Inserting components

You can insert library components and report data components as well as labels, images, special fields, filtering tools, third-party objects, and HTML components into dashboards via the Resources panel. To access the panel, click Show Resources on the side bar.

The following shows inserting a specific component in detail.

Inserting library component references

When inserting a library component from component library into a dashboard, you are not copying the component from the library, but instead referencing it from the library, in this sense, the changes to the component in the library will be reflected in all of the dashboards referencing the component. The contents of library references in dashboards cannot be edited since they are referenced resources.

To reference a library component into the dashboard body:

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. Expand the Component Library node, browse to find the library component you want to insert, then drag it to the destination in the dashboard body.

Inserting report data components

Data components such as tables, crosstabs, charts, and geographic maps in existing page reports or web reports can be directly inserted into dashboards after being converted into library components automatically.

Since both library components and web reports use business views as data sources, all data components in web reports can be converted to library components successfully.

However, page reports use queries or report cubes or business cubes as data sources other than business views, and business cubes are built on tables while report cubes and business views are created on top of the same queries, therefore, only when data components in page reports use queries or report cubes as data sources and the queries or report cubes have corresponding business views, can the components be converted to library components and used in dashboards. So if you would like your page report components to be added in dashboards, you need to make sure the components are created on queries or report cubes and a business view is created for each of the report cubes.

Currently library components do not support some features of page report components, after the latter are inserted into dashboards, those features will be removed. This may result in that the data components in dashboards looks different from they are in page reports. For features that are not supported in JDashboard, they will either be ignored, removed, or applied with the default values.

The following table lists how JDashboard deals with the unsupported page report features:

In Page Report Components In Library Components
Display types like Barcode, Check box, etc Ignored
Special fields Removed
Dynamic resources Changed to constant resources
Master/Detail reports Ignored
Subreports Removed
Nested data components that is one contains another The ownership is removed and the involved data components are regarded as individual components.
Definition properties Ignored
Formula-controlled properties Default values are applied.
Other components Removed

To insert a report data component into the dashboard body:

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. From the Reports node, expand the report that contains the wanted data component and drag the component into the dashboard body.
  3. If the report component uses parameters, the default values will be applied. To change the parameter values, after the component is loaded, click on its title bar and select Edit Setting from the drop-down list to display the configuration panel. Change the parameter values in the panel and then click OK to apply the new values.

The inserted report data component runs with the report's catalog. It will not be able to run if the catalog is removed or updated. The report component does not synchronize with the other library components in the dashboard via messages and not controlled by the runtime sliders or filters.

After a report data component is inserted in a dashboard, you can save it as a library component. To do this:

  1. On the title bar of the inserted report data component, click and select Save As from the drop-down list.
  2. In the Save As dialog, specify a location to save the component and a name for the component, then click OK.

Inserting a label

Labels can be inserted in the dashboard header. To do this, click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel, then from the Toolbox node, drag Label to the destination in the dashboard header, then double-click the label and edit the text as required.

Inserting a dashboard title

A dashboard title is a special label. It can be inserted in the dashboard header. To do this, click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel, then from the Toolbox node, drag Dashboard Title to the destination in the dashboard header, then double-click the title and edit the text as required.

Inserting an image

Images can be inserted in the dashboard header.

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. From the Toolbox node, drag Image to the destination in the dashboard header. The Insert Image dialog is displayed. See the dialog.

  3. Specify the image you want to insert.
  4. Click OK to insert the image.

Inserting a special field

You can insert these types of special fields in the dashboard header:

To do this:

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. From the Toolbox node, drag Special Field to the destination in the dashboard header. The Insert Special Field dialog is displayed. See the dialog.
  3. Choose the desired special field and click OK to insert it into the header.

Inserting a slider

Sliders can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using sliders.

Inserting a filter control

Filter controls can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using filter controls.

Inserting a third party gadget via URL

A web page can be inserted in dashboards. All you need to do is give its URL. Note that some web sites such as http://www.google.com do not allow Gadgets to load them.

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. From the Toolbox node, drag URL Frame into the dashboard body. The Insert URL Frame dialog is displayed. See the dialog.
  3. In the Title text field, give a title for the window that will display the contents of the web page.
  4. In the URL text box, type in the URL of the web page. If needed, click the Add Parameter button to insert a parameter to the URL to compose a dynamic URL (if no data source is specified, the Select Data Source dialog will be dispalyed for you to select the data source that contains the parameter you want firstly).

    You should provide a complete URL address. A URL without "http://", for example www.jinfonet.com, will not be automatically added "http://" since it is regarded a relative path, which may lead to that the URL cannot be opened in some browsers.

  5. If you would like the specified web page to refresh periodically, select Auto refresh, then specify the interval to refresh.
  6. Click OK. The specified web page will be inserted into the dashboard. You can then view the web page from JDashboard. If parameters are used in the URL, you can click on the side bar to specify the parameter values as you want, then you can get different web pages based on different parameter values.

See the Insert URL Frame dialog for details about the options in the dialog.

Inserting an HTML component

An HTML component allows for typing text, comments, and messages using a simple-featured text editor. It can be inserted in the dashboard body.

  1. Click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
  2. From the Toolbox node, drag HTML to the destination in the dashboard body. The Insert HTML dialog is displayed. See the dialog.

  3. Specify a title for the HTML component.
  4. In the text box, type text directly. You can make use of the buttons above the text box to format the text such as font face, size, style, color, and alignment, insert images, and create hyperlinks.
  5. Click OK to insert the HTML component.

See the Insert HTML dialog for details about the options in the dialog.