Dashboards

A dashboard shows live data from API collections, databases and MQTT brokers. It can also ask for input and change things with a button. You build it in the dashboard builder, inside the tab.

Open or create a dashboard

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+T and choose Dashboard.
2. Type a dashboard name.
3. Pick Open for an existing dashboard, or New dashboard to create one.

To rename or delete dashboards, open Settings → Dashboards.

How a dashboard is built

• A dashboard has one or more tabs.
• A tab holds groups. A group is a box on the dashboard that loads the data its widgets show.
• A group holds widgets: inputs, buttons, tables, numbers, charts and notes.
• Sources are where the data comes from.

Variables tie it together. An input writes a variable, a click on a table row can set one, and a call or a query reads it.

Edit a dashboard

Click Edit or press Ctrl+E. The builder opens:

• on the left, the SOURCES and the widgets you can add
• in the middle, the tabs and groups of the dashboard
• on the right, the settings of what you selected

Click + Tab or + Group to add one. Click a widget on the left to add it to the selected group. ↑, ↓, Duplicate and Delete act on the selected item.

When you are done, click Done or press Ctrl+S. Discard throws your changes away.

Add data sources

Under SOURCES, click + Source and choose its kind:

• API collection - a collection from an API tab. Tick Endpoint from the tab to set the endpoint in the dashboard tab itself, for example staging or production. Otherwise give the source its own Endpoint. Route sets how the calls travel, see Routes.
• Database - a database saved to the sidebar. Its route and sign-in come along. Under QUERIES, give each query a name and its SQL. An @name in a query is a variable.
• MQTT broker - a broker saved to the sidebar. Under TOPICS, a topic without payload is read live. A topic with a payload is a command that a button can send. See MQTT.

You can also send a query from a database tab straight to a dashboard with To dashboard.

Widgets

ASK PEOPLE

• Filter - narrows the whole dashboard; its choice goes into every query that uses its variable
• Choice list - a list to choose from, from data or a fixed list
• Text, Number, Date, Switch, Password
• JSON / text - a larger box for a body a call sends

DO SOMETHING

• Button - when pressed: change data, send a call or an MQTT command, Reload groups, or Set a value

SHOW

• Table - rows of data; a click on a row can set a variable
• Detail - the fields of one row or object
• KPI - one large number that turns yellow or red past a limit
• Chart - bars, stacked bars, line, area, donut or sparkline; one bar per row, or one value over time
• JSON view - an answer as it came, useful while building

EXPLAIN

• Note - text for the people using the dashboard, with **bold**, *italic* and - list items
• History - the log of its group: every load, with rows, time and errors

Set up a widget

Select a widget to see its settings on the right. What you see depends on the kind:

• DATA - pick the query or call it shows, or read a variable instead. + New creates a query for it.
• For an API call, click the value in its last answer that the widget should show, or use Whole answer.
• THE NUMBER for a KPI - first row, sum, average, smallest, largest or number of rows; a unit, and Yellow from / Red from limits.
• WHEN CLICKED - which variable a click sets, and from which column.
• WHEN PRESSED for a button. Ask first shows a question before it acts. Load again picks the groups to reload afterwards. An @name in the question or the message is filled in.

Set up a group

Select a group to set:

• WIDTH - Third, Half or Full
• LOADS - When the tab opens, Every … seconds, or Only by a button. Unless it loads only by a button, a group also loads again when a variable its data reads changes.
• SHOWN - always, or only once a variable has a value. Until then a table says what to pick first.
• DATA IT LOADS - data no widget shows, a login for example. Click + Data.

A tab can also wait under SHOWN WHEN (all must hold). While a condition does not hold, the tab says what it waits for.

Use a dashboard

• A group with a title has a button to run its calls again.
• Ctrl+Shift+R reloads every group of the tab you see.
• If a source uses the endpoint from the tab, type it into the box at the top.

Keep it in a repository

In the builder, enter a Linked file in a repository. The dashboard is mirrored to this YAML file every time you click Done. If the file changed outside Vandle, you are asked which side wins when the dashboard opens.

Keys

Key	Action
Ctrl+E	Edit the dashboard
Ctrl+S	Done
Ctrl+Shift+R	Reload the groups

You can change these keys in Settings under Hotkeys. See Keyboard.