Put the numbers you check often on one board, so a glance answers how the product is doing.
What a dashboard is
A dashboard is a board you assemble yourself: the numbers you check often, kept in one place so a glance answers how the product is doing.
A board is an ordered list of rows. A row is a horizontal band of widgets that all share one height, so widgets vary in width but never in height and the band reads as an aligned strip rather than a ragged one. Rows move up and down as a unit, and array order is vertical order.
A widget carries its own query, with one exception: a drill widget pinned from a saved query follows that query, so an edit to the query reaches the board once someone who can edit the widget updates it. What a widget does not carry is a date range: the board has one shared range at the top and every tile answers for that window, which is what makes the numbers on a board comparable with each other.
Boards live in the rail to the left, grouped by how you reach them rather than by what is on them: Starred first, then My dashboards, Team dashboards, Global dashboards, and Legacy. Star a board with the star on its row to keep it at the top; it stays in its own group as well. Hovering one shows its owner, how many widgets it holds, and its visibility. The rail collapses to a strip, with the button at its top or with Cmd-B.
Three things are set on the board rather than on a widget: the date range, an optional filter across the board's events, and visibility. A board is Private, Shared with your team, or Global. Starring is yours alone - a star never changes the board for anyone else, and your starred boards are also under Starred in Discover.
Use Cases
Start a board from a template
You want a board without building it widget by widget.
- Open Create dashboard in the dashboards rail.
- Pick a template. They are grouped by what they need: Start fresh is an empty board, Single project templates read one project, Compare projects templates put several side by side.
- The right panel previews what you picked before you commit to it.
- Continue, name the board, and create it.
Naming comes second on purpose, so choosing the shape of the board is not interrupted by a text field.
Add your first widget
You have a board and want something on it.
- Open Add widget.
- Choose a route. Starters are curated widgets, grouped by area, ready in one click. Saved pins a drill query or a funnel you already have. Build authors a metric from scratch, in the dialog.
- Watch the preview. The right panel renders the actual widget, not a picture of one, so what you approve is what lands on the board.
- Add to board.
There is no size step. A widget's size comes from the shape of its result, so a single number arrives as a small tile and a breakdown arrives wide enough to read.
Arrange the board so it reads well
A board that holds the right numbers in the wrong order still takes work to read.
- Enter Edit layout & widgets.
- Drag rows up and down. The row moves as a whole, and a widget can be pushed across a row boundary into its neighbor.
- Set the row's height once. Every widget in that band takes it, so the band's bottoms line up.
- Give a row a section title to turn it into a named section, and add a note beside a row when the numbers need a sentence of context. A note sits in its own column to the left of the widgets, narrow or wide.
- Done.
FAQs
Why is my widget empty?
Check the board's date range first, since every tile answers for it. If the tile shows a Finish setup prompt instead, it came from a template that needs one pick from you before it can query anything.
Who can see my dashboard?
Whoever its visibility allows: Private is you, Shared is your team, Global is everyone on the server. Starring is separate and is yours alone.
Can I share a dashboard through a link?
No. Countly does not support shareable dashboard links. A link can be forwarded or copied with less control than access you grant on purpose, which is too risky for customer data. Anyone who opens a dashboard's address has to sign in first and sees the board only if they already have access to it, so copying the address does not give anyone access. The TV mode wallboard link follows the same rule, so the browser on the screen has to be signed in.
Instead, set the board to Shared and pick the people or groups who should see it, or send an email report on a schedule, where you choose the content and the recipients. To give someone ongoing access, invite them as a user by adding their email address.
Can one board show more than one project?
Yes. The Compare projects templates are built for it, and cross-project starters let you pick the projects a widget covers.
Can I put the same widget on two boards?
Copy it. A widget's menu offers Copy to another dashboard. A copy built on its own query is independent of the original from then on; a copy of a widget pinned from a saved query follows that same query, like the original.
What happened to my old dashboard?
Legacy boards still appear in the rail, under Legacy, and open read-only with a working date picker. Widget types with no equivalent yet are shown as placeholders rather than dropped, so the gap is visible. The board's owner, or a global admin, can choose Edit & migrate on its banner to save it as a new dashboard; the original legacy board stays read-only and unchanged.
Why can I not edit this board?
Either it is a legacy board, which is read-only, or it is a board whose projects you are not a member of. Editing a board needs access to every project on it.
A widget says the saved query changed. Why does it not show data?
Someone changed what the drill query it was pinned from runs: its projects, metrics, breakdowns or outputs. A new name, description or visibility does not count. A board can be shared with people who cannot see that query, so the new version waits until someone who is a member of the widget's projects and can see the query presses Update widget. Until then nobody sees the new data on the board.
A widget says a cohort or profile group it uses was deleted. Why are there no numbers?
Without the cohort the widget would answer as if its membership were empty: a count of zero, or everyone for a "not in" filter. Rather than show those numbers, the widget waits until someone who can edit it picks another cohort or removes the widget.
A widget says a project it reads was deleted. What now?
Deleting a project deletes its data, so the widget has nothing left to show for it. The project no longer counts towards who may edit the board, so anyone who can edit the board can point the widget at another project or remove it.
A widget says I have no access to its saved query. What does that mean?
The drill query it follows is private, or shared with people you are not among. Nothing of it is shown to you, its name included. Ask its owner to share it with you. The widget offers no actions to you, since replacing or removing it would change it for everyone who can see the query; that is left to them.