Understanding Aras Dashboards

This section describes the important ItemTypes and properties that define Aras Dashboards.

A Dashboard item defines the name, description, and column configuration of a Dashboard. All Widgets shown in a Dashboard are related to this root item.

Users can configure dashboard settings, view the dashboard content, and edit widget settings all from the dashboard item.

A Widget Template is a reusable template that describes details like a widget’s name, label, type, and icon. The template also defines the properties that control a widget’s content and behavior. These properties can be preset by a dashboard administrator, or they can be entered by a dashboard’s user.

The Shared Properties relationship list all the properties which are exposed by the given widget to be shared in the context of the Dashboard.

Grid widgets, as example, can share the row selection when visualized in a dashboard, identified by the ID fo the corresponding listed item.

Other Widgets present a new configuration property to “Enable Dynamic Context Selection”. This setting will allow them to receive the selection from a Grid widget in the same Dashboard and update the selected context item dynamically, loading the updated content.
This underlying capabilities can be leveraged in any custom widget and the details are described in the Aras Innovator Client Documentation (javascript API Reference)

Widget Types determine how the content of a widget is displayed. Different Widget Types will require different properties to correctly render the UI controls.

Here is a list of the default Widget Types provided with the Aras Innovator platform, as well as their required or optional properties.

• ItemType
  
  • Specifies the type of items in the widget grid
  • Required property
  • Default Value: id of the ItemType to be displayed
• Search
  
  • Specifies the favorite search used to populate the widget grid
  • Optional property
  • Default Value: id of a favorite search item (optional)
• Results per Page
  
  • Specifies the number of rows that will be displayed per page in the grid
  • Optional property
  • Default Value: integer (optional)
• Maximum Results
  
  • Specifies the maximum number of items that will be loaded into the widget grid (across all pages)
  • Optional property
  • Default Value: integer (optional)
• Search Criteria
  
  • Specifies the search criteria used to populate the widget grid
  • Required if the Widget Template has a default value for Search
  • Default Value: AML contents of the Saved Search that corresponds to the default favorite search

• Tree Grid View
  
  • Specifies the Tree Grid View Definition that will be displayed in the widget
  • Required property
  • Default Value: id of the TGV to be displayed
• Context Item
  
  • Specifies the root item that will be displayed in the Tree Grid View
  • Required property
  • Default Value: id of an item – same type as the TGV’s root ItemType

• Report
  
  • Specifies the Report that will be displayed in the widget
  • Required property
  • Default Value: id of the Report to be displayed
• ItemType
  
  • Specifies the ItemType parameter for the Report
  • Optional property – provide if required by the Report
  • Default Value: ItemType id
• Context Item
  
  • Specifies the context item parameter for the Report
  • Optional property – provide if required by the Report
  • Default Value: item id

A Widget is an instance of a Widget Template that defines and renders an interactive control for displaying and navigating data in a Dashboard. Each Widget displays live data and has settings that can be configured by the end user. These settings are based on the properties defined on the Widget Template.