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Transitioning to the new Explore dashboard builder: Your questions answered

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Posted Oct 19, 2023

Hello, Zendesk community! Now that we’ve released the new Explore dashboard builder, we've revised our plan and put together this post to give you a comprehensive overview and to address any concerns you might have. 

Before you start, watch this five-minute demo to get a quick overview of the new intuitive and dynamic dashboard builder.

Why have we introduced a new dashboard builder?

The move is driven by our commitment to simplifying how dashboards are built. Many of you shared how the classic experience has a steep learning curve. With the new dashboard builder, we want to provide a flexible, user-tailored experience that gives control and visibility to editors. This new experience represents our commitment to empowering you to create dashboards you're proud to share.

What’s the process for transitioning to the new dashboard?

The transition is taking place using a phased approach over a 12-month period from November 4, 2024 to help you prepare and adapt to the new interface gradually.

We’ll keep you updated during the transition about what you can expect in each phase to guide you through this change. In the meantime, here is a high-level overview of the transition plan:

  • Phase 1 - Beta dashboard builder GA release (4 months): The GA release of our new dashboard builder includes a host of exciting features like tabs, exports, schedules, and the ability to link filters across different datasets.
    During this phase, while users have the option to continue using the classic builder, it's important to note that our primary focus will be on the development and improvement of the new dashboard builder. As a result, there will be certain limitations for those continuing with the classic experience:
    • Only highly impactful bugs will be fixed in the classic builder
    • No enhancements will be made to the classic builder
    • Product documentation will refer to the new dashboard builder with minimal documentation for the legacy dashboard builder.
       
  • Phase 2 - Transitionary period (4 months): Following the GA release of the new dashboard builder, there will be a transitionary period of approximately four months.
    During this time, you’ll still be able to edit your dashboards using the classic builder, but you won’t be able to create brand-new dashboards with it. This transitionary period will enable you to gradually adapt to the new interface and take advantage of its enhanced capabilities at your own pace.
    At this stage, you’ll also know how your shared dashboards are being used and will be able to identify the relevant dashboards you want to rebuild using the new dashboard builder.
     
  • Phase 3 - View-only access to classic dashboards (4 months): After the transitionary period concludes, dashboards built with the classic builder will remain accessible to all users who have access, but the capabilities will be limited to view-only mode, as edit access to the classic builder will be removed. View-only mode for dashboards built in the classic builder will remain in place for another four months.
     
  • Retirement of the classic view-only experience: In order to be transparent about our future plans, four (4) months after the start of the "View-only access to classic dashboards" phase, we will fully retire the classic dashboard. This means that the classic dashboard will no longer be available for use after this period.

This phased approach is represented in the visual below.

Your questions answered

Following the original announcement, you also raised a number of questions. We've addressed the most common questions below:

Has phase 1 already started?
Yes! As of 4 November 2024, the new dashboard builder is released to GA.

Is there be a tool to help in migrating dashboards built with the classic builder?
Yes, we have developed a tool that will allow you to quickly import reports from an existing dashboard built with the legacy dashboard builder. A beta version of the tool allowing to migrate a single dashboard will be available at the GA of the new dashboard builder. Other improvements will follow post-GA.

What is the timeframe for accessing existing dashboards created with the classic builder?
You will be able to access the existing dashboards created with the classic builder until the end of phase 3, which marks the retirement of the classic view-only experience. This phase is expected to occur approximately one year after the GA of the new dashboard builder.

What features are available at GA?
Many of the features you’ve requested will be available, including:

  • Exports in CSV and Excel formats
  • Scheduled dashboards
  • Tabs
  • Linked filters across different datasets
  • Excluding reports from being filtered
  • Importer tool (Beta)
  • Filtered views (Bookmarks)

Will bookmarks be available?
A similar implementation of Bookmarks, named “Filtered views”, is now available. Filtered views make it easy to switch between different sets of filters on a single dashboard tab. A filtered view can be set as a default filtered view for a specific tab as it was possible previously with bookmarks.

Watch this three-minute demo to learn more about filtered views.

Are existing reports compatible with the new builder?
Yes, all existing reports are compatible with the new builder.

Will you delete existing reports after the retirement of the classic view-only experience?
No, we won’t. Your existing reports will be accessible via the report builder and new dashboard builder and won’t be impacted by this plan.

Can you provide some guidance on how to migrate dashboards?
Yes, see this article for help.
At a very high level, you will be able to:

  • Identify your most-used dashboards
  • Determine whether any of them are similar enough that they would be good candidates to be combined into a single dashboard with dashboard restrictions
  • Use the importer tool to quickly import reports from an existing dashboard

Can Professional Services help to rebuild dashboards?
Yes, they will be available as a paid service. We will share more details about their availability and pricing after the GA. 

How is this different from migrating from Insights?
It is very different as you won’t have to rebuild any reports. Instead, you can quickly import the existing ones to a new dashboard.
 

