Guides
Share a dashboard
A dashboard is private until you publish it. This guide shows how to put a dashboard on the internet, how to send it without a share, and how to tell readers how much to trust it.
On arkush.app, a dashboard is private or published. You cannot share it with a named person or open it to everyone signed in: on a server where anyone can sign in, a share would show each person the email addresses of strangers. On an org install, you also share with people and groups. Those sections carry the note Org installs only.
Before you start
To publish a dashboard, it must be saved to your account. When you are signed in, every dashboard saves itself. When you are not signed in, the Share panel and Dashboard settings show a Sign in step in place of the sharing controls.
You share from the editing view. A window the size of a phone shows the dashboard in view mode only, so use a window large enough to show the Edit switch.
Publish it to the internet
Publishing puts a copy of the dashboard at its own address, where anyone can read it without an account. You need two things first: you own the dashboard, and your changes are saved. On a server that does not publish, the Share panel has no Published to the internet section.
A dashboard saves itself. The label beside the dashboard title in the header reads Saved when every change is on the server. To save at once, press ⌘S (Ctrl+S on Windows and Linux).
- Open the dashboard, and select Share in the header. The Published to the internet section shows in View and in Edit.
- Under Published to the internet, select Publish. A dialog opens.
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The first time you publish, the dialog asks for your username: the name the page shows
instead of your email address. The same username names you on every dashboard you publish.
The app asks for it only at your first publish, and offers no way to change it later, so
choose with care. A username is 3 to 30 lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens, and
nobody else on the server holds it. Type one, such as
quiet-otter-42, or leave the field empty to get a generated name. - In the dialog, select Publish.
The notice reads Published., and the section shows the published address and Copy address. The page at that address shows the dashboard, every row of every datasource — a column no chart shows is published too — when each datasource was refreshed, and your username. It never shows an email address, a comment, who the dashboard is shared with, or the warehouse queries behind the data. The SQL of a derived view, a datasource computed from the other datasources of the dashboard, goes with the copy, because the reader's browser runs it.
Each chart also has a page of its own: add / and the block's id to the address.
The block's id is the id field of the block in the Source panel, which opens
from Source in the icon rail at the right edge, or with ⌘/Ctrl J.
A dashboard with frames, the areas that split a canvas into pages (see
Build on the canvas), is published with its
Pages switch. A reader can read it page by page, and a link with
?view=pages&frame= and a frame's id opens that page.
Each article of the dashboard, a page of text with charts placed in it, is published with
it, at the address followed by
/article/ and the article's id: a1 for the first article. A
published article never shows the notice that its data changed, because the published copy
does not change. Open in dashboard under a chart opens the published
dashboard with that chart's filters set.
Update the published copy
The published copy does not follow your edits. To show a later version:
- Wait until the header reads Saved.
- In the Share panel, under Published to the internet, select Update published copy, then Update in the dialog.
The notice reads The published copy is updated. Readers keep the same address.
Take it down
In the same section, select Unpublish and confirm. The address stops answering at once, and the dashboard is private again. On an org install, the people and groups on the share list keep their access. The section shows Publish again. Anyone with edit access can unpublish. Publishing again later brings back the same address.
Three other acts take a published dashboard down the same way: moving it to the trash, an admin closing it to private, and an admin deleting its owner's profile. A dashboard restored from the trash stays unpublished until its owner publishes it again. A dashboard given to a new owner stays published at the same address.
If Publish is missing
A line in the section says why:
- On this server, only admins publish. An org install sets this. Share the dashboard with the people who need it instead.
- You are not the owner. Ask the owner to publish it.
- The dashboard has unsaved changes. Wait until the header reads Saved.
A username someone else holds, a reserved one, or one with characters other than lowercase letters, digits and hyphens is refused with a sentence that says so. Choose another and publish again.
Send a dashboard without a share
On arkush.app, only the people who run it add shares, and there is no way to ask them for one. The sharing form shows no field to add people and no Everyone signed in option, and it says why. Your dashboards stay private to you, and only the people who run arkush.app see your email address on them. A person who opens the app link of your dashboard sees a refusal, because that link needs a share. Only an admin can give a dashboard to a new owner, so Transfer ownership… under More in the Dashboards page's Select bar is greyed, and its tooltip gives the reason.
To let other people read your work:
- Publish it to the internet. Anyone with the address can read it without an account. See Publish it to the internet.
