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Available on Suite Professional plans and above Available on Explore Professional plans and above

Note: This article describes the beta version of the Explore dashboard builder. For information on the classic dashboard builder instead, see Creating dashboards. For help deciding which dashboard builder to use, see Comparing features available in the dashboard builder.

The beta dashboard builder lets you create dashboards, customizable spaces for organizing and sharing information, within Explore. With it, you can quickly and easily create dashboards that give you the insights you need to optimize your service channels.

This article contains the following sections:

  • Creating a dashboard
  • Adding and customizing dashboard components
  • Adding tabs to a dashboard
  • Toggling drill in on a dashboard
  • Editing a dashboard
  • Previewing a dashboard
  • Publishing and sharing a dashboard
  • Sharing a dashboard externally (Enterprise only)
  • Exporting dashboard content
  • Cloning a dashboard
  • Deleting a dashboard

Creating a dashboard

You can create a dashboard using the beta dashboard builder in Explore.

To create a dashboard

  1. Click the Dashboard icon () in the left sidebar.
  2. In the banner at the top, click Try it now.
  3. In the Start a dashboard window, choose whether you want to build your dashboard from scratch (Blank dashboard) or start from a prebuilt template.
  4. Click Select.

You’re redirected to the beta dashboard builder and the new dashboard is added to the dashboards library. You can now add reports, filters, and other components, and further customize your dashboard. If you chose to start from a prebuilt template, components are already added for you (though you can always edit them or add more).

Adding and customizing dashboard components

You can add two main types of components to a dashboard: reports and filters. Reports show you metrics about your use of Zendesk either as of right now or in the past, and filters let you slice that data based on certain characteristics.

After you add a report or filter, you can customize certain things about it, including the header, size, layout, and more.

You can add up to 35 components per dashboard tab. If you have legacy tabs with more than 35 components, you can’t add more until you delete or move components to other tabs until there are fewer than 35.

This section contains the following topics:

  • Adding a report
  • Customizing the header of a report
  • Resizing components and changing the dashboard layout
  • Adding an alert on a live report (Enterprise only)
  • Customizing the tooltip on a report
  • Enabling drill in on a live metric (Enterprise only)
  • Adding a filter
  • Linking filters across datasets
  • Excluding reports from filters
  • Adding a text component
  • Renaming a report or filter
  • Removing a report or filter
  • Opening a report for editing

Adding a report

  1. In the beta dashboard builder, click the plus (+) icon in the upper right.
  2. Click Live data (if you're on an Enterprise plan and want to report on near real time information) or Report (if you want to report on historical data) and select the report or reports you want to add.
    Tip: If you click Live data, you can filter by the type of component by clicking the filter icon () to the right of the search box. This makes it easier to find live data components about a specific topic.
  3. Click and drag the report wherever you want it to appear on the dashboard. The report automatically snaps to the closest line on the grid.
    Tip: To change the component's size or placement, see Resizing components and changing the dashboard layout.

Customizing the header of a report

  1. Click a report on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, use the options under the Styles heading to customize the report header:
    • Show header: Clear the check box if you don’t want the report to show its name as a header at the top of the report.
    • Background color: Select the color that appears behind the report.

Resizing components and changing the dashboard layout

By default, a dashboard’s layout automatically adjusts in the following ways:

  • The width automatically resizes to fit the viewer’s screen. The maximum size is 2k resolution, or 4k for full screen, and the minimum width is the same as the classic dashboard builder.
  • Components automatically snap to the closest line on the grid, aligning along the top edge of the dashboard.

If the default layout doesn’t work for your dashboard, you can resize individual components or change how the snap-to functionality works.

Tip: Consider creating a copy of your dashboard before resizing components or changing the layout. That way, you can experiment with changes without worrying about affecting the published dashboard.

To resize components and change the dashboard layout

  1. Open the dashboard you want to modify.
  2. In the menu bar on the right, click the Layout button () > Placement and choose from the following options:
    • Place anywhere: Freely move components wherever you’d like on the dashboard,
    • Align to top: Automatically snap components to the top of the dashboard.
    • Align to left: Automatically snap components to the left side of the dashboard.
  3. Resize individual components using the grabber in the lower-right corner of each component.

The video below demonstrates how to resize components:

Adding an alert on a live report (Enterprise only)

  1. Click a live report on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, click Alerts > Add alert.
  3. Under Alert level, choose the threshold that will trigger the alert (for example, when the report returns more than a 100 tickets).
  4. Under Background color, choose the color that the report will turn when the alert’s threshold is reached.


Customizing the tooltip on a report

  1. Click a report on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, click Tooltips.
  3. Update the text that should appear when a user hovers over the report, or turn off the tooltip completely by unchecking Show tooltip.

