Have you ever found you need to make a new dashboard every time you start a new project in TrackVia? Taking the time to set things up before you can effectively get started can be painful. It can slow down your momentum and delay important processes from starting.

What if you could have a set of generic project dashboards? At the click of a button, every view would switch to the project of your choice.

Great news! You can do this. We call these Centralized Dashboards. They’re a fantastic, advanced, TrackVia time saver.

Centralized Dashboards allow you to switch a dashboard’s orientation at the click of a button.

Creating Centralized Dashboards

To create a Centralized Dashboard, you will need to create six items:

1. Build a Settings table. This is where you will choose a project (or other linking field) to use to orient your dashboard(s).
2. Create your Settings record(s). Do this for each unique orientation you want for your dashboards. You may want more than one setting record if multiple people/departments will be working with dashboards oriented around different projects simultaneously.
3. Build links between your data tables and the Settings table. Do this for each data table that has views you want to orient around a setting. You will need 1 link per setting record per table. Your data tables will also need to be linked to the project (or main linking field) you are using in the settings table.
4. Create a calculated settings comparison field in each related table. You will need one for each setting. This will be used to indicate when a record’s Project link matches the Settings Project link. It is key to creating oriented views.
5. Write scripts to automatically link new data records to your setting(s) record(s). You will need 1 link per setting record per table. Do this in each of the data tables containing oriented views.

Once you’ve got the components built, it’s time to set up your Centralized Dashboard in TrackVia!

1. Link existing records in your data tables to your setting(s).
2. Create a centralized dashboard. (Or multiple dashboards!)
   • Create a new dashboard and give it a good name for its general purpose.
   • Create the oriented views you want. You can copy them from other specific views you used for other projects just replace the project-specific part of the filter with your calculated comparison field equivalent.
   • Add the oriented views to your centralized dashboard(s).
3. Add a Settings Dashboard with a simple view of your Settings table and use it to choose the project whose data you want to display!

Now you can use the Settings Dashboard to change the orientation of your TrackVia centralized dashboard(s) with the click of a button!

Strengths

The main strength of centralized dashboards is it allows you to set up project-centered dashboards once and instantly use the same dashboard system whenever a new project is started.

Centralized Dashboards work best in any of the following situations:

• Companies tracking a small number of projects in depth at a time
• Companies who have a small number of key users monitor multiple projects. This can involve as many projects as needed.
• Companies who have different departments (roles) focused on a few key projects at a time.

In all of these cases, Centralized dashboards are relatively easy to set up and will save a ton of time on project setup in TrackVia.

Limitations

Centralized Dashboards might not be for you if:

• You rarely have to create new dashboards when starting a new project or process
• You have a large number of people using TrackVia who would be trying to use the same centralized dashboards for different projects at the same time
• You have performance issues (slow load times on your views) due to too many complex calculated fields in your TrackVia tables

Get Started Today!

If Centralized Dashboards seem like an answer to your project kickoff headaches and you’re still not sure how to get started, connect with us! We can set up the system for you and have you ready to start new projects quickly and painlessly.

We can also help if you are experiencing TrackVia performance issues. These issues can include slow load times for dashboards and views, or delays when loading or saving records.

For all your no-code and low-code software development software solution needs, don’t hesitate to call on us here at Low Code Road.  We are here and happy to help whenever needed.  Consider us an extension of your developer team!