- Download a chart as a picture, or the data behind a block as a CSV, and send the file. Point at the block, and select the download button in its header. See Read a dashboard → Take a chart with you.
- Export the whole dashboard as a file. Open the dashboard, then open the Dashboards page. At the foot of the page, select Export open dashboard…. The person who gets the file opens arkush, with or without an account, opens the Dashboards page, and selects Import file… at the foot of the page. They get their own copy. The copy is private to that person. It keeps the charts and the data, and it leaves out the sharing, the scheduled sends and the comments.
A server can limit who can take data away. Then the CSV entry is missing, and an exported file leaves out the rows.
Say how much to trust it
The Dashboard settings panel — the gear at the top of the icon rail at the right edge — carries the trust fields: Tags, Contact and Maturity. Tags sort the dashboard, and the Tags filter in the dashboard list finds them. Contact says whom to ask about the dashboard: a name, an email address or a channel.
The maturity stamp is a claim, signed with a name, about the whole dashboard. Select a level in the Maturity row:
- Draft warns readers that the work is in progress.
- Ready says that the dashboard is fit to read.
- Official says that a person with the analyst right vouches for it.
- Retired says: do not build on this dashboard.
A dialog names the level and who vouches. Write a Note there and select Stamp. In the app, readers see the level as a badge beside the title, with who vouched and when. The published copy shows no stamp.
When the content changes after the stamp, the badge adds "· earlier version", because the claim is older than the content. Stamp again vouches for the current version, and Remove takes the claim back.
Only a person with the analyst right can set, overwrite or remove Official, whoever made the dashboard. The analyst right is a right to vouch for work and to curate what everyone on the server reuses. On arkush.app, only the people who run arkush.app hold it. On an org install, the people who run it give the right to named people. The app shows no list of your rights. Without the right, Official is greyed, and its tooltip gives the reason. To vouch for a dashboard yourself, use Ready.
Share with a person
- Open the dashboard.
- If the header switch is on View, select Edit.
- In the header, select Share. The Share panel opens with the sharing form.
- Type the person's email into the Add people field and press Enter. Where the org install has groups, the field is Add people or groups. If the app refuses the address, the address stays in the field with the reason under it. Correct the address and press Enter again.
- Read the dialog. Its Notify checkbox is on, so the person gets an entry in their inbox that names the dashboard. To share without telling them, clear Notify. Then select Share.
The new row reads View: the person can open the dashboard and read all of its data. To let the person change the dashboard, switch the row to Edit and confirm the second dialog.
Each change that gives more access asks first. Before you add a person, give edit access, or open the dashboard to everyone signed in, a dialog names who gets what. A change that takes access away never asks. Remove is one click, and a row switched back to View changes at once.
The link to send is the dashboard's own address. Select Share in the header, then Copy link. A viewer has the same button. The address gives no access by itself. A person who opens it needs a share, and a person without one sees a refusal. A person who is not signed in sees a sign-in page first. After they sign in, your dashboard opens with the filters that the link carries.
Share several dashboards at once
- Open the Dashboards page: select the name at the top left of the header. Then select Select in the page head.
- Tick the dashboards to change. A greyed box names why you cannot change that dashboard.
- Select Share… in the bar, type or paste the addresses and groups, and pick View or Edit.
- Select Share with N…, read the dialog, and select Share.
The bar says which dashboards changed. A dashboard that refused the change stays selected, with a Retry button. The bar also removes access, sets who can view, adds tags, transfers ownership, and moves dashboards to the trash. The Add people field in the Share panel also takes a pasted list, and one dialog names everyone on it.
Share with a group
Some org installs have groups, and some have none. Where the org install has groups, the Add people or groups field lists them. Pick a group and confirm. The dialog says who gets access: every member, and anyone who joins the group later. A group row shows a Group chip beside the name, and the same View or Edit choice as a person's row.
For a group, the dialog's checkbox reads Notify every member, and it is off. Select it before you select Share to give every member an entry in their inbox. Leave it off to share quietly.
A group is the same on every dashboard, and an admin of the org install manages it. The groups come from one of two places: a list whose members admins edit in the app, or Google groups, whose members are managed in Google. A share with a group that the org install does not have gives access to nobody. The row stays on the list and matches no one.