Allowing drill in on a live metric (Enterprise only)

Note: Drill in is available only for the following agent status live metrics: Agents online, Agents offline, Agents away, Agents invisible, Agents transfer only. For details, see Live data widgets for Explore dashboards.
  1. Click an agent status live metric on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, use the options under the Drill in heading to configure how much detail dashboard viewers can see when they drill in on the live data metric. For more information, see Seeing live agent status and activities.
      • Agent statuses: Allows the viewer to see the list of agents in each status.
      • Work items: Allows the viewer to see an individual agent’s tickets, chats, and conversations.

Adding a filter

  1. Click the plus (+) icon.
  2. Click one of the following, and then select the filter or filters you want to add:
    • Live filter: (Enterprise only) Filters live data by ticket brand or group. When somebody views your dashboard, they can select up to five values to restrict the results by.
      Note: Don’t add multiple copies of the same live filter. If you do, dashboard viewers can select up to five values in each (for a total number greater than five across all copies of the filter), but the report results will not be accurate.
    • Time filter: Filters historical data by a specified time period. When somebody views your dashboard, a default value of 30 days is applied, but the viewer can change the time range as needed.
    • Data filter: Filters historical data by the specified attributes. When somebody views your dashboard, they can select an unlimited number of values to restrict the results by.
  3. Click and drag the filter wherever you want it to appear on the dashboard. The filter automatically snaps to the closest line on the grid.
    Tip: To change the component's size or placement, see Resizing components and changing the dashboard layout.

Linking filters across datasets

If you use multiple datasets within the same dashboard, it’s a good idea to link any dashboard-level filters across the datasets you’re using. When filters are linked this way, all reports from the linked datasets in the dashboard are filtered when the viewer applies a dashboard-level filter, even if the reports were created from different datasets.

Remember that a data filter is always created from a specific attribute. By design, that attribute is tied to a specific dataset. That’s why you need to link a single filter between datasets if you want it to affect reports from multiple datasets.

For example, say you have a dashboard that includes reports created from the Support: Tickets and Support: Ticket updates datasets. You add a time filter to the dashboard using the Time - Ticket created attribute from the Support: Tickets dataset to let viewers filter the dashboard’s results. However, by default, that filter affects only reports created from the Support: Tickets dataset. To filter all reports on your dashboard, you need to link that filter to a similar attribute from the Support: Ticket updates dataset as well.

If a filter is linked to multiple datasets and there are filter values that a viewer doesn’t have access to due to a dashboard restriction or dataset permission, the values are visible in the filter drop-down, but the report results always enforce the dashboard restriction or dataset permission. In other words, even when filter values that a viewer doesn’t have access to are visible in the filter drop-down, selecting them produces no results in the report.

To link a filter across datasets

  1. Click the header of a time or data filter you added.
  2. In the panel on the right, click the drop-down list under Link filters. The list includes all attributes from any datasets currently used by any of the reports in the dashboard.
  3. Scroll to a dataset that’s different from the original filter’s dataset and select the attribute you want to link the filter to. You may select more than one. The original attribute of the filter is shown in gray and can’t be selected.

    For example, if the original filter uses the Time - Ticket created attribute from the Support: Tickets dataset, you should scroll to the Support: Ticket updates dataset and select the Time - Ticket created attribute there.

Excluding reports from filters

In certain situations, you might want to exclude reports on your dashboard from being affected by dashboard-level filters. This is particularly helpful in the following situations:

  • Benchmark reports on an otherwise filtered dashboard. For example, you might have a dashboard with one report that acts as a company-wide benchmark and other reports that are filtered on a specific team using a dashboard-level filter. In this scenario, you wouldn’t want the benchmark report to be affected by the team filter.
  • Reports based on attributes that don’t apply to filters linked across datasets. For example, you might have a dashboard that includes a report on solved tickets and another report on created tickets. If your dashboard contains a time filter based on ticket creation date, you can exclude the solved tickets report from being affected by that filter. This prevents the solved tickets report from returning null data (because that report is based on ticket solved date, not ticket creation date).

You can exclude reports on dashboards from either time or data filters. Reports excluded from being filtered are also excluded from dashboard restrictions.

To exclude a report from a dashboard-level filter

  1. Click the report you want to exclude from the dashboard-level filter.
  2. In the Exclude from filters field, select the filter you want to exclude. Only filters added to the dashboard appear in the list.

Adding a text component

Text components let you add additional context to your dashboard, like descriptions of the reports or section headers.

  1. In the beta dashboard builder, click the plus (+) icon in the upper right.
  2. Under Other components, click Text.
  3. Click the component that appears on your dashboard and type in your text.
  4. Use the formatting tools underneath the component to format your text, including styles, colors, links, and more.

Renaming a report or filter

  1. Click a report or filter on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, click the options menu icon next to the component's name.
  3. Click Rename.
  4. Enter a new name for the component and click the checkmark.

