This feature is only available to customers with the eDashboard or SaaS Silver and above licence.

These functions are only available if you have Database Administrator User Permissions.

Selecting Add Widget when Viewing a Dashboard will open a window where you can add a new widget to the dashboard. All widgets are based on an Interactive Report template in PICS. They can either be generated from scratch when you open the dashboard, or populated from a recently run Saved Report.

In the first window, choose which Report Template you want to use for the widget. Select Next once you have made your choice.

If you are creating a widget based on the Qualification and Achievement Rates report template, you will only be able to choose Use a saved report for this widget in the Widget Type field, as explained below.

PICS Online Help > Adding Widgets to a Dashboard in PICS > image-20220329-155222.png

You will then need to choose the Widget Type. The following options are available:

New Widget

Choosing Set up the widget now will create a new widget from scratch. After selecting Next you will be able to customise the report according to the usual interactive report options.

note

The options available here are explained in the Interactive Reports page.

PICS Online Help > Adding Widgets to a Dashboard in PICS > image-20220329-160850.png

Once you have customised the report, select Save to add the new widget to the dashboard. You can then adjust the format and layout of your widgets when Viewing the Dashboard.

Creating a Widget from a Saved Report

We recommend creating widgets from saved reports rather than generating new widgets for the following reasons:

Speed – The ‘basic’ widgets run the entire report every time you open the dashboard. This means the data is always “live” but can put a strain on the database and affect the loading speed. It also causes lots of duplication when similar widgets are created with only slight differences. With saved reports, the core data is already identified so does not need to be recalculated before display.
Easier to create similar widgets – Using ‘basic’ widgets, the same report options need to be set up multiple times to create similar reports (for example, the same widget but with a different analysis column). With saved reports, the initial report setup and selection is only done once - then you create additional widgets each with different display or filter options as required.

Choosing Use a saved report for this widget will allow you to populate the widget with the data from the most recent running of a Saved Report. You will only be able to choose saved reports that meet the following conditions:

The report is based on the Template chosen in the previous window.
The Output Type was set to Interactive for Dashboard in the Save and Schedule window when the report was saved.
The report has been run at least once.

PICS Online Help > Adding Widgets to a Dashboard in PICS > image-20221011-153330.png

After selecting Next you will be able to customise the report according to the usual interactive report options.

note

The options available here are explained in the Interactive Reports page.

Once you have customised the report, select Save to add the new widget to the dashboard. If the saved report is run on a Schedule, the widget will automatically update to show the data from the most recent time the report has been run.

You can then adjust the format and layout of your widgets when Viewing the Dashboard.

If you have Shared a Dashboard with a widget based on a saved report, users will only be able to see the widget if the report has been set to Shared and the relevant users have been added in the Send to Users or Send to Teams fields in the Save and Schedule window when building the report.