Open it to everyone signed in
The Who can view switch at the top of the sharing form has two positions. Private is the default: the owner and the people and groups on the list. Everyone signed in lets anyone who can sign in to the org install view the dashboard. They can view it and comment on it, but they cannot edit it. The dialog says this before the switch changes, and to switch back to Private is one click.
On some org installs, only an admin can open a dashboard to everyone signed in. There, the switch offers Private only, and a line under it says so. A dashboard that is already open stays open, and you can still switch it back to Private.
What a viewer can do
A person with View access can:
- Read every chart and table. The data is saved with the dashboard, so opening it runs no query on any account.
- Filter with the controls and the click filters. The viewer's selections stay in the viewer's own page address and never change the dashboard.
- Download a chart as a PNG or SVG picture, and the data behind a block as a CSV. Where an admin limits who can download data, the CSV entry is missing, and the pictures stay.
- Comment: start a thread, reply, and delete their own comments.
- Change one chart for themselves with its Chart options button. The dashboard stays as you made it.
A viewer cannot change the dashboard, open its version history, or run a query. Version history is for editors only, because an old version can hold notes, SQL and titles that the current dashboard no longer shows. The guide for viewers is Read a dashboard.
What an editor can do
Edit access covers the whole dashboard. An editor can change every block and query, refresh the data, move the dashboard to the trash or restore it, and change the sharing.
Every editor can manage the sharing as you do. An editor can add people, remove them, and open the dashboard to everyone signed in, where the org install lets editors do that. Give edit access only to people you trust with all of this.
A scheduled refresh runs as the person whose run last refreshed each datasource. When you take that person's edit access away, the schedule of their datasources stops. The Scheduled refresh section of the Data panel names each one. To start it again, refresh each of those datasources once, or ask an editor who can run them to do it. The schedule then runs as that person.
One stamp is the exception. An editor sets Draft, Ready and Retired, but Official needs the analyst right. Say how much to trust it explains that right.
Leave a dashboard shared with you
On arkush.app, a dashboard reaches you only through a share that the people who run arkush.app added. Groups and everyone signed in, named in this section, are org install cases.
You can remove your own share from a dashboard, a shared datasource or an uploaded file that someone shared with you. Leave shows only where a share names your own email address. To see how you reach a dashboard, open it and select Share in the header. A viewer can open the Share panel too. One line in it says how you reach the dashboard: "This dashboard is shared with you", through a group you belong to, or because it is open to everyone signed in.
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Pick one of the two places:
- On an open dashboard, select Share in the header, then Leave at the end of the line that says the dashboard is shared with you.
- On the Dashboards page — select the name at the top left of the header — open the actions menu at the end of the dashboard's row, and select Leave.
- Read the dialog, and select Leave.
A notice says that you left, and the dashboard leaves your list. If the dashboard was open, the app goes back to the Dashboards page. The owner gets no message, and the version history records the change under your name. On an org install, to get the dashboard back, ask its owner or an editor to share it with you again. On arkush.app, a dashboard you leave does not come back, because there is no way to ask for a share.
For a shared datasource or an uploaded file, open its details page from the Datasources page, and select Leave at the end of the line that says it is shared with you. The app goes back to the Datasources page, and the item leaves it.
If you reach the dashboard through a group, or because it is open to everyone signed in, there is no Leave for that reach, and nothing you do removes the dashboard from your list. Ask an editor of the dashboard to remove the group or to make it private. If a share names you and a group also reaches the dashboard, Leave removes the share, and the dashboard stays in your list through the group.
Move a dashboard to the trash
If you own a dashboard that you no longer need, move it to the trash: on the Dashboards page, open the actions menu at the end of its row, and select Move to trash. A dashboard in the trash can be restored for 30 days, and then it is deleted permanently. A published dashboard is unpublished when it goes to the trash, and a restore does not publish it again.
NOTE — A connected agent acts as you, but it can never change who has access or publish a dashboard. If you ask an agent to share a dashboard, it refuses and names the sharing form. A change of access needs a person who reads the dialog.
If you are locked out
On an org install, if someone removed your share, ask the owner or any editor to add you again. On arkush.app, only the people who run it add shares, and there is no way to ask them for one. Only the current owner or an admin can give the dashboard to a new owner, and on arkush.app, only an admin can. No save can leave a dashboard with no owner, so an editor cannot lock the owner out. If nobody with access is left, an admin can move the dashboard to a new owner or give themself access. The admin's own access then shows in the dashboard's sharing list.