Dashboard Widgets

There are 7 different types of dashboard widgets.  Each except the list widget and the timeline widget is on display by default in your account.  This article will first show you how to make your own widget, and then go through each type of widget and show you how to best summarize your data.

Making your own Dashboard Widget

Dashboard widgets can be made by 1) Copying a widget and then editing it, 2) By saving a view as a widget, or 3) By using the + button on the dashboard editor to create a widget from scratch.

Method 1: Copying a widget in order to edit it:

This is a good way to 'look under the hood' of a widget and see what makes it tick.  To copy and then edit a widget, click on the three dots to the upper left of the widget and choose 'Copy and Edit'. 

You can also  click the dashboard ( ) button on the left side of the dashboard, then click the three dots next to the widget you'd like to copy and choose 'Copy and edit'.  

The widget editor will open.  From here you can change what is displayed by the widget the same way you edit a view.  

Rename the copied widget something descriptive by changing the view name field:

Then press the back button to the left of the name to go back to the dashboard.  The widget will now be displayed in the list of available widgets. Note that since you altered the default dashboard, the name of your dashboard now appears as 'Ad Hoc Dashboard'.  

Method 2:  Saving a View as a widget

This is the method I'll use in this article to make the widgets. 

Starting with an existing view like All Properties or All Stewardship Sites, you can begin adding filters and fields (see this article or this article on building views if you're unfamiliar with them).  After you build a view that displays the information you want to be summarized in the widget, click the save button.

Change the 'Save As' drop down menu to 'Dashboard'

Give the view a name and click 'OK'

Method 3:  Making a new widget from scratch.

Click on the plus button next to 'Widgets in this Layout' from the dashboard pane.  

Choose 'Create new widget'

You can now start building the widget

Adding a widget to the dashboard

Once your widget is created, you'll need to add it to the dashboard. Click on the dashboard button to open the side panel, and then click on the '+' button:

Choose 'Add existing widget', then choose the widget you want to add from the drop down menu:

Widget menu items

Once your widget is added to the dashboard, you can click on the three dots next to it to see additional options:

To hide it, click on the three dots next to the widget in the dashboard menu and select 'Remove from layout'. This will remove the widget from the layout, but you can always add it back again by using the 'add widget' menu.  

Copy and edit will create a copy of the widget for editing -- useful if you want to preserve the widget but make something new based off of it.

Edit will edit the widget.

Shared indicates whether the widget has been shared with your organization.  

If any of these are greyed out, it means they are unavailable because you do not have the privileges to make changes. Copy the widget to make your own copy, then save it as something new and add it to your dashboard.  You should then have access to the inaccessible menu items.

 

Types of Widgets

There are 5 types of widgets available.  The difference between the first two types of widgets (count widgets) are simply whether you are grouping the items or not.  I.e. the difference between this widget:

and this widget:

is that the second widget is grouped on Property Interest.  Here is an article which reviews how grouping works in Landscape.  All chart widgets need to also incorporate grouping.

Also note that you can incorporate as many summed columns as you need in a widget by clicking the  button at the bottom of the summable field in grid view (example below).

Type 1: Count Widget

The count widget displays the count of records as well as a sum field, if applicable.  To make your own count widget, just create a view with a countable item (anything!) and a field which can be summed (optional).  If you don't include the sum field, it won't be displayed on the widget. Here's a view of all properties which displays only those with an interest of 'Conservation Easement', and the donated value of each easement.  Clicking on the sum () button at the bottom of the column will enable the sum field in the widget.

Type 2: Grouped Widget

This widget is made in the same way as the count widget, but simply adds groups to what is being counted to display more than one category at a time.  In the example above, rather than looking at all conservation values and summing them together, it's breaking everything down by conservation value type.  

For example, starting with a view of All Properties which includes the 'Donated Value' column, click the three dots in the upper left and select 'Show Grouping'

By default, Landscape will group based on the first column.  To change that, click on the item just to the right of the view settings icon and select what you want to group the list by.