Your feedback matters

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. We'll incorporate your feedback into continuous improvements to the new dashboard builder. 

We're excited about the improvements the new dashboard builder brings and look forward to supporting you through this transition. Thank you for being a valued member of our Zendesk community.


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91 comments

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Dear customers,

I'm excited to share some important updates regarding the transition from our classic to the new dashboard builder!
 

Firstly, we have a revised General Availability (GA) date for the new dashboard builder, which is now set for Q4 2024. 
 

Here are more details on the most important features:

  1. Bookmarks (now "Filtered views") available before the GA: We're rebuilding Bookmarks and they will now be named "Filtered views" to better reflect their functionality. These will be rolled out before the GA date, so you will be able to start using this feature soon!
     
  2. Beta Version of the Importer Tool at GA: With the GA of the new dashboard builder, we will provide a beta version of the importer tool. This will allow you to migrate a single dashboard and import the sharing recipient. We will next focus on enabling the migration of a set of dashboards together.
     
  3. Change Attribute and Image Component available post GA: We’ve heard your feedback and decided to rebuild these features in the new experience. While we don’t have an ETA yet, they will be part of the post GA scope of the new dashboard builder

We are incredibly grateful for your patience and understanding as we make these necessary enhancements. Your feedback has been invaluable in this journey.
 

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.
 

Regards,
Walter

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We recognize that bookmarks serve many important use cases.

Bookmark is a vital use-case. We operate 10 zendesk instances with several different custom dashboards in each, these custom dashboards are being pre-filtered and scheduled daily/weekly/monthly to stakeholders, mind that it's not possible to schedule a pre-filtered dashboard without bookmarks. if you want your clients to transfer to the new view/tool etc please make sure that vital capabilities will be there from day1. 

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Tom Erik Skjønsberg

Zendesk Luminary

Bookmarks or a similar feature will be available post-GA.

When? Agent online time has been a "high priority" and to be released soon for more than 4 years now. Removing bookmarks, which Zendesk themselves have been urging us to use, pretty much kills any usefulness of the dashboards. So how long is Zendesk planning on keeping Explore useless?

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Shawna James

Community Product Feedback Specialist

Hi there, thank you for your continued notes and feedback. I want to confirm that this feedback is being logged for our PM team to review and respond. Thank you again. 

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Hi there, thanks for the update. 

There are two things that concern us a little, I'm hoping you can please comment on them. 

1. Bookmarks related. We have the same use case as one of the posters above. A lot of our DBs, where we use bookmarks, are scheduled to end users(our partners) as a PDF file, our understanding the new DB restrictions feature doesn't solve this problem for end users. How do we go about that? This is a business critical for us feature.  

2. You mentioned above about a tool that will help with migration. However, it sounds the tool will only be available by end of phase 3. Whereas, in phase 3 old DBs will be restricted to view-only. Does that mean that there potentially will be a gap during phase 3 when old DBs aren't migrated due to the tool not being available yet, and the same time, we can't do anything with old DBs as they are in a view-only mode? 

Thanks

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hi Vladimir P,
thanks for sharing your feedback.

1. I understand you use bookmarks combined with schedules to send out a filtered dashboard via email. The ability to schedule dashboards and dashboard restrictions to end users is planned before the GA. Scheduling a dashboard restriction will replicate what you are currently achieving with bookmarks and schedules.

2. As for the importer tool, we plan to provide it before the beginning of phase 3 so you won't have any downtime to edit your existing dashboards. I will modify the post to make it clearer.

Thanks,
Walter

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Thanks for clarifying these, Walter, and hope you are well. 

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Hi Walter Bellante and Shawna James, I've signed up for the Explore feedback round table event, but I can't seem to join the call. The link that was sent to me in the confirmation email takes me back to the RSVP survey. Is it possible to have a recording of the meeting? 

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Shawna James

Community Product Feedback Specialist

Hey Vladimir P yes this call will be recorded! I'm sorry you were having trouble with the link, you may need to log in to the event platform Bevy to join. If that doesn't work, we will follow up on this thread when it is available post event. 

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Hi Shawna James, that would be great if you could share the recording. Thanks a lot. 

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Shawna James

Community Product Feedback Specialist

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Hi Shawna James and Walter Bellante 

 

Hope you both are well. 
 

If i remember correctly at the end of 2023 it was mentioned that in Q1 there will be comms with a more detailed plan of migration to the new DB. Was this sent out in Q1? I was looking out for this comms but   not sure if it was sent out at all. 

Can one of you please confirm whether or not it was sent out, and if not, when it's going to happen? 

 

Thanks a lot. 

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hi Vladimir P , we've updated the article to indicate that it's presently planned for H2 '24.

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Is the import tool to transition more easily (rather than having to recreate all of our dashboards from scratch) still planned for availability before phase 3 (and if so is there an updated timeline on when that might be)? That seems vital to be able to make use of reporting after the existing dashboard builder is phased out.

