“Dashboarding” in Kentico CMS 6.0

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“A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel, dial and switch housing or fascia) is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, housing instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle.” – Wikipedia.org.

Let’s look closer at the dashboard implementation in Kentico CMS 6.0.

Dashboard is a new feature of Kentico CMS 6.0 that allows a user to see and access the “most important” parts of Kentico CMS from a single location without navigation across different parts of the administration interface. It can be used e.g. for monitoring of web analytics, system information, project information, etc.

Dashboard is based on a portal engine template and users can customize it by dashboards widgets. The customization is unique for each user and the user can reset it to the default state.

Out-of-the-box, we can find three dashboards in the administration interface.

MyDesk Dashboard

MyDesk uses ribbon look & feel in version 6.0 and also supports dashboards.

My Dashboard

 

Web Analytics Dashboard

In Web Analytics Dashboard, we can see all important metrics at one place.

Web Analytics Dashboard

 

Site Manager Dashboard

Site Manager Dashboard is a place where the global admin can monitor the whole system.

Site Manager Dashboard

 

It’s not necessary to go to the Web Analytics Dashboard or Site Manager Dashboard to see information about the Web Analytics or the System. Depending on your permissions, you can add any type of widget to any type of Dashboard.  E.g. your personal Dashboard in MyDesk can show you Web Analytics, system information, personal information, etc.

My Dashboard

 

What about custom dashboard widget?

Widgets for Dashboards are standard widgets that already exist in Kentico CMS since version 5.0. Dashboard widgets are widgets that are allowed to be used inside Dashboard widget zones. So, you can set any existing widget as a dashboard widget or you can create a new one and then set it as the dashboard widget in SiteManager -> Development -> Widgets.

To enable any widget to be available for dashboards, just enable the “This widget can be used in dashboard zones” property.

Widget settings

In case we want to share a widget across more widget zones, e.g. on the live site, it could be important to set some of the properties as not available outside the dashboards. This can be achieved on the Properties tab for each selected property.

Widget properties

 

What about re-designing of existing dashboards?

All dashboards are based on portal engine page templates that are saved in the system. We can access them in SiteManager -> Development -> Page templates.

Dashboard page templates

As you can see, you have full power to modify any existing dashboard template or add a new one.

Using UI Elements and small custom code, we can add dashboards to any place in the administration interface.

Custom Dashboard

 

And that’s all about dashboards and I hope you will enjoy them in version 6.0.

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Michal Neuwirth

Comments

Michal Neuwirth commented on

Hi Phil,

our estimated time is end of Q3/2011.

All finished features will be published through our blog post. Preliminary roadmap for 6.0 is available here: http://www.kentico.com/cms-asp-net-features/Roadmap.aspx

Phil Keithahn commented on

When will Kentico 6.0 be released? Where can I find more information on the new features and functionality that are provided with Kentico 6.0 Enterprise edition?

Jeroen Fürst commented on

Great feature! Really love the flexibility!!!

Michal Neuwirth commented on

Hi Brian,

yes. It's a new charting component based on MS ASP.NET Charts. If you click at the Web Analytics Dashboard you will better see a new structure of Web Analytics including new reports like A/B Tests or MVT Tests.

Brian McKeiver commented on

This is very cool. Is that a newer charting component I spot too ?

Michal Neuwirth commented on

I'm glad to hear that we are preparing features, which our customers are looking for.

Chanan commented on

Looks good. Just yesterday I was in a meeting and was asked for a page that will show all the important stats from the Web Analytics module in one place... Now I can just tell them to wait till version 6!