path: root/doc/development/fe_guide/customizable_dashboards.md

---
stage: Monitor
group: Product Analytics
info: Any user with at least the Maintainer role can merge updates to this content. For details, see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/development_processes.html#development-guidelines-review.
---

# Customizable dashboards

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/98610) in GitLab 15.5 as an [Experiment](../../policy/experiment-beta-support.md#experiment).

Customizable dashboards provide a configuation-based [dashboard](https://design.gitlab.com/patterns/dashboards)
structure, which is used to render and modify dashboard configurations created by GitLab or users.

The dashboard structure does not provide the means to save and version control
user configuration files on a repository. This functionality is provided by [Analytics dashboards](../../user/analytics/analytics_dashboards.md)
which uses the customizable dashboard component.

NOTE:
Customizable dashboards is intended for Premium and Ultimate subscriptions.

## Overview

Customizable dashboard can be broken down into 3 logical components:

- Dashboard
- Panels
- Visualizations

A dashboard consists of a list of panels to render, each panel references one
visualization, and a single visualization can be shared by many panels.

A typical dashboard structure looks like this:

```plaintext
dashboard
├── panelA
│  └── visualizationX
├── panelB
│  └── visualizationY
├── panelC
│  └── visualizationY
```

## Usage

To use customizable dashboards:

1. Create a new Vue component for your dashboard.
1. Create a [visualization configuration](#visualization-configuration).
1. Create your [dashboard configuration](#dashboard-configuration).
1. Render an instance of `CustomizableDashboard` and pass it your [dashboard configuration](#using-the-component).

### Visualization configuration

Each visualization is a graphical representation of query results fetched from a data source.

```javascript
// visualizations.js

export const pageViewsOverTime = {
  // The name of the Vue component used to render the query.
  type: 'LineChart',
  // Chart options defined by the charting library being used by the panel.
  options: {
    xAxis: { name: __('Time'), type: 'time' },
    yAxis: { name: __('Counts'), type: 'value' },
  },
  // The data to query
  data: {
    // The data source to query. Here it is Product Analytics.
    type: 'cube_analytics',
    // The query to run on the data source. Here in Cube.js format.
    query: {
      dimensions: [],
      filters: [
        {
          member: 'TrackedEvents.eventName',
          operator: 'equals',
          values: ['page_view']
        }
      ],
      measures: ['TrackedEvents.pageViewsCount'],
      timeDimensions: [
        {
          dimension: 'TrackedEvents.derivedTstamp',
          granularity: 'day',
        },
      ],
      limit: 100,
      timezone: 'UTC',
    },
  },
};
```

#### Adding a new visualization render type

To add a new visualization render type:

1. Create a new Vue component that accepts `data` and `options` properties.
   See [`line_chart.vue`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/assets/javascripts/analytics/analytics_dashboards/components/visualizations/line_chart.vue) as an example.
1. Add your component to the list of conditional imports in [`panel_base.vue`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/assets/javascripts/vue_shared/components/customizable_dashboard/panels_base.vue#L13).
1. Add your component to the schema's list of `AnalyticsVisualization` types in [`analytics_visualizations.json`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/validators/json_schemas/analytics_visualization.json).

#### Adding a new visualization data source

To add a new data source:

1. Create a new JavaScript module that exports a `fetch` method. See [`cube_analytics.js`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/assets/javascripts/analytics/analytics_dashboards/data_sources/cube_analytics.js#L122) as an example.
1. Add your module to the list exports in [`data_sources/index.js`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/assets/javascripts/analytics/analytics_dashboards/data_sources/index.js).
1. Add your data source to the schema's list of `Data` types in [`analytics_visualizations.json`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/app/validators/json_schemas/analytics_visualization.json).

NOTE:
Your data source must respect the filters so that all panels show data for
the same date range.

