Visual insight provides the user with the ability to create quick, interactive dashboards. It allows the user to import data from several different sources, manipulate the data, and apply visualization techniques as per business needs. Basically, a quick dashboard is like a document, but the process of creating this dashboard is easier and faster. A quick dashboard can display multiple visualizations with data from different datasets; however, each visualization can display data from only one dataset at a time. Visual insight lets the user share a quick dashboard through e-mail, embedding it in web or linking it to a quick dashboard. To share a dashboard, it must be saved. We can share the dashboard by clicking on the following icon:
To create a quick dashboard, the user can select data from the following datasets:
- Import data from external data sources, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Import data based on existing reports, cubes, or objects
To add a new quick dashboard, you must have the following:
- The MicroStrategy report service product
- Document designer privileges
- Web edit, create, and run dashboard privileges
Create a quick dashboard as follows:
- Select the dashboard dataset, which can be added as in the following ways:
- Add external data
- Create new report
- Add existing dataset
- On the home screen, click Create | New Dashboard:
- Browse all objects.
- Select the visualization technique.
- Based on the visualization technique, update the selected fields within the editor panel.
- Once completed, click Save and run the newly created dashboard.
Types of dashboard visualizations
In the previous sections, we have discussed these visualization techniques in detail. Visual insight is just a faster and easier way to insert these visualizations:
- Grid: Data is displayed in grid format and this allows the user to sort, pivot, drill, and filter data
- Graph: Data is displayed in graphical format and the user can choose between different graphs, such as area graphs, line graphs, and so on
- Heat map: Data is displayed as a combination of colored rectangles, each rectangle representing an attribute
- Map: Data is displayed as a geographical location on a map and markers are displayed based on metric values
- Network: Data is displayed as a network of nodes, where each node represents an attribute
In the following dashboard, we have used different visualization techniques:
Sample quick dashboard
In MicroStrategy 10, the user can add new visualizations using JavaScript graph tools such as D3, Highchart, and so on. The user can use already-created visualizations from https://community.microstrategy.com/t5/Custom-Visualization-Gallery/bg-p/vizgallery.
To use this new feature, we just have to insert the folder that contains your graph into the plugins folder of MicroStrategy Web.
In our case, we have inserted a D3 Bubble Chart for visualization, and this is available under DHTML as follows:
