SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services : Dashboards in Dashboard Designer (part 1) - Creating and Deploying a Dashboard

Creating and Deploying a Dashboard

In this example, we create a dashboard using the elements shown in Figure 1. Currently, we have two reports: one KPI and one scorecard.

Figure 1. These are the elements available for the dashboard example.

Start the process of creating a new dashboard by clicking Dashboard on the Create tab. Alternatively, you can right-click the list, PerformancePoint Content in the Workspace Browser, and then select New, Dashboard, also shown in Figure 1.

When you do this, the Select a Dashboard Page Template dialog opens (see Figure 2). From here, you choose the initial layout of the dashboard. You can modify this layout after you create the dashboard.

Figure 2. Choose the layout for the dashboards from this dialog box.

Each dashboard is configured with zones. Figure 3 shows a dashboard with three zones, one header, and two columns.

Figure 3. This is an example of a dashboard with three zones, one header, and two columns.

The zones define how you can position elements, scorecards, reports, and filters on the dashboard. The elements available are shown in the Details pane on the right side (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. The Details pane displays the elements available for the dashboard.

There are two ways to add elements to a dashboard. In the first way, begin by choosing the item you want to add from the Details pane. Then choose the desired zone in the Add to Zone box at the bottom of the Details pane. Click Add to confirm your choice. Alternatively, you can simply drag the element from the Details pane and drop it in the desired zone.

In Figure 9.11, we have added the scorecard and one of the reports to the dashboard in the left and right columns, respectively.

Notice that we cannot preview the dashboard at this point. You must deploy the dashboard to SharePoint before you can see the final result.

Deploy the dashboard to SharePoint by right-clicking the dashboard in the Workspace Browser and then selecting Deploy to SharePoint, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. When you are ready, Use Deploy to SharePoint from the Workspace Browser to deploy the dashboard.

The next step is to pick the document library that will store the dashboard, as shown in Figure 6. You also need to choose the master page you want to use.

Figure 6. Choose the document library for the dashboard and the master page to use from this dialog.

The dialog shown in Figure 6 displays only the first time you deploy a dashboard. All subsequent deployments use those same settings. If you need to change the dashboard target location or master page, use the dashboard Deployment Properties, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Use the dashboard Deployment Properties to modify the document library and master page settings.

A PPS dashboard is deployed as a folder in the document library with each page becoming an ASPX file within that folder. Figure 8 illustrates what the deployed dashboards looks like.

Figure 8. This is an example of dashboard deployed to SharePoint.