### Dashboard configuration

Here is an example dashboard configuration:

```javascript
// constants.js
import { pageViewsOverTime } from './visualizations';

export const dashboard = {
  slug: 'my_dashboard', // Used to set the URL path for the dashboard.
  title: 'My dashboard title', // The title to display.
  description: 'This is a description of the dashboard', // A description of the dashboard
  // Each dashboard consists of an array of panels to display.
  panels: [
    {
      id: 1,
      title: 'Page views over time', // The panel title to display.
      // The visualization configuration. This can be shared by many panels.
      visualization: pageViewsOverTime,
      // Gridstack settings based upon https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js/tree/master/doc#item-options.
      // All values are grid row/column numbers up to 12.
      // We use the default 12 column grid https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js#change-grid-columns.
      gridAttributes: {
        yPos: 1,
        xPos: 0,
        width: 6,
        height: 5,
      },
      // Optional overrides for the values in `visualization.data.query`.
      // Here we override the Cube.js query to get page views per week instead of days.
      queryOverrides: {
        timeDimensions: {
          dimension: 'TrackedEvents.derivedTstamp',
          granularity: 'week',
        },
      },
    },
  ],
};
```

### Using the component

Here is an example component that renders a customizable dashboard:

```vue
<script>
import CustomizableDashboard from 'ee/vue_shared/components/customizable_dashboard/customizable_dashboard.vue';
import { dashboard } from './constants';

export default {
  name: 'AnalyticsDashboard',
  components: {
    CustomizableDashboard,
  },
  data() {
    return {
      // We keep the original (default) dashboard object to track changes.
      dashboard: {
        ...dashboard,
        default: { ...dashboard, }
      },
      // Optional dashboard filters. Currently the only availble filter is date range.
      defaultFilters: {
        dateRangeOption: 'last_7_days' // 'custom', 'today', 'last_7_days', 'last_30_days'
        endDate: new Date(2023, 06, 14),
        startDate: new Date(2023, 06, 7),
      },
      // Set to true to sync the filter object with the URL query string.
      syncUrlFilters: true,
      // Set to true to show the date range filter.
      showDateRangeFilter: true,
      // The maximum size of the date range allowed in days. 0 for unlimited.
      dateRangeLimit: 0,
    };
  },
};
</script>

<template>
  <customizable-dashboard
    :initial-dashboard="dashboard"
    :default-filters="defaultFilters"
    :sync-url-filters="syncUrlFilters"
    :show-date-range-filter="showDateRangeFilter"
    :date-range-limit="dateRangeLimit"
  />
</template>
```

## Dashboard designer

> - Introduced in GitLab 16.1 [with a flag](../../administration/feature_flags.md) named `combined_analytics_dashboards_editor`. Disabled by default.
> - [Generally available](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/411407) in GitLab 16.6. Feature flag `combined_analytics_dashboards_editor` removed.

The dashboard designer provides a graphical interface for users to modify the
panels and add new ones on user-defined dashboards. Is is not available on
GitLab hardcoded dashboards.

NOTE:
The dashboard designer is in the early experimental stage and subject to
change.

```vue
<script>
import { s__ } from '~/locale';

export const I18N_MY_NEW_CATEGORY = s__('Namespace|My data source');

export default {
  name: 'AnalyticsDashboard',
  data() {
    return {
      ...,
      // Set to true to render the dashboard saving state.
      isSaving: false,
      // A list of availble visualizations categorized by feature.
      availableVisualizations: {
        // The visualization category title to display.
        [I18N_MY_NEW_CATEGORY]: {
          // Set to true when asynchronously loading the visualization IDs
          loading: false,
          // List of availble visualization IDs for the user to add to the dashboard.
          visualizationIds: [
            'page_views_over_time',
            'events_over_time',
          ],
        },
      }
    };
  },
  methods: {
    /**
     * Event handler for when a user saves changes made to the current dashboard.
     * @param  {String} dashboardId The current dashboard ID.
     * @param  {String} newDashboardObject The newly modified dashboard object.
     */
    saveDashboard(dashboardId, newDashboardObject) {
      // Save changes and modify `this.dashboard`.
    },
    /**
     * Event handler for when a user adds a visualization in a new panel.
     * @param  {String} visualizationId The ID (usually filename) of the visualization.
     * @param  {String} visualizationSource The source to get the new visualization config.
     */
    addNewPanel(visualizationId, visualizationSource) {
      // Load the visualization and push a new panel onto `this.dashboard.panels`.
    },
  },
}
</script>

<template>
  <customizable-dashboard
    ...
    :available-visualizations="availableVisualizations"
    :is-saving="isSaving"
    @save="handleSave"
    @add-panel="handleAddPanel"
  />
</template>
```