Removing a report or filter

  1. Click a report or filter on your dashboard.
  2. In the panel on the right, click the options menu icon next to the component's name.
  3. Click Remove > Remove item.

Opening a report for editing

From the dashboard builder, you can quickly open a report in the report editor. This allows you to make changes to the report itself (such its metrics, attributes, or other customizations) without having to find and open it from the Reports library.

To open a report for editing

  1. In the beta dashboard builder, click the report on your dashboard that you want to update.
  2. In the pane that opens on the right, click Edit in report builder.

    You’re taken to the report builder for the report you selected.
  3. Make any changes to the report as necessary.
  4. When you're done, choose from the following options:
    • Save to dashboard. Your changes are saved and you’re returned to the dashboard builder.
    • Save and continue editing. Your changes are saved and you remain in the report editor.
    • Leave without saving. Your changes are not saved and you're returned to the dashboard builder.

Adding tabs to a dashboard

If your dashboard contains a lot of information, you might want to separate this information into different tabs to improve the dashboard’s usability. On the left side of your dashboard, the Tabs panel lets you add and manage tabs.

By default, a dashboard has no tabs. A dashboard must have at least two tabs for anything to appear in the Tabs pane. You can create up to ten tabs per dashboard.

To create a new tab

  1. In the Tabs panel, click the plus (+) icon.
  2. In the Add tab window, choose whether you want to build your tab from scratch (Blank tab) or start from a prebuilt template.
  3. Click Select. A new tab appears in the list.

Newly created tabs are named New tab by default and are always empty. If you chose to start from a prebuilt template, components are already added for you (though you can always edit them or add more).

When you add a tab to a dashboard for the first time, two tabs (not just one) appear in the Tabs panel. This is because any existing dashboard contents are preserved as the first tab, and a blank dashboard is created as the second tab.

To clone a tab

  1. In the Tabs panel, hover over the tab you want to create a copy of.
  2. Click the options () icon and select Clone.

    A copy of the tab is added to the tabs list. Newly cloned tabs are named (Copy of) <tab name> by default.

To rename a tab

  1. In the Tabs pane, hover over the tab you want to rename.
  2. Click the options () icon and select Rename.
  3. Give the tab a descriptive name, and click the checkmark to save it.

To reorder tabs

  • Click a tab and drag it lower or higher in the list to change the order of the tabs.

To delete a tab

  1. In the Tabs pane, hover over the tab you want to delete.
  2. Click the options () icon and select Delete.

If you delete all dashboard tabs except for one, the last remaining tab is no longer considered a tab and doesn’t appear in the Tabs pane. Instead, the contents of the last remaining tab become the only contents of the dashboard.

To hide or show tabs

  1. Click the arrow in the top-right of the Tabs pane to hide the list of tabs.
  2. Click the arrow again to show the pane.

Toggling drill in on a dashboard

The drill in feature lets dashboard viewers refine the results of a report by slicing its metrics by additional attributes. For details, see Using drill in to refine your reports.

By default, drill in is turned off for any dashboard built with the beta dashboard builder. This helps prevent viewers who are subject to a dashboard restriction from being able to drill in to report results they shouldn’t have access to. If your dashboard has no restrictions, you can turn on drill in by following the steps below.

To toggle drill in on a dashboard

  1. In the beta dashboard builder, click the settings icon ().
  2. Select or clear the Allow drill-in checkbox, depending on whether you want dashboard viewers to be able to refine a report’s results.

Editing a dashboard

You can edit a dashboard you’ve already created using the beta dashboard builder.

To edit a dashboard

  1. Click the Dashboards library icon () in the left sidebar.
  2. Hover over the dashboard you want to edit and click Edit.
  3. Add, customize, and remove components as needed.
Tip: Use the Undo () and Redo () buttons to quickly adjust any edits you make. Note that these actions work across tabs. If your dashboard has multiple tabs, changes that you undo or redo might be on a tab other than the one you’re viewing.

Previewing a dashboard

You can preview a dashboard to see how it will look from an end user’s perspective.

To preview a dashboard

  1. In the beta dashboard builder, click the View button in the upper left.

Publishing and sharing a dashboard

When you create a dashboard in Explore, by default only you can see it. To share your dashboard with others, you need to publish it and invite other users to see it.

To publish and share a dashboard with other agents

  1. With your dashboard open, click Publish changes.
  2. Click Share.

    The Invite people window opens.
  3. In the Add team members or groups field, search for and select the agent or group you want to share with. If you’re not sure which users are in a group, hover over View info to see up to 20 members of the group, organized alphabetically.
  4. In the Access field, decide whether you want to restrict the dashboard’s data for the users you’re inviting. See Dynamically adapting dashboard data based on viewer.
  5. (Optional) Clear the Send email notification checkbox if you don’t want to send an email notification to the invited users to view the dashboard. If you don’t send an email, users can still find the dashboard in the report library or by going to the dashboard’s URL.
  6. Click Invite people.

