Overview

This page describes the process of using the Parent-Child Dashboard.  You can set a dashboard as a child of another dashboard, which will allow changes made to the parent to reflect on the child. Moving gauges, adding filters, or adding text and images to the parent dashboard will result in the same change on the child dashboard.

You can change multiple dashboards by making changes only to their ‘parent’ dashboard or linking one dashboard as a parent to other dashboards.

Note: Filtering must be reviewed on each child dashboard. While filters can be added or deleted automatically through the parent, the filtering value criteria must be confirmed or set individually on each child dashboard. If the filtering values (criteria) are not specified on the child dashboards, they are toggled off by default. Learn more about filtering below.

Note: Admin permissions are required to make changes to parent and child dashboards. Consider limiting how many admins have access to parent dashboards to prevent errors that could roll out onto the child dashboards as well.

How to Create a Child Dashboard

1. Navigate to the dashboard you want to be the parent.
2. Select More.
3. Select Clone Dashboard.
   
4. Select Clone as child dashboard in popup. 
   
5. Click Create.

How-To Video: How to Create Child Dashboards

In the following video, we review how to create a child dashboard in BrightGauge.

Parent and Child Dashboards Features

Review the following features of parent and child dashboards:

• Parent and child dashboards display a label in the drop-down menu to help organize your dashboards.
  
• Saving changes to a parent dashboard also causes any linked child dashboards to also update. When making changes (such as gauge changes, filter updates, and dataset changes), you must click the Save button. A save window reminds you that any changes saved to the parent result in updates to the child dashboard(s), and also gives you the options to cancel or discard changes.
  
  
• Create a filter on a parent dashboard to reflect the same filter on the child dashboards. Filtering values (criteria) are not automatically applied to child dashboards, as the criteria could be different from the parent. Follow the steps below to apply filters.
• Deleting a filter from the parent dashboard deletes the filter from the child dashboards.
• Toggling a filter on or off from the parent toggles it on or off on all of the child dashboards.
• Deleting a global filter on a child dashboard is temporary. The filter can be reapplied from the parent dashboard when it is modified, refreshed, or toggled off and then back on.
• Turning off a global filter on a child dashboard is temporary. The filter can be reapplied from the parent dashboard when it is modified, refreshed, or toggled off and then back on.

Apply Filters

Note: Admin and Analyst users can create, edit, and delete filters. Viewers may toggle filters on and off if filtering is enabled for them.

Apply global filters to the parent dashboard to reflect in child dashboards:

1. Navigate to the parent dashboard.
2. Select Filter drop-down.
3. Select Add a Filter or toggle an existing filter on or off.
4. Complete the filter criteria as required. Follow the steps in Dashboard Filters to create a filter.
5. Navigate to the child dashboard.
6. Select the Filter drop-down.
7. Click into the appropriate filter, set the value criteria, and save the changes.
8. Enable the filter by using the toggle. Toggling the filter off and back on from the parent dashboard will also enable the filter on the child dashboard.

Note: Filters created for the first time appear on the child dashboard as deactivated. Navigate to the child dashboard to activate the newly created filter.

Tip: If you are actively using Parent-Child Dashboards for clients, do not toggle the company filter off on the parent dashboard, as it will toggle the company filter off on all of the child dashboards. This could mean inadvertently sharing the wrong data with your clients. Below are some suggestions to help you better manage client dashboards:

• Limit the number of admin users who have access to view the parent dashboard. Avoid sharing the parent dashboard with viewers.

• Make it well known in training that the company filter should be considered locked on the parent dashboard.

• If you require an overview of all companies and desire the flexibility to toggle the company filter on and off, you have two choices. Firstly, you can clone the parent dashboard, but not as a child. This will create a stand-alone dashboard, allowing you to freely adjust filters as needed. However, you will lose the benefit of global updates. Alternatively, you can clone the parent dashboard as a child. This child dashboard can be shared with internal colleagues. By having an internal dashboard attached to a parent, you can leverage the global updates and filtering features of Parent-Child dashboards. This setup enables you to make temporary filtering changes on your internally-used child dashboard while still benefiting from the parent-child relationship

• If you prefer not to create a company filter from the parent dashboard, you have the option to create individual company filters on each of the child dashboards. However, it's important to note that this approach comes with a trade-off – you won't benefit from global filtering updates. Consequently, when you add a new gauge from a new dataset onto the parent (and consequently onto the children), you will need to manually go to each of your child dashboards to edit the filter's field selections.

View Hierarchy

View the organization of parent-to-child dashboard:

1. Select a dashboard from the Dashboards drop-down.
2. Navigate to More > View Hierarchy.
   
3. If the selected dashboard is a parent, it displays in green font with the associated child dashboards listed below in a hierarchy.
   
4. If the dashboard you selected is a child, it displays in green font with the associated parent and child dashboards listed in a hierarchy.
   

Convert to a Child Dashboard

The feature to convert to a child dashboard overrides anything you have on a current dashboard. For example:

• You have a new dashboard that you want to become the parent/template for your technician dashboards, called "New Technical Template Dashboard."
• You have existing technician dashboards, but the gauges are different than your New Technician Template Dashboard.
• If you child one of your existing technician dashboards to the New Technician Template Dashboard, all the gauges on the existing technician will now mirror the New Technician Template Dashboard.
  • If you click More/Attach Child Dashboard, you then get a notice that says "Newly attached dashboard mimics the parent dashboard. Delinking the existing dashboard no longer updates with the parent dashboard." You may want to use this feature on the dashboard that you want to become a parent dashboard.
  • It is recommended that you create some test dashboards just so you understand how this feature works prior to overriding current dashboards that are in use.