Use this article to help you find your way around the Zendesk Explore interface.
This article contains the following sections:
Explore interface basics
The main menus in Explore are the top toolbar and the sidebar which are visible from most Explore pages. The interface items you'll see depend on the version of Explore you're using.
Top toolbar
The top toolbar helps you navigate Explore, and switch to other Zendesk products. Here you can find your current location in the product, use the search function, and access other Zendesk products and your user profile.
| Link/Icon | Task |
|---|---|
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Location: Displays your current location in Explore and the path taken to your current location. This location updates when you move through different pages in Explore. |
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Search: Opens the search box. This enables you to search the queries, dashboards, and datasets library for the term you entered. |
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Product tray: Contains links to all of your other Zendesk products. |
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User profile: Opens a drop-down menu where you can access your user profile, view keyboard shortcuts, give product feedback, open the Explore Help Center, and sign out. |
Sidebar
The sidebar lets editors and admins access Explore libraries, and settings.
| Icon | Task |
|---|---|
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Dashboards library (Explore Lite and Explore Professional): Displays all of the pre-built dashboards and any of your shared or created dashboards. Editors and admins can create new dashboards by clicking the New dashboard button. From this location, editors and admins can open the Dashboard Builder and create, share, delete, and duplicate dashboards. See Dashboards. |
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Queries library (Explore Professional only): Displays all of your queries. Only editors and admins have access to this icon. From this location, editors and admins can open the Query Builder and create, share, duplicate, and delete queries. See Queries. |
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Datasets library (Explore Professional only): Displays all of your datasets. Only editors and admins have access to this icon. From this location, editors and admins can open the Dataset Builder and create, edit, duplicate, and delete datasets. See Datasets. |
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Admin menu (Explore Professional only): Contains account settings such as dashboard email delivery and editor permissions. Admins can access all account settings, while editors can only edit specific settings (see Editing Explore account settings). |
Explore libraries
When you open Explore Lite or Explore Professional, you always start in the Dashboards library. If you're using Explore Professional, you can switch to the Queries, and Datasets libraries which have the same look and feel. The main components in each library are:
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Header: Displays the name of the library you're in and the number of items in the library. This is the total number of items, whether or not they have been created by you or shared.
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New dashboard/query/dataset: Adds new dashboard, query, or dataset.
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Main window: Contains a list of all your dashboards, queries, or datasets. There are two tabs you can use to change the list of items in the library's main window.
- All: Displays every item, regardless of who created it .
- My dashboards/queries/datasets: Displays all items that were created by you.
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Settings: Shows a drop-down menu where you can edit, duplicate, and delete items. For queries and dashboards, you can also choose to share them. The Settings icon (
) will appear when you hover a dashboard, query, or dataset name.
Dashboard, Query, and Dataset libraries
In Explore, editors and admins can create new queries, dashboards, and datasets using the Explore builders. Builders contain all available customization options and settings. For more information on creating and customizing queries, dashboards, and datasets, see Getting Started with Zendesk Explore.
Query Builder (Explore Professional only)
Editors and admins can create and edit queries in Query Builder. Query Builder automatically opens whenever a user creates a new query or selects an existing one. For more information, see Queries.
Query Builder contains the following components:
- Metrics: Add quantitative data, or metrics to your query (see Adding metrics).
- Attributes: Add any qualitative data, or attributes to your report in Columns, Rows, Filters, and Explosions. Each of these locations cause your report to render differently (see Adding attributes).
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Pivot table: Switch your column and row attributes using the pivot table button (
) to the right of Columns. The pivot table feature saves you time by automatically moving your attributes, so you don't have to drag and drop. -
Top toolbar: Contains options for your query that do not include customization. You can click the Query name box to enter a new name or the Datasets box to navigate back to the dataset the query was created from.
Table 3. Top toolbar icons Icon Task 
Displays the Explore dashboards that your query has been added to. 
New query: Removes everything from your query. This action cannot be undone. 
Undo: Reverses the last action you performed. 
Redo: Restores the last action you undid. 
Save: Saves the query, or click the down arrow to open a drop-down menu with four different saving options. Queries do not save automatically. See Saving your query. -
Customization menus: Each menu detailed below performs a different type of customization (see Customizing queries).
