Sharing dashboards and widgets

This guide explains how to share dashboards and widgets with other Adverity users and guests, and how to manage your dashboard sharing settings.

Introduction

Why is it useful to share my dashboards?

Sharing dashboards with other users allow you to achieve the following goals:

Collaborate with other users on a dashboard
Allow other users to view the shared dashboard or widget
Share a dashboard using a link that expires after a set time period
Embed a link to a widget or pull data from a widget using an API

What dashboard content can I share with other users?

You can share content from a dashboard in three ways:

Share entire dashboards with other Adverity users or external guests. Depending on how you share the dashboard, they can view and/or edit the dashboard. To do this, see Inviting dashboard viewers or Inviting dashboard collaborators.
Share dashboards with non-Adverity users using a public link. To do this, see Sharing dashboards using a public link.
Share individual widgets with other users via a link to allow them to view the widget. To do this, see Sharing widgets.

What is the difference between publishing, exporting and sharing a dashboard?

These three options allow you to give other people access to dashboard content in different ways:

Publishing a dashboard allows everyone with access to the workspace in which the dashboard is published to view the dashboard. For more information, see Publishing dashboards.
Exporting allows you to share a static image of a dashboard or widget in a range of formats. For more information, see Exporting dashboards.
Sharing a dashboard or widget enables you to give specific people access to view the selected dashboard or widget.

Inviting dashboard viewers

Invite viewers to your dashboard to allow other people to view (but not edit) the dashboard. You can only invite viewers to published dashboards. You can invite other Adverity users or external guests to view a dashboard.

To invite someone to a dashboard as a viewer, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the published dashboard to which you want to invite a viewer.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Viewers section of the dashboard sharing menu, click Invite or Add/Remove.

The option shown here depends on whether this dashboard currently has any viewers.
In the Viewers dialog box, enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite as viewers.
Click Save.

As a result, the people whose email addresses you entered will receive an email inviting them to view the dashboard. By default, they can only view the dashboard and their access will not expire. To change these settings, see Managing viewers.

Managing viewers

You can change the permissions that viewers have on your dashboard. The settings that you choose apply to all viewers. To change the permissions that viewers have, or to remove a viewer from your dashboard, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the published dashboard for which you want to manage viewers.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Viewers section of the dashboard sharing menu, perform any of the following actions:
- To remove a viewer from your dashboard, click Add/Remove. In the Viewers dialog box, click the icon next to the email addresses of all viewers you want to remove, then click Save.
- To allow viewers to export the dashboard, enable the Enable export toggle.
- To set an expiration date for viewers' access to the dashboard, enable the Set expiration date toggle, and choose the date on which viewers' access should expire.
- To allow viewers to use TV-screen mode, enable the Enable TV-screen mode toggle. For more information, see Displaying dashboards in TV-screen mode.

As a result, the changes you have made are applied for all viewers invited to this dashboard.

Inviting dashboard collaborators

Invite collaborators to your dashboard to allow other Adverity users to view, export and edit the dashboard. You can invite collaborators to draft and published dashboards.

To invite an Adverity user to a dashboard as a collaborator, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the dashboard to which you want to invite a viewer.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Collaborators section of the dashboard sharing menu, click Invite or Add/Remove.

The option shown here depends on whether this dashboard currently has any collaborators.
In the Collaborators dialog box, type in the names of the Adverity users you want to invite as collaborators and select them from the list.
(Optional) Deselect the Notify newly added collaborators via email checkbox if you do not want the collaborators to receive an email inviting them to the dashboard. This option is active by default.
Click Save.

As a result, the Adverity users you selected will be added as collaborators to the dashboard. Depending on the setting you chose, they will receive an email inviting them to the dashboard. They can now view, export and edit the dashboard, and their access will not expire.

Removing collaborators

To remove a collaborator from your dashboard, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the published dashboard from which you want to remove a collaborator.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Collaborators section of the dashboard sharing menu, click Add/Remove.
In the Collaborators dialog box, click the icon next to the collaborators you want to remove, then click Save.

