Dashboard Measures are the blocks from which you build your dashboard. They define where the data is collected from, the columns that you measuring and how to calculate the results.
Measure Options
- Enter a Code and a Name to refer to the new measure by
- Use the ellipsis to select the Web Service Name. This looks up the list of available web services as the source of the data for this measure. Objects which can be exposed as OData services are supported i.e. Pages and Queries. The Web Service URL will be populated automatically when the Web Service Name is selected.
- Select the Measure Column Name. This is the column which will provide the values to be drawn on the y-axis of the chart.
- Optionally also select a Dimension Column Name. This is the column which will provide values for the x-axis of the chart.
A Measure Column Name should always be selected and can be used by itself e.g. for a count of records in a table. The Dimension Column Name can be selected for displaying one value by another e.g. Sales of Items by Variant Code.
- Select the Measure Operator:
- Select: simply copy the values from the web service
- Min: the minimum value in the data set for the Measure Column
- Max: the maximum value in the data set for the Measure Column
- Average: the average value of the Measure Column in the data set
- Count: the number of rows in the data set
- Sum: the sum of all the values for the Measure Column
Optionally also set values for the following: - Select an Order By Column Name - only supported by Page web services (not Query web services) - Select a Sort Order (ascending or descending) for the data set when also selecting an Order By Column Name - Define a Top Number of Rows to restrict the data set to a certain number of rows when sorted by the above options
Scheduling Measures
In order to display a chart the data for each measure must first be collected. Measures are not evaluated in real-time i.e. the charts and their underlying data are not calculated when they are displayed on the role centre. Calculating the charts every time a user displays their role centre would have a detrimental impact on the performance of the Business Central service. Instead, the data is collected on a schedule and cached. Charts are displayed from this cached data.
You can decide how frequently you wish to collect data for each measure.
- First, check the Enable Data Collection box
- Enter a value for No. of Minutes between Evaluation. This is the frequency with which data for this measure will be collected.
Data for measures is collected by a codeunit that should be set to run on the job queue.
Filters
The final section of the Dashboard Measure card allows you to set filters that should be applied to the OData service when fetching the measure data.
- Select the grouping ('and' or 'or') to group filters together
- Select the Column Name to apply the filter to
- Select the filter Operator to apply to the column
- Enter the filter value to apply to the column. Note that filters for text and code columns must be entered in single quotes e.g. Description Equals '*Desk*'
Asterisks (*) can be used as a wildcard to match zero or more characters in text filters.
Chart Settings
The Chart Settings page is where you choose the visual design of your measure. Select a Dashboard Type of Chart or Gauge.
A gauge is suitable for a measure that should display a single value i.e. specifies a Measure Column Name but not a Dimension Column Name. Select the Gauge Type from the list.
The preview in the Chart group will be updated as appropriate.
Chart dashboard types are appropriate for measures that display two values i.e. have both a Measure Column Name and a Dimension Column Name.