Building a 3-Widget Dashboard From Scratch

Overview

This video teaches you how to build a dashboard from a blank canvas, using a basic chart, a pie chart, and a KPI widget as examples. It covers connecting a widget to a dataset through the Model Query Editor, reusing a saved query across multiple widgets, and using filter sets and parameters so a KPI widget can compare two different scenario/period combinations side by side.

Facts to Remember

• A saved Model Query can be reused across multiple widgets..
• Switching a dashboard to View mode shows exactly what an end user sees, as opposed to the Edit mode used to build it.

Transcript

Hello, hello everyone.

Today we're going to be going over how to build a three-widget dashboard on Una from scratch.

So from previous videos, we saw that we started here at the Explorer and we navigate how to walk through that.

So what we're going to do is we're going to go to the respective folder that we want our dashboard to be in.

In this case, let's go to walkthrough.

We're going to right click and press add new folder, add new dashboard.

And let's name this dashboard since we're going to be doing it on operating expenses, we'll call it operating expenses department.

Awesome.

Okay, so now once we get to here, we get brought to the dashboard interface.

And from here, we have the option to add widgets and In this video, we're only going to go over going over the top three.

So basic PI and KPI.

We have options for multiple other widgets as well, including table, they have a table, things like Bowtie and AI, which is Una's new development.

On the top here, we have the title.

We have the ability to undo changes, redo changes, show us what model we're building in.

In this case, we're building in the main model.

If you have new variables that you're introducing to the dashboard, you can view them through here.

We have the dashboard settings.

We have the ability to refresh all widgets.

So if you add new data and it hasn't reloaded yet, you can press this and it refreshes them.

The ability to export all the info that we need.

And we can switch to view mode, which is what the end user eventually sees because right now we're in the edit mode, as it says up at the top here.

And after everything, you have to save it or else it will not save.

So make sure you do that.

All right, let's jump into building our basic chart first.

So we can go to the add widget section and press basic chart here, which pulls up this icon here.

And what we're going to do is we're going into edit this chart right now.

So under the general section, we are going to rename it.

We're going to rename it operating expenses by department.

Awesome.

What we want to do here is we want to add a data set.

So under this data set, we're going to go in.

We're going to click Edit Model Query.

So this brings us to the Una's Model Query Editor.

And from here, we want to make sure that we select that we're in the main model on this top toolbar.

We know that we're in the metrics data type itself, and we want to make sure that our time is set to a year-to-date because we want to do a year-to-date view.

All right.

We have three sections here.

We have the filters and the columns in the rows.

In the filters, we always want to make sure that measure is in filters.

We always want to make sure that scenario is also in filters and period is also in filters.

In columns, since we're wanting to view operating expenses by department, department will be on the column section.

So we want to make sure that department falls in there.

And then last but not least, we want to make sure that our operating expenses are in our account section.

So those are displayed on the rows.

So in our measure parent, we want to make sure that we are selecting vnew because that's where the data sits.

For scenario, we're going to click actual.

And for period, we're going to make sure that we're dealing in 2026.

So department is where it gets a bit more complicated.

But overall, it's still very, very straightforward.

So in this scenario, we have all departments and obviously want to include all of these subsections, which are the children of departments.

We want to make sure that things like none are not included.

So what we can press here is we can press exclude.

We want to make sure that all departments are in under that exclude section there.

And this is going to be the children of those.

We also want to make sure that none also falls under this.

This exclude section as well, including all departments above that.

So we have exclude, we have all departments, and we have none there.

So under accounts, we want to make sure that we are displaying the operating expenses, which falls under the net income.

Net income parent, so clicking on operating expenses there is where it fills in.

And then one thing that you can do with Una is that you can actually preview the data to make sure that it's all loaded in the right spot.

So if we click preview, we can see that it is overall in the right spot.

So we have operating expenses and then it's split up by each departments.

So we can make sure that we can close that preview there.

What we're going to do here is we're actually going to, first of all, we're going to click OK.

But after that, we're going to make sure that we can save this and go back to it in the future.

So we're going to click OK.

And this should end up showing our amazing bar chart there.

Before we actually edit the bar chart itself, we're going to go back into that data set, click Edit Model Query, and we're going to save this model query so we can use it for our new charts.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to save this by walkthrough, and I'm going to say OpEx department.

So I'm going to save that.

And that's going to be important when we want to come back to it later.

So now that we have our amazing bar chart here, we have it in this purple color, but if for some reason we want to go with that orange color, we can actually go back into our data set, click on color and change the color there.