Now that it's grouped correctly and the sum field has been turned on, we can save it as a dashboard widget, and it will appear like this: (don't forget that you'll have to make the widget visible after you save it!)

Type 3: Pie/Bar Chart Widget

Pie Chart widgets work the same as Grouped Widgets. Any time you've created a view which can be grouped and summed (as in the previous example), you can save it as a Graph. Just like with the previous two widgets, you can opt not to include a sum field.  So, with the previous example where I grouped by Interest, select the three dots in the top menu and click 'Display as Chart'

The view will be displayed as a chart. By default, it will choose a bar chart, however, if you want it to display as a pie chart, click 'BAR' on the right and change the drop down menu to 'Pie'.  In this case a bar chart isn't helpful because it can't display the count and the value since the numbers are too disparate.  

To add color, click on the swatches to the left of each group and select or enter the color you want

The chart above has an outer and inner circle to display both the count of the categories and the sum of the donated value, respectively.  If you only want the count to display, switch back to form view and click the sum button at the bottom of the summed column to deactivate it.

If you'd like the chart to hide the count information and show only the summed field(s), uncheck 'Show Count Data'.

Type 4: Line Graph 

A line graph widget is best utilized to show progress over time.  In order to create a custom line graph widget, you'll need to group by custom categories, and define those categories as the intervals of time you want to group by. 

For example, if I want to track monitoring count and hours over the course of the current year, I would first make a view of all completed site visits for 2020 (notice I've used floating dates so I don't have to do this again next year):

Turn on grouping:

Set the Grouped Column to the Date

Click on Group Settings

Choose 'Group on categories' and then select 'Add Category --> Custom'.  You will now start building the time blocks you want for your line chart.  

I wanted mine to display the entire year, so I made a category for each month.  Give each category a label (this is what will appear on the x-axis of the chart) as well as a Minimum and Maximum date.  This date can be floating or fixed.  

After I click 'OK', my view now looks like this:

Note that I've included a column for hours, and have summed the column. This will allow the line chart to follow both count and hours with two separate lines.  Also note that the months are appearing in alphabetical order, but don't worry, they'll appear in chronological order in the final chart.

Finally, select 'Display as Chart'

Set the type to Line if it doesn't open as one, and change the colors by clicking on the swatches.  The summed column will be labeled on the right of the chart, the count on the left.  Save your view as a Dashboard widget.  

Type 5: Map Widget

 

A map widget can be used to show a summary of information on a map.  Since maps also have limited interactivity, they can be used to navigate directly to an item by clicking on it and selecting 'go to result'.  Any item which has geography associated with it can also be shown on a map widget. For example, you could have a map widget to track all known active issues, or a map widget to display all current leases. 

Here's a view of issues with a severity of 'Staff Follow-Up':

To view it as a map, click the three dots below the view name and choose 'Display as Map'

The results will be displayed on a map.  You can customize the layer appearance to suit the map.  Save the view as a Dashboard widget with a descriptive name like "Issues with Staff Follow-up Needed".

Note: The fields you have activated in the grid view are the fields which will appear in the popup when you click an item in map view.

Learn more about creating custom map widgets here.

Type 6: List Widget

List widgets are simply compacted Views which you can view on the dashboard and use to navigate to specific records.  We recommend having only one or two list widgets maximum, as they can clutter things up on your dashboard quickly!  Because they'll have access to limited screen real estate, it's important to choose to display just the information that is relevant. Row height is fixed, and column width is dependent on the size of the widget and the number of other columns.

For example, here's a list widget of my incomplete obligations, with the name of the stewardship site, and the obligation. I could even remove the 'staff lead' column, since I know these are just my obligations:

To make a list widget, first make a widget as described above.  If it's not already set, change the settings to 'Display as Grid', and check the box that says 'Show list of results in widget'.  

List widgets respect grouping, counting, and sums, so if you want to group things or show sums by groups, you can do so:

 

Type 7: Timeline Widgets

If you create a timeline view of projects or tasks, you can save it is a widget on your dashboard. This may be useful if you want to see a timeline of tasks assigned to you: