tenant or user level, the date and time across all the dashboards and panels is displayed according to the local setting of your browser.

The following table provides some examples of custom date and time formats that you can configure: 

Format

Description

Example

DD/MM/YYYY

Displays the date in the day, month, and year format.

  • DD denotes date.
  • MM denotes month.
  • YYYY denotes year.
24/04/2024

dd

Displays the day. 

  • dd denotes the day of a week.

Su, Mo, Tu, and so on.

HH:mm:ss

Displays hours, minutes, and seconds in the 24-hour format.

  • HH denotes hour in the 24-hour format.
  • mm denotes minutes.
  • ss denotes seconds.
16:45:00

hh:mm:ss A

hh:mm:ss a

Displays hours, minutes, and seconds in the 12-hour format.

  • hh denotes hour the 12-hour format.
  • A denotes AM or PM as applicable.
  • a denotes am or pm as applicable.
04:45:00 AM
04:45:00 am


To configure the start of the week for the calendar

  1. Open BMC Helix Dashboards.
  2. In the left pane, select Administration > General > Default preferences. 
  3. From the Week start list, select the day you want to start the week with.
    You can start the week with Saturday, Sunday, or Monday only.
  4. Save the changes.

To configure a variable to download dashboards and panels in the XLSX with date and time format settings

As a tenant or reporting administrator, configure the enableOverridesForExcel variable to download a dashboard or panel as a report in XLSX. The downloaded XLSX file displays the date and time values in the date format as configured in the dashboard.

  1. Open BMC Helix Dashboards.
  2. Click Dashboard Settings dashboard_settings_icon.png.
  3. Click Variables.
  4. In the Select variable type field, select Constant.
  5. In the Name field under General, specify the variable name as enableOverridesForExcel.
  6. Click Apply.
  7. Save the dashboard.

Best practice
BMC recommends setting the Last 90 days as the default value of the time range to avoid fetching large amounts of data from the database. The time range can be changed to a customized range after the dashboard loads.


To add descriptions and tags to dashboards

As a reporting administrator or editor, you can configure general settings for a dashboard, where you can add a description and tags for the dashboard.

  1. On a dashboard, click the Dashboard settings icon dashboard_settings_icon.pngin the top-right corner.
  2. On the General page, do any of these optional tasks:
    • Add a description for the dashboard, add tags, or change the folder where the dashboard is saved. If you do not want other users to edit the dashboard, toggle the Editable button.
    • Specify the time options. If you want to hide the time picker on the dashboard, toggle the Hide time picker button.
    • Select a different graph tool tip option.
  3. Click Save dashboard.

You can perform many other functions on the dashboards, such as annotate a point on a graph or view the history of a dashboard. To learn about these functions, click here.


To skip creating out-of-the-box dashboards during an upgrade 

As a tenant administrator, specify whether you want to skip creating the deleted out-of-the-box dashboard folders during an upgrade. By default, all the out-of-the-box dashboard folders (along with the associated dashboards) that are not available in your environment are recreated during the upgrade process. 

Scenario

Jordan is a reporting editor. He wants to view only the custom dashboards in his environment. So, he deletes all the out-of-the-box dashboard folders. However, he is aware that these folders along with the associated dashboards are recreated during the subsequent version upgrade. Therefore, he asks the tenant administrator to enable the configuration to skip creating the out-of-the-box dashboard folders. After the tenant administrator enables this configuration, the out-of-the-box dashboard folders that he already deleted are not recreated during the upgrade process.

  1. Make sure that you delete all the out-of-the-box dashboard folders that are not required.
    For information about deleting dashboards, see Creating-a-dashboard.
  2. Log in to the dashboard as a tenant administrator.
  3. From the navigation image-2024-9-26_12-35-0.pngmenu, select Administration > General > Default preferences.
  4. In the Manage dashboard features section, enable the Skip OOTB dashboards during upgrade option.

    image-2024-10-4_18-28-57.png

  5. In the Toggle Feature window, click Enable.

    image-2024-10-4_18-28-37.png

 

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