Add a visualization to your dashboard

You can use the editing bar to add objects to your dashboard and the Configuration panel in the visual editor to use most of the formatting options for visualizations.

If you are using the grid layout, charts are the only visualizations available.

1. Select a chart or other visualization using the visual editor by clicking one of the visualization options in the editing toolbar. For example, to add a chart, click the Add Chart button ( ) and select a chart.
2. Select the chart you want to format on your dashboard to highlight it with the blue editing outline.
3. Set up a data source by adding a new search or selecting an existing data source.
   1. To initiate a new search, add a search to the Search with SPL window if you've selected a chart, or click + Setup Primary Data Source if you've selected a shape.
   2. To select an existing data source, close the Configuration panel and reopen it. In the Data Configurations section, click + Setup Primary Data Source and click + Create Ad hoc Search to create a new search from this window. You can also create a unique ID that describes the search better than the default.
4. To customize your visualization, use the available options in the Configuration panel below the Data Configurations section.
5. For further customization, click the Source Editor () and find your chart in the visualizations stanza. Use dynamic options syntax (DOS) to add dynamic visualizations to your chart.

To learn more about data sources, see Use data sources.

Format your visualizations

Each visualization and each chart type have different visualization options. Most of these options can be formatted using the visual editor, and all of them have their own chapters or topics in this manual, with their specific formatting options. While most visualizations can be formatted using the visual editor, some configuration options are only available using the source editor. To learn more about the structure of visualizations in the source editor, see Visualizations in the source editor.