Create dashboards and dashboard panels

This topic walks you through saving a search as a dashboard panel and adding an input element to the dashboard.

Save a search as a dashboard panel

1. Run the following search:

sourcetype=access_* status=200 action=purchase | top categoryId

2. Click the Visualization tab and select the Pie chart type.

3. In the Search view, click Save as and select Dashboard Panel.

The Save as Dashboard Panel dialog box opens.

4. Define a new dashboard and dashboard panel.

4.1. For Dashboard, click New.

4.2. Enter the Dashboard Title, "Buttercup Games Purchases", The Dashboard ID updates with "Buttercup_games_purchases".

4.3. (Optional) Add a Dashboard Description, "Reports on Buttercup Games purchases data".

4.4. Type in the Panel Title, "Top Purchases by Category"

4.5. Leave the Panel Powered By as Inline search.

5. Click Save.

6. Click View Dashboard.

This creates a dashboard with one report panel. To add more report panels, you can run new searches and save them to this dashboard, or you can add saved reports.

View and edit dashboard panels

1. Click Dashboards in the app navigation bar.

This takes you to the Dashboards listing page.

You can Create a new dashboard and edit existing dashboards. You see the Buttercup Games Purchases dashboard that you created.

2. Under the i column, click the arrow next to Buttercup Games Purchases to see more information about the dashboard: What app context it is in, whether or not it is scheduled, and its permissions.

You can use the quick links that are inline with the information to edit the dashboard's Schedule and Permissions.

Add an input to the dashboard

1. In the Dashboards list, click Buttercup Games Purchases to return to that dashboard.

2. Click Edit and select Edit Panels.

The Edit: Buttercup Games Purchases view opens.

In this view, you have edit buttons: Add Input, Add Panel, and Edit Source.

3. Click Add Input and select Time.

This adds a time range picker input to the dashboard editor.

4. Click the Edit Input icon for the time range picker. It looks like a pencil.

This opens a set of input controls. The Time input type should be preselected.

a. (Optional) Change the Token value to Buttercup_Games_Time_Range and click Apply.

This optional step redefines the name of the input token for the time range picker. Because the default names of input tokens are not very descriptive (field1, field2, field3, and so on), you may want to do this when you give your dashboard multiple inputs. It makes it easier to understand which input you are working with.

b. (Optional) Change the default time range for the picker by changing the value of Default. Right now it defaults to All time.

In the next two steps you connect your dashboard panel to this time range picker.

6. In the new dashboard panel, click the Inline Search icon and select Edit Search String.

The Edit Search dialog opens.

7. Click Time Range Scope and select Shared Time Picker (Buttercup_Games_Time_Range).

8. Click Save.

The panel is now hooked up to the shared time range picker input. The inline search that powers the panel now uses the time range selected for the shared time range picker.

As you add panels to this dashboard, repeat steps 6 through 8 to hook the new panels up to the shared time range picker input.

You can have dashboards that offer a mix of panels that work with the shared time range picker and panels that show data for fixed time ranges.

9. Click Done to save your changes to the dashboard.

Next steps

Continue to the next topic to add more reports to your dashboard.