Performance Recommendations for Advanced Dashboards and Reports

This article describes the following best practices for optimizing the performance of Advanced Dashboards and Reports:

• • Delete unnecessary tabs and visuals
  • Use tabs to separate information
  • Include as few columns as possible
  • Collapse groupings on tables when possible
  • Hide the summary bar for tables when not needed
  • Avoid multiple open sessions

Delete unnecessary tabs and visuals

When you save a copy of the default dashboards or reports, you’re saving every tab and every visual provided. The default dashboards and reports are more of a catalog of what’s available and what might be useful, rather than a recommendation for what to use.

While multiple charts and tables can load data at once, and data is only loaded as the visual appears on the screen, the data you don’t want can get in the way of the data you do want.

For faster loading, try the following in Explore mode.

• • To delete a tab, right-click the tab, and select Delete.
    
  • To delete a chart or table, right-click the visual and select Delete element.
    

    Or, use the actions menu at the top-right to delete visuals.
    

  • Many of our visuals are housed in containers, which are objects that keep the visual and filter/display controls together. When deleting a visual, delete the entire container rather than only the visual:
    

Use tabs to separate information

Place only one or a few visuals on a tab (one screen’s worth, for example) to reduce load times. This will ensure that only necessary data is loaded as it becomes needed.

Include as few columns as possible

Each column contains an extra data point for every row in your table (which could be in the tens or hundreds of thousands). The default dashboards and reports provide columns that are often useful, but not all columns are needed in every scenario.

For example, consider the Open Action Items by Source chart:

This chart requires a maximum of 13 columns:

• • 9 columns to support the 9 filters
  • 1 column to support the Priority
  • 2 columns to support the Source Product and Source Category
  • 1 column to support the # of Action Items

However, the Priority and Source Category are included in the filters, so the total number of columns for this chart is 11.

The visual on the Default Dashboard has many more columns; some of those columns may be useful, so it’s more convenient to show them. Note that the columns in gray, Description and Parent Action ID, are hidden but still included. Hiding a column means it won’t appear when expanding a visual to see the data in table format, but the hidden column is still usable as a filter, so it’s still loaded.