Offline Dashboards

[Former Member]

Hi Everyone,

Offline Dashboards is the new feature provided in Dashboards 4.1 onwards. How we can achieve it is also given in the user guide but most of us are still confused as to how it is really achieved.

Here is a bit of theory along with an example:

Offline Dashboards:

Dashboards supports creating a local copy of an exported model at runtime. The dashboard consumer saves the local copy as a SWF file through a menu option. The local copy has the following properties:

• It preserves the data in the original model.
• Another local copy can be created from it.
• All external connections and certain components are disabled.

To save an offline dashboard:

To allow the dashboard consumer to save an offline dashboard, before you export the model,

1. click File -> Document Properties and ensure that the "Offline Dashboard Support" option is enabled.

To save a local copy of the current model, the dashboard consumer must do the following:

1. Open the exported model and make any desired changes.
2. Right-click anywhere on the background and click Save Current Copy of Dashboard to Local Disk. The "Save As" dialog box opens.
3. Select where to save the local copy and click Save.

Restriction:

If Dashboards is installed on the local disk, the local copy cannot be saved in the same directory as

the Dashboards installation.

A local copy of the exported model in its current state is saved as a SWF file.

Component and connection restrictions in offline dashboards

External connections

All external data connections are disabled in the local copy. This includes all connections added through the "Data Manager" as well as the "Query Browser".

Note:

Since the dashboard is already open, connections set to "Refresh on Load" or "Refresh Before Components Are Loaded" will not be reestablished. Because of this, it is recommended that you set connections to refresh by value or by time interval when designing a dashboard that will be saved as

a local copy.

Components

The following components are disabled in an offline dashboard:

• All add-on components
• "Reporting Services Buttons"
• "Connection Refresh Buttons"
• "Query Refresh Buttons"
• "Query Prompt Selectors"

The following components function differently in an offline dashboard:

• "Hierarchical Tables" cannot be refreshed. Instead, they display the data contained in them when the local copy was saved.
• "Local Scenario Buttons" will not load any default scenarios. Instead, they will load the data contained in the model when the local copy was saved.

All other components function as they would in the original exported model.

Example:

I have created a sample dashboard with

1. Radio Button, Query Refresh Button and Scorecard.

2. Query has Division, Salary and Overtime as result objects and Gender as a prompt.

3. In order to enable the offline capability, check the option as shown below (Navigation: File -> Document Properties)

4. With this option checked, export the dashboard to the platform.

5. For Male and Female, I have data on the dashboard like:

6. To have an offline version of this dashboard with Female as a prompt value, right click on the dashboard and

select Save Current Copy of Dashboard to Local Disk.

7. A window then pops up asking for a name the file to be saved with.

8. Save the dashboard and open it. When you open the dashboard, it gives a pop up message saying "Dashboard is offline".

Please check above section:Component and connection restrictions in offline dashboards to understand behavior of components in the offline dashboard.

Hope this helps you all understand Offline Capability of Dashboards.

Regards,

Tejas Tamhane