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=head1 Dashboards
RT's dashboard feature provides a convenient way to create your own pages
focused on the tickets and charts you need. Dashboards are available right from
the Home menu, can be set up individually or shared, and can even be sent out
via email on a schedule. To show some of the dashboard features, we'll set up a
dashboard and notifications to track outstanding invoice tickets.
There are several different rights you can grant to allow users access to the
features described here. These rights are described in L</"Dashboard Rights">.
=head2 Creating a Personal Dashboard
Saved searches and charts are the building blocks of dashboards, so to set up a
new dashboard you first need to create and save a search that displays the
ticket data you want. We want to view new and open invoice tickets and, for our
example, assume we have an Accounts Receivable queue. On the ticket search
page, we create a new search with this query:
Queue = 'Accounts Receivable'
AND (
Status = 'new'
OR Status = 'open' )
We also want to modify the sort order of the search to use Due rather than the
default id. In the Sorting section, we select Due for the initial sort, then
add Created as the second sort value. Finally, we set Rows per page to
Unlimited so we don't miss any invoices.
=for html <img alt="Dashboard search sorting"
src="images/dashboard-search-sorting.png">
=for :text [Search sorting F<docs/images/dashboard-search-sorting.png>]
=for :man [Search sorting F<docs/images/dashboard-search-sorting.png>]
Once you have those set, you can click "Add these terms and Search" or "Update
format and Search" to see the results. If it's still not quite right, you can
click "Edit Search" in the submenu and continue to refine things.
When you're finished tweaking the search, return to Query Builder page again so
you can save it. Under the "Saved Searches" box, type "Outstanding Invoices"
in the Description box. For now, leave Privacy set to "My saved searches" and
click Save. You now have a saved search you can use for your dashboard.
To create the dashboard, select Home > New Dashboard. Type "Outstanding
Invoices" for the name and leave the privacy set to "My Dashboards". Click
Create and the new dashboard is created.
Now we want to populate the new dashboard with the saved search we created.
Click Content in the submenu to go to the content selection page. Dashboards
allow you to put content in the main body or the sidebar, much like the default
RT homepage, so you'll see a Body section and a Sidebar section to set the
content. Find your saved "Outstanding Invoices" search, select it, and click
the arrow to move it to the righthand box and add it to the dashboard.
=for html <img alt="Adding dashboard content"
src="images/dashboard-content-invoices.png">
=for :text [Adding dashboard content
F<docs/images/dashboard-content-invoices.png>]
=for :man [Adding dashboard content
F<docs/images/dashboard-content-invoices.png>]
Click Show in the submenu and you'll see your new dashboard. Click Home to
return to the "RT at a glance" page and you'll see your new dashboard is in the
Dashboards portlet on the right side of the page.
On dashboard pages, you can click on the title of any section and go to the
search results page for the saved search. This makes it easy to find the saved
search and update it, or modify it ad-hoc for a one-off search based on the
saved dashboard search.
In this example we're only adding one search, but you can add multiple searches
to each individual dashboard to track different types of interrelated
information and see it at a glance. For instance, two queries, "outstanding
invoices" and "overdue invoices," could form a dashboard called "all
outstanding invoices." Software engineers using RT might combine three queries,
"bug fixes," "feature requests," and "documentation," into a dashboard
called "our new release."
=head2 Charts in Dashboards
You can also display saved charts in dashboards, creating a powerful visual of
ticket data in a convenient page. To add a chart, start with a search, refine
your query, then click Chart in the submenu in the Query Builder or Search
Results page. Configure your chart as described in L<charts>, select a Privacy
setting, name it "Outstanding Invoices", and click Save.
Return to the dashboard, click Content, and you'll see a new "Chart:
Outstanding Invoices" option in the Available column. Select it and click the
arrow to add it to the dashboard. Now when you load the dashboard, the chart
will be rendered right below the saved search.
=for html <img alt="Dashboard chart" src="images/dashboard-chart.png">
=for :text [Dashboard chart F<docs/images/dashboard-chart.png>]
=for :man [Dashboard chart F<docs/images/dashboard-chart.png>]
=head2 Dashboard Menu Entries
In addition to having dashboards available on the "RT at a glance" page, you
can also add them to the Home menu. To modify the Home menu, select Home >
"Update This Menu" or "Logged in as" > Settings > "Dashboards in menu". You'll
see the Customize dashboard page which is similar to the Dashboard Content page.