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Reshma Renee

Zendesk Luminary

Hi, do we need to rebuild only the dashboards in beta builder? or even the reports?

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Sydney Neubauer

Zendesk Luminary

Thank you Walter Bellante ! With these features does that mean we will be getting an updated timeline for when we need to transition our old dashboards to the new dashboard builder?

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hello @Sydney,

Thank you for your interest in the new dashboard builder. The plan to migrate remains unchanged and is documented in the “Transition process” section of this post.
 

The most important update is that we are now aiming to make the new dashboard builder generally available (GA) in Q4. Once the new dashboard builder is in GA, the transition process will begin.

 

Regards,
Walter

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Hi Walter Bellante 

 

I hope you are well. 

 

I'm hoping you could clarify if the dashboard schedule functionality to external users will be available with GA in Q4? 

 

This is a critical feature for us and we can't start using the new builder properly if it isn't available. This would also help us with planning of how much resource we need to dedicate to the migration. We have quite a few dashboards to move to the new builder, create bookmarks, schedule them etc. 

I can see in the plan above that this planned to be shipped in Q4, but I'd be grateful if you could clarify. 

 

Also, we have a few pieces of feedback re the new builder, what would be the best channel to share it via? 

 

 

 

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Hi Walter Bellante 

 

I hope you are well. 

 

I'm hoping you could clarify if the dashboard schedule functionality to external users will be available with GA in Q4? 

 

This is a critical feature for us and we can't start using the new builder properly if it isn't available. This would also help us with planning of how much resource we need to dedicate to the migration. We have quite a few dashboards to move to the new builder, create bookmarks, schedule them etc. 

I can see in the plan above that this planned to be shipped in Q4, but I'd be grateful if you could clarify. 

 

Also, we have a few pieces of feedback re the new builder, what would be the best channel to share it via?

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hello Vladimir P ,
thanks for sharing your feedback about schedules.

I am glad to confirm that Schedules will be available in Q4, and they will support the ability to send emails to end users.

If you are interested in sharing more feedback you can do so in the Reporting and analytics section.

Regards,
Walter

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Hi Walter Bellante , can you confirm if when using the new builder now - if we can still share and schedule reports with end users?

Additionally, I noticed the “Run for” field in the schedule section doesn't have an “indefinitely” option. We have hundreds of dashboards scheduled and to keep maintaining the schedule Run For field would be very inefficient. 

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We need not just scheduling, but also the ability to share reports externally. We've been doing this for clients and there's no way to do this on the new dashboard. 

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Hi There, 

Will the change attribute / metric feature will be available ? 
Same for top bottom feature? 

Thanks in advance. 

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Hello, 

 

I like the new way to create new dashboards. However, there is big main points that are not good for me: 

- on the migrated dashboard the position of elements is completely going out. 

- it seems that the option bookmark is not existing anymore

 

I would be really unhappy if I have to re-do all my old dashboards. It would be a huge time consuming.  Please, make sure that for existing dashboards, we will not need any rework. 

 

- An other point, is the "Select all" in a data filter is not existing anymore. This is also very problematic, . It would be a big time consuming and source of errors if the option is not coming back. 

 

Thank you for taking into account these points of improvement/fix, before the old dashboards will be unavailable. 

 

 

 

 

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hi Holly,
thanks for sharing your feedback.

The ability to enable link sharing is possible in the new builder by using “Get link” in the “Share” dropdown.
 

Regards,
Walter

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager


Hi Support Petiscope,

thanks for your interest in the new dashboard builder.

Change attributes will be available in the next year, but we do not plan to rebuild Change Metric and Top/Bottom features in the new experience.

Regards,
Walter

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Walter Bellante

Zendesk Product Manager

Hello Stéphanie Cettou ,
thanks for sharing your feedback about the importer tool and data filters. 
I am sorry to hear it didn't meet your expectations.

Please note that Bookmarks are being replaced by “Filtered views”, you can learn more here.


Regarding the layout of the migrated dashboard, could you please create a ticket so that we can address the issue?

Regards,
Walter

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Walter Bellante 

Thank you for the reply, but I don't see that option as a drop down?

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hi Walter Bellante 

 

Thanks for the update re the new builder going to GA. 

We had a look and realised that the scheduling function has two key issues that prevents us to fully move to the new builder. 
 

1. The ‘Run for’ option has a time limit of 12 months max. Does that mean we manually have to check each DB and make sure it the scheduling period not ended? We have a lot of scheduled DBs to our partners and we can't have someone manually going checking all of them every year. There should be an option ‘Indefinitely’(as also someone mentioned that above)? 

2. Scheduled DB is only available in CSV and Excel. What about PDF? 99% of our uses case is PDF(and presumably fro oher customers).  This is another major blocker for us. 

 

Can you please let us know what is Zendesk's view on these items? 

 

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Hello Walter Bellante  any update on the Change attribute for the new builder? We're being asked to migrate and this is a really important feature for our reports. 

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