Table 4. Customization menus Icon Task 
Visualization type: Change your chart type. The Visualization type menu icon will display the chart type you selected. If you have not yet selected a chart type, the Visualization type menu icon will show the auto-chart icon. See Visualization types reference. 
Chart configuration: The primary location for all of your chart formatting options. Customization options differ, depending on your chart type. See Customizing queries. 
Result manipulation: Perform calculations on already processed results, including totals, percentage difference, and more. See Result manipulation reference. 
Calculations: Create custom metrics and attributes to use in your query or in other custom elements. See Calculated metrics and attributes reference.
Dashboard Builder (Explore Professional only)
Editors and admins can create, customize, and share dashboards in the Dashboard Builder. The Dashboard Builder opens automatically whenever a user create a new dashboard or selects an existing one. For more information on dashboards, see Dashboards.
The Dashboard Builder contains the following elements:
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Toolbar: The customization toolbar displays at the top of the dashboard. The toolbar options differ depending on the options you select. If you select a widget the Tab title, Widget options, and Widget header customization menus will appear (see Customizing dashboards). This toolbar also includes sharing and publishing options (see Sharing dashboards).
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Headers: Your dashboard and tab titles. You can rename a dashboard title by clicking the dashboard header. To rename, delete, duplicate, or move a tab, click the down arrow next to the tab name.
- Dashboard: The dashboard is where you add widgets and other information to create your report. Content in the dashboard is what will be visible to viewers when you share your report.
Datasets library (Explore Professional only)
Editors and admins can create and edit datasets in the datasets library. Typically, you will choose a dataset that has already been created to use as the basis for your queries. However, for testing, you might want to create a new dataset that you can modify.
Explore admin menu settings (Explore Professional admins only)
Edit your Explore account options and other settings in the Admin menu . Editors can access the dashboard email delivery setting available (see Sharing dashboards through email).
The admin menu has three tabs:
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Table 5. Admin tabs Icon Task 
Editor authorizations: Set your datasets and dashboards admins and editors can access. See Adding users to Explore. 
Dashboard email delivery: Schedule the frequency and recipients of their dashboard email delivery. See Sharing dashboards through email. 
Account information: Edit basic account and usage settings like default chart colors, and number formats. You can also change the default user role that will be automatically assigned to new Explore users. For details, see Adding users to Explore.
Dashboard sharing permissions: Change permissions for sharing dashboards to end users and to people who do not have a Zendesk account. See Configuring Explore Enterprise dashboard sharing permissions. - Settings: The configurations you can edit on the current tab appear below the admin tabs.
6 Comments
my interface does not have any of those icons in the sidebar
Hi Huawei, this is most likely because you are using Explore Lite which only features the pre-built dashboards. The article is not too clear about that at the moment, so I'll get that updated soon.
Where are the pre-built dashboards? I'm only seeing one, called "ZenDesk Support", which is very basic. Surely there are more?
Hi Ken, you'll see all of the pre-built dashboards in the Dashboards library.
We have dashboards for Support, Talk, Chat, Guide Answer Bot, and the Guide Knowledge Capture app. You'll only see dashboards for the products you own.
If you do own the products and don't see the dashboard, let me know and I'll open a ticket on your behalf.
Finally, thanks for the feedback about the Support dashboard. We'd love to hear what you believe is missing from it and maybe we can address that in future updates. Thanks!
Oh, I see, so there is one dashboard provided per product? We only have Support, and sure enough, that's the one dashboard I have.
What I was looking for specifically, was a way to see the number of responses to tickets (not tickets per se, but actual individual responses), grouped by agent and time periods. In other words, a graph showing activity by agent, that accounts for the fact that some tickets take 10 rounds of back-and-forth before finally resolving them, and also that in our support system, it is very common for several different agents to weigh in on a single ticket, not just the "assignee."
That's right Ken, there's one dashboard per product though each does contain multiple pages known as tabs.
You can get more information on the dashboards and the reports they contain at https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022179014
There are a few reports that might give you what you need on the "Agent updates" tab of the Zendesk Support dashboard. If you needed anything more complex than that, you'd need to switch to Explore Professional where you can write your own reports.
I hope that helps!
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