Part 2: Create a dashboard

To tell a story about the revenue and purchasing trends of Buttercup Games, you can 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. This means that charts will snap to your specified rows without any manual input. 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, 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. 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.
4. Select the Dashboard Studio option for this dashboard.
5. Select the Absolute layout.
6. Select Create. This opens the visual editor.

How to navigate the visual editor and the source code editor

There are two editing options available in Splunk Dashboard Studio: the visual editor and the source code editor. Although it's not always necessary to use the source code editor to build a dashboard, you can edit the source code for more customizability beyond the visual editor.

About the visual editor

In this tutorial, you will practice using tools in the editing toolbar to customize a dashboard. The editing toolbar is shown in the following screenshot:

In the editing toolbar, you can add objects to a dashboard, adjust visual formatting options, access the data source overview panel, and more.

Use the following table as a reference for all tools in the editing toolbar:

Tool	Description	Notes
Undo and redo ()	Undo or redo actions while building your dashboard.
Add chart ()	Add visualizations to your dashboard such as single value visualizations, tables, area charts, line charts, bar charts, and more.
Add input ()	Allow users to interact with your dashboard by adding inputs, such as drop-down menus and time range pickers.
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.
Add image ()	Upload a local image or paste a link to an image URL.	Available only in the absolute layout.
Add Markdown ()	Add Markdown formatting to your dashboard.
Configuration ()	Open/close a configuration panel to adjust dashboard preferences and canvas options.
Data source overview ()	Create or view your available data sources and searches.
Source code editor ()	View the JSON-based dashboard source code or apply options that are not available in the visual editor.
Zoom level	Choose a zoom percentage. You can select Auto or 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.
Theme	Choose either a Light or Dark theme.
Save	Save your changes. Dashboards in Splunk Dashboard Studio do not save automatically.
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. You can also view the dashboard on mobile or change editing permissions.	Available only in View mode.

In the Configuration panel, only visible in Edit mode, you can adjust canvas settings, preferences, and view options. See Set up a dashboard.

About the source code editor

The source code for Splunk Dashboard Studio is JSON-based. In this tutorial, you will not use the source code editor to edit your dashboard. To learn more about the source code editor and how to write and edit dashboard source code, see What is a dashboard definition.

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. Select the Global Time Range element.
2. In the Configuration panel, select Last 7 Days as the value for the Default Value dropdown. This sets the default setting for Global Time Range to be 7 days rather than 24 hours.
3. Set the Global Time Range dropdown on the canvas to Last 7 Days. Although you already set the default value of the Global Time Range to 7 days, this only changes the time range when a dashboard is freshly loaded. Since you've already loaded this dashboard, you need to select Last 7 Days again to update this specific dashboard. By default, searches use the global time range picker. You will use the default time range for all your visualizations in this dashboard.
4. Select anywhere on the canvas away from the Global Time Range element to return to the main Configuration panel. Using the Configuration panel, which now displays information about the canvas, make sure the Display Mode is set to Fit to Width.
5. Make sure that Canvas Width is set to 1440 and Canvas Height to 960. To learn more, see Compare absolute and grid layouts.
6. Open the Buttercup Games background image in a new tab and download the image to your computer.
7. 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.

8. In the Configuration panel, change the background image size setting from Contain to Cover.

After completing Part 2, your dashboard will look similar to the following:

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.