We can resize it if needed.

We can make it larger.

Topics include the Model Builder, Explorer, dimensions and hierarchies, data models, and importing data from flat files.

Topics include the Model Builder, Explorer, dimensions and hierarchies, data models, and importing data from flat files.

We're going to go into the same format, click Edit, and we're going to name this Operating Expenses by Department.

Once again, it's the same sort of data, we're just viewing it in a different manner.

So we can click on Add Dataset there, and then we're going to go into Edit Model Query, and we can actually go back to the walkthrough that we just made there.

Select that.

And all of our data has filled.

And if we click on preview, we can see that the data is in the right spot.

Awesome.

So clicking OK from there.

If we select another, we can see that our amazing pie chart has been assembled.

I personally think we should go back to that Uno orange color.

So we can go here, go to color and go to orange.

And it changes the color to match.

That set.

So as we can see there, we now see that operating expenses by department.

And if we hover over it, that just shows what sort of department is there in the respective operating expenses.

So now what we want to do is we want to make a KPI widget.

So we're going to go into here.

We can resize these a bit later.

And what we want to do here is with the KPI widget itself, we want to make sure that it's connected to the respective data sets and filter sets.

So what we're going to do is we're going to make two filter sets, and this is how we separate the data.

So we're going to make the first one called base, and we want to bring in scenario, and we want to make sure we bring in period, because that's where we're going to filter out the data.

And with scenario, we want to make sure that is mandatory selected, same with period as well.

As we can see, we're going to do the exact same format, but for this one, we're going to call it comparison.

And from scenario here, we're going to select those two again.

And they are both mandatory as well.

And we're going to save that as well.

So for base, we want to just make sure that we're selecting actual 2026.

And for comparison, we want to do plan 2027.

So now we can actually go into editing the KPI widget itself.

And let's do that.

So in general, we're going to just name this operating expenses, plan versus actual.

And what we want to do here is we want to go to our data sets now.

We want two data sets again in this format.

And under data set one, let's go and edit that.

From here, we're going to bring in the same walkthrough query that we used beforehand.

We're going to make a couple of changes because we're connecting it to the actual filter set itself.

So measure we can keep as vnew, but for scenario, we actually want to delete this and make sure that we're linking it to that correct filter.

So when we go to add member, we can go to parameter and we want parameter.

Topics include the Model Builder, Explorer, dimensions and hierarchies, data models, and importing data from flat files.

Topics include the Model Builder, Explorer, dimensions and hierarchies, data models, and importing data from flat files.

We can accept that.

So making sure that these are both connected to the respective filter.

For department, we can actually delete this.

We want to bring in all departments and move this up to the filters.

And for account, we just want operating expenses again, but keeping it and moving it into columns.

So now we have moved a couple of those changes there.

What we're going to do here is we're actually going to save this so we can use it for the next filter as well.

So calling this walkthrough, and then we're going to do OpEx KPI.

So we can save that.

And now we can click OK.

However, for data set one, we want to make sure that the label is also changed so that the label, when you're displaying the KPI, also reflects what's being shown on the the filter set.

So what we can do here is we can add in a set of parameters where we're doing parameter.scenario.1.caption, then parameter.period.1.caption after that.

So that's dataset one done.

Let's move on to dataset two now.

We can go to edit model query.

Go to edit model query.

And then we're going to go to walk through OpEx KPI there.

We have to make a couple of changes because in scenario, we want to make sure that we're referring to not one, but zero.

So parameter.scenario.zero.key because we're referring to the other filter set for period.

We want to make sure that we're doing the exact same change.

So making sure that instead of referring to the so we can go and save that.

And then for our label, we can do the same format, but instead of referring to one, we're referring to zero now.

So making those respective changes there.

We click out of that.

We can see that our KPI has now loaded with data where we have the plant.

2027 at the top there, and we have the actual 2026 at the bottom there.

And this actually reflects the filter sets that we have here as well.

So we can, let's, this is what we have here now.

We can move these around as we see fit.

We can resize them if we want them smaller.

But one thing we can do now is we can actually go into view mode, which is where.

What the end user sees.

And we're going into, we can say like, let's say we want to see what the period one changes are between the two years.

And as you can see, it reflects the changes itself.

So once again, fiddle around with it, have some fun.

And at the end of everything, make sure you're clicking that save button.

Related Articles

• Dashboards — the reference article for the canvas itself
• Widgets — the full catalogue of widget types
• KPI Tiles — one of the three widgets built in the video
• Basic Chart — configuring the chart widget in detail