As a result, these collaborators can no longer edit the dashboard. If they have also been invited to the dashboard as a viewer, they will still be able to view the dashboard.

You can also remove all collaborators from a dashboard in the Administration page. For more information, see Managing shared dashboards.

Sharing dashboards using a public link

You can also share a published dashboard with anyone by sending them a public link that allows them to view the dashboard. For example, if you want to give a lot of people access to view a dashboard, without any other permissions, it is quicker to share a link to the dashboard than to add them all as viewers.

To share a dashboard using a public link, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the published dashboard that you want to share.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Public link section of the dashboard, enable the toggle.
Next to the link, click Copy to copy the public link to your clipboard.

As a result, you can now share this link with anyone. When someone uses this link, they will only be able to view the dashboard. Public links expire after one year. Dashboards with an active public link are displayed with the Public link icon in the Present page.

Disabling a public link

By default, public links expire after one year. If you want to disable a public link to a dashboard before it expires, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the published dashboard that you want to share.
In the top left corner, click Dashboard sharing.
In the Public link section of the dashboard, disable the toggle.

As a result, the public link has been disabled. If someone tries to use the public link to access the dashboard, it will no longer work.

You can also disable public links for dashboards in the Administration page. For more information, see Managing dashboards shared using a public link.

Sharing widgets

You can generate a URL for a widget in order to perform the following actions:

Use the URL as a link to the widget that allows people to view the widget
Use the URL to embed the widget in an iFrame on another website
Use the URL as an API endpoint to pull the data from the widget

To generate a URL for a widget, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
Click the dashboard containing the widget that you want to share.
Hold the pointer over the widget, and then click Widget actions.
Click Share.
In the Share widget dialog box, click the Copy icon to copy the URL to your clipboard.

As a result, you can now share this URL to allow anyone with the URL to view the widget, use this URL to embed the widget in an iFrame on another website, or use this URL as an API endpoint (see below).

When using the URL to embed the widget in an iFrame, if you want to remove the widget header and footer, add ?hideFooter=true&hideHeader=true to the end of the URL.

Managing shared widgets

To set an expiration date for the URL of a shared widget, or to delete the URL of a shared widget, follow these steps:

Go to the Present page.
In the top left corner, click Select workspace, then Administration.
In the Present section of the administration menu, click Shared widgets.
In the row for the URL you want to edit or delete, perform any of the following actions:
- To set an expiration date for the URL, click Edit. In the date picker, set the expiry date for the URL, then click Update.
- To disable the URL, click Delete.

As a result, the URL will expire on the date you selected, or the URL has been deleted. If you have deleted the URL, when someone tries to use the URL to access the widget, it will no longer work.

Using a widget URL as an API endpoint to fetch data in Adverity

To use the URL you have generated as an API endpoint to pull the latest data from the widget in Adverity, follow these steps:

Go to the Datastreams page.
In the top right corner, click + Create datastream.
Search for and click Web Connect.
Click Continue without authorization.
Click Custom configuration.
In the Configuration step, fill in the following fields:
- (Optional) Rename your datastream.
- In URL, paste the URL you generated for the shared widget.
  
  If your shared widget is a table, paste ?format=csv at the end of the URL to get the CSV file.
- In Request method, select GET.
Leave all other fields empty or on their default setting.
Click Next, then Run fetch.

As a result, you can pull the data from this shared widget as an API endpoint.

Using a widget URL as an API endpoint in Postman

To use the URL you have generated as an API endpoint in Postman to pull the latest data from the widget, follow these steps:

In Postman, create a GET request to the endpoint (the URL you have generated for the shared widget).
(Optional) If the shared widget is a visualization, paste ?format=png at the end of the URL to get a PNG file of the visualization widget.
(Optional) If the shared widget is a table, paste ?format=csv at the end of the URL to get a CSV file of the data in the table widget.
Click Send.

As a result, you can now pull the latest data from the shared widget in Postman.