Part 2 Create a dashboard

To tell a story about the revenue and purchasing trends of Buttercup Games, create a dashboard in Splunk Dashboard Studio with compelling visualizations powered by insightful searches.

Select a layout option

Splunk Dashboard Studio provides two different layout options: grid and absolute. In the grid layout, visualizations have automatic, snap-to-alignment. The grid layout is best for a quick dashboard building experience. The absolute layout provides more flexibility with pixel-perfect control and customizable backgrounds, shapes, and icons. For this tutorial, select the absolute layout. To learn more about both layouts, you can compare their functionality. See Compare absolute and grid layouts.

1. Select Create New Dashboard from the Dashboards tab of the Search & Reporting app.
2. Title your dashboard Buttercup Games Online Store and add Dashboard Studio Tutorial in the description box.
3. (Optional) Select Edit ID to change your Dashboard ID. By default, the Dashboard ID is the same as the Dashboard Title. You can edit the Dashboard Title at any time, but you can't change the Dashboard ID later.
4. Choose Private or Shared in App in the Permissions drop-down menu. Other app users can see your dashboard with the Shared in App option.
5. Select the Dashboard Studio option to build your dashboard.
6. Select the Absolute layout.
7. Select Create.

Navigate the visual editor and the source code editor

Let's get acquainted with the two editing options available in Splunk Dashboard Studio: the visual editor and the source code editor. Although it's not always necessary to open the source code editor to build a dashboard, you can edit the source code for more flexibility beyond the visual editor.

About the visual editor

In this tutorial, you can practice using tools in the editing toolbar to customize a dashboard. For example, you can add objects to a dashboard, adjust visual formatting options, and access the data overview panel.

Tool	Description	Notes
Undo and redo ()	Undo or redo actions while building your dashboard.	n/a
Add chart ()	Add visualizations to your dashboard such as single values, tables, area charts, line charts, bar charts, and more.	n/a
Add input ()	Allow users to interact with your dashboard by adding inputs, such as drop-down menus and time range pickers.	n/a
Add icon ()	Choose from a list of popular icons, add your own custom icons, or include a single value icon.	Available only in the absolute layout.
Add shape ()	Add rectangles, ellipses, and lines.	Available only in the absolute layout.
Add image ()	Upload a local image or paste a link to an image URL.	Available only in the absolute layout.
Add Markdown text ()	Add text to your dashboard using standard Markdown formatting.	n/a
Add text ()	Add and format text boxes.	Available only in the absolute layout.
Configuration ()	Open/close a configuration panel to adjust preferences and canvas options.	n/a
Data overview ()	Create or view your available data sources.	n/a
Source code editor ()	View the JSON-based source code or apply options that are not available in the visual. editor.	n/a
Zoom level	Choose a zoom percentage, or select Fit for automatic dashboard sizing.	Available only in the absolute layout.
View or Edit	Toggle between View and Edit mode to see how your changes appear in the dashboard.	n/a
Theme	Choose either a Light or Dark theme.	n/a
Save	Save your changes. Dashboards in Splunk Dashboard Studio do not save automatically.	n/a
Fullscreen ()	View your dashboard in full screen. Press esc to exit full screen.	Available only in View mode.
Actions panel	Download, clone, or delete your dashboard.	Available only in View mode.

In the Configuration panel, you can adjust canvas settings, preferences, and view options. See View options for dashboards and visualizations.

About the source code editor

The source code for Splunk Dashboard Studio is JSON-based. Each dashboard has the following five stanzas in its source code:

• visualizations
• dataSources
• inputs
• layout
• defaults

By editing the source code, you can apply customization options to your dashboard. The source code for your dashboard in this tutorial will look like the following:

{
"visualizations": {},
"dataSources": {},
"defaults": {...},
"inputs": {},
"layout": {...},
"description": "Dashboard Studio Tutorial",
"title": "Buttercup Games Online Store"
}

In this tutorial, you will work with the source code editor in Part 8: Apply customization options with dashboard default settings. You can view the dashboard definition in the source code editor. See How the dashboard definition is structured in the source editor.

Set up the dashboard canvas

Before adding visualizations to your dashboard, prepare the canvas by adding a background image and some shapes. Preparing the dashboard canvas with design elements can help you later when choosing visual formatting options for visualizations.

1. For this tutorial, open the Buttercup Games background image in a new tab and download the image to add to your dashboard.
2. Using the Configuration panel, make sure the Display Mode is set to Fit to Width.
3. Change Canvas Width to 1300 and Canvas Height to 700. To learn more, see Compare absolute and grid layouts.
4. In the Background Image section of the Configuration panel, upload the Buttercup Games background image.

   The image size limit for Dashboard Studio is 16 MB.

5. Change the background image size setting from Contain to Cover.

At this point in the tutorial, the Buttercup Games dashboard looks like this:

Next step

You've completed Part 2 of the Splunk Dashboard Studio tutorial.

Now you have a canvas ready for visualizations. Next, add a new data source and assign it to a table visualization. Continue to Part 3: Add a table with column formatting.