What is it?

Dashboards allow you to set personal pages that display exactly the information you need in your community. Personal dashboards are specific to the people who create them, and there is no limit to the number of dashboards a person can have. They are designed to give people access to the tools needed to do their work efficiently in the community, and people configure their dashboards views to show the information they need in the best way. They are also set up like pages, so people can include widgets that help them with the work that they want to do. It’s like a personal bulletin board. You can also have a community dashboard, created by a site administrator, and visible to everyone.

Dashboards can be turned on from the Global Settings area of the Control Panel. The first option turns on the community dashboard, which is set up by an administrator, and the second option lets people set up their own personal dashboard in the community.

Use Cases

Community dashboards

Some communities make community dashboards the front page for people’s work, showing their tasks, agenda, spaces, and recent activity that relates specifically to each member. Setting up widgets on the community dashboard that draw content from every area of the community, allows people’s access to determine what they can see. For communities with nuanced permissions, this can allow people to see information specifically relevant to them, without overwhelming them.

Personal dashboards

People often use their personal dashboards as windows into their work. The widgets you choose can give you the exact view into the community that you need, and save you time and clicks whether you are adding files, managing forums, assigning or reviewing tasks, or planning events.

Features and functionality

The dashboards can be set up with widgets like a page to show things from the community in a way that can be customized and accessed from anywhere, using the userbar.

The dashboard feature supports all of the widgets available in your community. See the Widgets article for an overview of what is available.

Dashboards are fully versioned. You can view previous versions of your dashboards using the dropdown menu at the bottom of the editor.

How to enable dashboards

To enable dashboards, an Administrator will need to turn them on from the Global Settings area of the Control Panel. After that they can set up the community dashboard and turn on personal dashboards for people in the community.

Step 1: Open the Control Panel

Select the gear-like icon located in the top right corner of your community landing page to open the Control Panel.

Note: The icon is only visible to members of the Administrators group.

Step 2: Open the Global Settings option

The Global Settings area is located under the Settings column in the Control Panel.

Step 3: Select the Dashboards option

The first checkbox enables the community dashboard. The second will let you set up and manage your own personal Dashboards.

Step 4: Save the settings

Click the Save button at the bottom of the Global Settings page.

Instruction: Set up the community dashboard and turn on personal dashboards

Step 1: Open the User Menu

Select your name in the upper right corner of the userbar, and click the dashboard option in the dropdown.

Step 2 (Optional): Create a new dashboard

Select the +New option in the dashboard menu to create a new dashboard.

Step 3: Edit the dashboard

Select the action button in the upper right corner of the screen and then select Edit

Step 3: Drag widgets into place

Set up the community dashboard like a page, moving widgets into place and configuring them as you like. You can find more information on configuring widgets here.

Step 4: Publish the dashboard

Select Publish Dashboard to make the dashboard public in the community, or save it as a draft to work on it later.

Frequently Asked Questions

What widgets should I put in my community dashboard?

Widgets that work well in the community dashboard include the Calendar Events widget, the My Spaces widget, the Tasks widget, and the Recent Activity widget. The front page of your community can connect people with announcements and events in the community, but the community dashboards can connect them with the places where they do their work, and keep them up-to-date on new activity and tasks specifically in the areas that matter to them.

Who has access to my personal dashboards?

Personal dashboards are yours and yours alone. No one else has access to them.

Best practices / Tips and tricks

Link to the community dashboards on the homepage

The community dashboards URL is always your community URL/my.dashboard, allowing you to link to it from other parts of the community. Giving people an easy button on the homepage to get to their dashboard does more than make it easier to reach, it puts it front and center in their minds, and encourages them to use the feature.

Post advice for using personal dashboards on the community dashboard

If you have personal dashboards enabled, place an HTML widget or a Wiki Article widget on the community dashboard with some tips or links to the documentation for dashboards or widgets. This can encourage people to explore and experiment with options in their own personal dashboards, and give them the resources to understand how to use them. People may not be familiar with the widget layout or page creation, so making that easier for them will help them use the feature, and make it easier for them to work in the community.

Encourage dashboard sharing

Creating a Forum channel for people to ask questions and share their dashboard setups can help adoption in the community. It lets your dashboard savvy people mentor those who are new to the organization. It also helps people make dashboards that suit their unique needs. Even across a small community, people’s needs are diverse, and while dashboards give them the tools to do whatever they need to in the community, it can be helpful to learn from people who have been using them already.

Clearly named channels and intuitive architecture

When people are setting up their personal dashboards, they will need to select channels to display in them. Having clear and distinct channel names makes it easier for people to pick the ones they want. Some widgets also expose the parts of the site architecture that they have access to. Keeping your site architecture neatly organized will make it easier for people configuring personal dashboards to find what they are looking for.