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.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
Images can be inserted in the dashboard header.
You can insert these types of special fields in the dashboard header:
To do this:
Sliders can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using sliders.
Filter controls can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using filter controls.
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.
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.
See the Insert URL Frame dialog for details about the options in the dialog.
An HTML component allows for typing text, comments, and messages using a simple-featured text editor. It can be inserted in the dashboard body.
See the Insert HTML dialog for details about the options in the dialog.