How to use the IIoT Dashboard Service

How to use the IIoT Dashboard Service

In this article you will get an overview of how to use the Dashboard Service with data from the zenon Service Engine. This service is available with IIoT Services 14.1.

Prerequisite: You have connected a Service Engine to the IIoT Services and you have prepared the zenon project accordingly. See this article if you are not that far yet.

The navigation to the Dashboard Service is not contained in the Configuration Studio of the IIoT Services itself but can be accessed via a separate website.
To do so, enter "https://MyIIotServicesURL:port/dashboard" (example: https://mycomputername.mydomain:9443/dashboard) into the address bar of your browser. 

Dashboards can be managed, created, edited and viewed directly in a web browser without installation on the client device. They behave responsive and can be used on different devices without manual adaption. The dashboard will automatically adapt to the screen resolution and device rotation. The position and size of the widgets will be automatically changed based on the size of the screen.

Create a new Dashboard

By using the button "Create Dashboard" an new dashboard can be created. This will open a side sheet allowing to specify the name of the dashboard and an optional description. The name of the Dashboard has to be unique. Uniqueness is validated in place.
After clicking "Create" the dashboard is created and automatically opened in edit mode.
Creating dashboards require a role of at least "Dashboard Manager". Creating a new dashboard is currently not supported on mobile devices.

Duplicate dashboard

The current Dashboard can be duplicated by clicking the button "Duplicate dashboard". The duplicated dashboard will be created with the name "Copy 1 of <Original name>" and automatically opened in another tab in edit mode.
Duplicating dashboards require a role of at least "Dashboard Manager".

Edit/modify an existing Dashboard

In dashboard edit mode it is possible to modify the Dashboard directly in the browser.
To access the edit mode of a dashboard you can either:
  • select "Edit" in the Dashboard Management page
  • in view mode click the "Edit"-icon right beside the Dashboard title
Editing dashboards require a role of at least "Dashboard Editor". Editing a dashboard is currently not supported on mobile devices.
In edit mode the dashboard is shown focusing on the arrangement, description and linked data points of the widgets.



Operations that can be done with the Dashboard in edit mode:
  • Add widgets
  • Synchronize (Save) the dashboard
  • Switch back to live mode
  • Rename the dashboard
  • Modify Dashboard properties
  • Duplicate a Dashboard
When you click the "play" icon next to the dashboard name on the upper left hand side, you will get back to the live mode.



At the top right corner of the dashboard, optionally a time filter can be shown:
  • giving the user a reference at which time period of data he's currently looking at.
  • allowing the user to modify the time filter directly:
    • click on the icon or the text "Abs"/"Rel" to change the type of the time filter
    • click on any of the date/time fields to modify the time filter
    • modifying the time filter will trigger a reload of all widgets using this time filter (e.g. Table, Trend)

Renaming a dashboard

To rename the dashboard, simply edit its name in the configuration area. The name will be validated for uniqueness only when clicking on "sync".

Filter

In this section you can choose to

  • optionally show a time filter control for the Dashboard page in view mode
  • define the time filter used by widgets like e.g. Table or Trend by default

Configuration:

  • Display time filter: shows or hides the time filter control in play mode
  • Time filter type: choose between an absolute or relative time filter
  • Time filter input: depending on the selected time filter the respective controls are shown to set the default time span. When defining an absolute time filter, the "from" date/time has to be earlier than the "to" date/time.

Options

The refresh rate of the Dashboard can be defined here in a range of 10 to 86400 seconds (1 day).
Decide carefully what update rate is really needed here and choose the highest reasonable intervall. For example displaying a dashboard about weather conditions, and update interval of e.g. 15 minutes (900 seconds) might be sufficient. 

This setting defines, when the widgets will be triggered to fetch new data. However, if requesting data for a widget takes too long, it will skip refresh requests.

Please also check the zenon 14.1 release notes for more information about features and available widgets.