Sharing a dashboard externally (Enterprise only)

If you’ve enabled external link sharing, you can share dashboard links with people outside of your Zendesk account.

This section contains the following topics:

  • Generating an external dashboard link
  • Resetting the password on an external dashboard link
  • Removing the password on an external dashboard link
  • Deleting an external dashboard link

Generating an external dashboard link

  1. Create a new dashboard or open an existing dashboard.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Share and select Get a link.

    The Create link window opens.
  3. In the Access type field, select whether viewers of the dashboard link should be able to see All data, or only the data included in a specified dashboard restriction.
    Note: Dashboard restrictions that use the Based on viewer setting can’t be shared externally and don’t appear in this list.
    Tip: Click Create dashboard restriction in the drop-down to easily create a new dashboard restriction. See Dynamically adapting dashboard data based on viewer.
  4. (Optional) Deselect Protect with password so viewers don’t need to enter a password to open the dashboard.
  5. (Optional) Enter a new password to replace the randomly generated password. You can click the eye icon to view the password in plain text. Passwords must meet the following criteria:
    • At least 10 characters
    • 1 uppercase letter
    • 1 symbol
    • 1 number
  6. (Optional) Click Copy password to copy it to the clipboard. Save this password in your password manager, as it can’t be displayed again. However, you can reset the password later, if necessary.
    Note: 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.
  7. Click Create link.
  8. Click the drop-down arrow next to Share and select Get a link again.
  9. Click Copy link to copy the external dashboard link to the clipboard.
  10. Share the link (and password, if applicable) with anyone who needs to view the dashboard.

Resetting the password on an external dashboard link

  1. Open a dashboard that you’ve already generated an external link for.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Share and select Get a link.
  3. In the Get link window, click the options () icon and select Reset password.

The previous password will no longer work for accessing the dashboard via the external link.

Removing the password on an external dashboard link

  1. Open a dashboard that you’ve already generated an external link for.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Share and select Get a link.
  3. In the Get link window, click the options () icon and select Remove password.

Anyone with the link can now view the dashboard without entering a password. If necessary, you can reset the password to add one back.

Deleting an external dashboard link

  1. Open a dashboard that you’ve already generated an external link for.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Share and select Get a link.
  3. In the Get link window, click the options () icon and select Delete link.

The previously generated link will no longer work for accessing the dashboard. If necessary, you can generate a new link.

Exporting dashboard content

Sometimes, you might want to save the current version of a dashboard tab or report. Or, you might want to view the data in a different format. You can save individual dashboard tabs or reports to your computer using the Export option.

This section contains the following topics:

  • Exporting a dashboard tab
  • Exporting drill in results

Exporting a dashboard tab

You can export an entire tab from the dashboard builder. When exporting tabs, you must export them one at a time. It's not possible to export all of a dashboard's tabs at once.

To export a dashboard tab

  1. With a dashboard open, select the tab you want to export.
  2. (Optional) Next to the dashboard’s name in the upper-left, select the dashboard restriction you want to export. If you want to export all data from the tab, make sure All access is selected.
  3. Click the export icon in the top-right corner of the dashboard.
  4. In the Export dashboard window, select an export format of CSV, Excel, Image, or PDF. See Choosing an export format for more details about each option.
  5. Click Export dashboard.

Exporting drill in results

You can export the contents of a drill in window.

To export drill in results

  1. With a dashboard open, drill into a report.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Export and select an export format of Excel or CSV.
  3. Click Export.

Cloning a dashboard

When you need a dashboard that’s similar to an existing dashboard, you can clone the existing dashboard and tweak it from there. Cloning dashboards is faster than recreating them from scratch.

To clone a dashboard

  1. Click the Dashboards library icon () in the left sidebar.
  2. Hover over the dashboard you want to clone and click the settings drop-down to the right of your dashboard’s name.
  3. Click Clone.
  4. In the Clone dashboard menu, choose a new name for the cloned dashboard, and decide whether you want to clone the reports as well as the datasets.
  5. Click Clone.
Tip: If you’re planning to simply add new reports to a dashboard, there’s no need to clone the reports or datasets. However, if you want to customize the reports for the cloned dashboard in a different way than the original, you must clone the reports. Cloning the dataset is rarely needed. It’s useful only if you want to separate the cloned reports in a different dataset.

Deleting a dashboard

If you no longer need a dashboard, you can delete it. This keeps your dashboards library cleaner and makes it easier to find the dashboards you do need.

To delete a dashboard

  1. Click the Dashboards library icon () in the left sidebar.
  2. Hover over the dashboard you want to delete and click the settings drop-down to the right of your dashboard’s name.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. In the Delete dashboard menu, click Yes, delete.
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