Sharing Explore dashboards outside Zendesk

What's my plan?

The information in this article covers the new Explore dashboard builder, released in November 2024. The legacy dashboard builder will remain available until Q4 2025. If you’re using the legacy dashboard builder and need help, see About the legacy Explore dashboard builder.

You can share a link to a dashboard with external users who do not have a Zendesk account. The link can also be used to display the dashboard on a television or monitor. Users will have view-only access to the dashboard with the following security measures:

• Interaction options are disabled when you share dashboards externally. For details about interaction options, see Interacting with dashboards and Interacting with reports.
• Any IP restrictions configured in your Zendesk instance will be enforced and links will only be accessible from that IP range. For details about IP restrictions, see Restricting access to Zendesk Support and your Help Center using IP restrictions.
• When sharing a dashboard outside Zendesk, all data returned by the dashboard is available to viewers. Dashboard restrictions still apply.

Note: Customers on the Explore Legacy plan can also share external links to dashboards. See About the Explore Legacy plan.

This article contains the following topics:

• Turning on external link sharing
• Sharing an external link to a dashboard
• Turning off external link sharing

Turning on external link sharing

Before you can start sharing external links, an admin must turn this on from the Explore admin menu.

Important: Public links can be accessed by anyone on the internet, regardless of whether they have a Zendesk account. Always consider protecting your dashboards with a strong password. Record the password and store it securely in accordance with your organization's security policies. Additionally, always review the content of any dashboards you share externally to ensure that sensitive data is not leaked.

To turn on external link sharing

1. In Explore, click the Settings icon () in the left sidebar.
2. Select the Sharing tab.
3. Turn on the Public links to dashboards setting.
4. Click Save.

   

You can now create public links to dashboards.

Sharing an external link to a dashboard

Now that you've enabled sharing dashboard sharing, you can start creating and sharing links.

Note: Currently, you cannot share the prebuilt live dashboard as an external link to users outside of your Zendesk account.

To share a dashboard externally

1. Depending on where you are in Explore, take one of the following actions:
   • From an open dashboard: Click Share.

     

   • From the dashboards library: Click the options menu () to the right of your dashboard's name and select Share.

     

   The Share dashboard window opens.

   

2. Click Edit.
3. In the Public link settings window, click Enable link sharing.

   

4. In the Password field, enter a secure password for the dashboard. The password must have at least:
   • Ten characters
   • One uppercase character
   • One lowercase character
   • One number
   • One symbol
   You'll need to let your dashboard viewers know what the password is.

   If you don't want to password-protect the dashboard, clear the Password protected checkbox (not recommended).

   

   Important: If a user attempts to access a password-protected dashboard and enters an incorrect password five times, the dashboard becomes inaccessible for all users for five minutes.
5. Click Save.

   The Share dashboard page indicates that link sharing is now on. You can click Edit to modify your settings or Copy link to copy the dashboard link to your computer's clipboard.

   Users can click the link to open the dashboard in a web browser or display the dashboard on a television or monitor.

Turning off external link sharing

You can turn off external link sharing at any time. This is especially useful in situations where you suspect that one or more dashboards with sensitive data have been inappropriately shared externally.

When you turn off external link sharing, any existing shared links are disabled. If you decide to re-enable external link sharing, you will need to create new external links for any dashboards you want to share.

To turn off external link sharing

1. In Explore, open the Admin menu () in the left panel, then, on the Sharing tab of the settings page, turn on Public links to dashboards.
2. Click Save.

External link sharing is no longer available until you turn it back on.