=for html <img alt="Customize dashboard menu"
src="images/customize-dashboards-menu.png">
=for :text [Customize dashboard menu
F<docs/images/customize-dashboards-menu.png>]
=for :man [Customize dashboard menu F<docs/images/customize-dashboards-menu.png>]
Select the dashboard you want, click the arrow to move it to the righthand
column, then check your Home menu. You'll see your dashboard is now available
from the menu.
As an RT administrator, you can populate the dashboard menu for other users on
the system. Find a user using Search > Users or Admin > Users > Select, then
click on the user to open the modify user page. In the submenu, you'll see a
"Dashboards in menu" option, and it works the same as the personal setting.
=head2 Group Dashboards
You're enjoying your new dashboard but it's time for some vacation and it would
be nice for someone else in the accounting department to be able to use your
dashboard while you're gone. RT makes this easy with group-level dashboards.
As we've seen, the dashboard is based on a saved search, so you first need to
make that available. Go to the ticket search page (Query Builder), find your
saved search in the "Load saved search" dropdown, and click Load. If you are in
a group, like the Accounting group, there will be an option in the Privacy
dropdown called "Accounting's saved searches". Select that option and click
Update to make the search available to the Accounting group.
To update your dashboard, select it from the menu to view it, then click Basics
in the submenu. Like on Query Builder page, you'll see your group listed in the
Privacy dropdown. Assuming your group is Accounting, select "Accounting's
Dashboards" and click Save Changes.
Click on Content and you'll see a message that a query has been deleted and
removed from the dashboard. This is because RT has detected that you have moved
the saved search from personal to group privacy. Select "Outstanding Invoices"
from the Available column and click the arrow to add the group-based search to
the dashboard.
All members of the Accounting group should now have access to your dashboard.
They can now add it to their Home menu if they want. If other members can't see
it, make sure you have granted sufficent rights to the group (see L</"Dashboard
Rights">).
=head2 System-wide Dashboards
You can also set up dashboards for all users on your RT system. Follow the
steps above for group dashboards, but for Privacy, select "RT System" for the
saved search and dashboard.
If you want to make sure everyone has the dashboard in their Home menu, you can
set this globally as well if you are the RT administrator. The Admin > Global >
"Dashboards in menu" opens a page similar to the personal dashboard menu page,
but it puts the selected dashboards into everyone's dashboard menu.
=head2 Dashboard Subscriptions
RT's dashboard subscription feature allows you to email dashboards based on a
schedule you set. These scheduled dashboards can be particularly useful for
time-based reports that you want to see on a regular basis.
To set up a subscription, go to the dashboard you'd like to have emailed and
click on Subscription in the submenu. This will take you to the subscription
page.
=for html <img alt="Dashboard subscription"
src="images/dashboard-subscription.png">
=for :text [Dashboard subscription F<docs/images/dashboard-subscription.png>]
=for :man [Dashboard subscription F<docs/images/dashboard-subscription.png>]
Select the frequency and timing you want and enter the email address the
dashboard should go to. You can leave it blank to send mail to your RT email
address. Click Subscribe and that's it, you'll start getting dashboards via
email.
This feature requires the F<rt-email-dashboards> script to be scheduled in
C<cron> as described in RT's F<README> file.
=head2 Dashboard Rights
There are several rights you can selectively grant to allow users access to
dashboard features. As with any RT rights, you can grant these to individual
users (usually difficult to maintain over time), to system roles like
Privileged, or to groups you define.
Since dashboards rely on saved searches, you need to grant "Allow loading of
saved searches" (LoadSavedSearch) for users to see the searches. You may want
to also grant "Allow creation of saved searches" (CreateSavedSearch) to allow
users to create their own and "View saved searches" (ShowSavedSearches)
For dashboards themselves, there are See, Create, Modify, and Delete rights for
each of personal, group, and system dashboards. This allows you to select the
right combination of rights for users and groups on your system. For
subscriptions, there is a "Subscribe to dashboards" (SubscribeDashboard) right.
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