Introduction

The admin dashboard is designed to be completely customizable by each administrator, allowing them to tailor the interface to their specific preferences and needs. This personalization is limited to the individual administrator's view, meaning that any adjustments made will not affect the dashboards of other administrators. This feature is particularly advantageous, as it enables each user to focus on the data and metrics most relevant to their role.

In the example shown above, the administrator has successfully added four reporting charts to their dashboard. To achieve this, the administrator would follow a series of straightforward steps:

1. First, click the "Customize Dashboard" button located in the top-right corner of the screen.
2. Next, select "Add Chart," which will present a list of all available reports that can be added to the dashboard.
3. You can choose a chart that matches the report you want to display on your dashboard.
4. Determine the size of the chart by adjusting the width settings found in the top right corner of the chart.
5. You can rearrange the content on your dashboard by simply dragging and dropping the charts into your desired positions.
6. Finally, select "Save Changes" to keep your modifications, or choose "Cancel Changes" if you wish to discard them, or "Reset" if you want to revert all changes made during the session.

If a chart shows no data, it may simply mean there is no matching data at that time — these charts update automatically as new data becomes available. A chart can also show 'No data' for a large, multi-step report because of how dashboard charts load. The section below explains how to tell the difference and what to do.

Why a dashboard chart can show "No data" when the report works elsewhere

A dashboard chart is a quick preview of a report, built to load fast every time your Home page opens. To keep the page quick, each chart shows only the first 50 rows of its report, not the full result set. For most reports this is invisible: you see the latest rows at a glance and open the full report when you need the rest.

Some reports, though, build their results in several stages. For example, first gathering all learner accounts or all enrollment records, then combining those stages into a final answer. These are often called multi-step or complex reports. On the dashboard, the 50-row limit is applied to every stage, not just the final result. The early stages get cut off at 50 rows before they are complete, so when the report combines them, very little matches and the chart shows "No data," even though nothing is broken.

The same report run directly from the Reports tab uses a much larger limit, so all of its stages complete and it returns the full data. This is why a report can look empty as a dashboard chart but work perfectly when you run it from the Reports tab.

If a dashboard chart shows no data: Run the report directly from the Reports tab to see the complete results — the dashboard is a preview, while running the report directly gives you the full data and lets you export it. If a large, multi-step report keeps coming up empty on the dashboard, it is better run on demand from the Reports tab than kept as a live chart. For an at-a-glance Home page, favor lighter reports that return a meaningful answer within their first 50 rows.

Note: A blank chart does not mean you have no records. If a chart shows "No data," run the report directly from the Reports tab to confirm the real results.

Adding Visualizations to Reports and Editing Your Dashboards

The Genius CE and Enterprise platforms enable users to incorporate visualizations into existing reports easily. By default, all reports in these platforms are presented in a list format. However, users have the flexibility to display reports in various formats, including lists, pie charts, line charts, or bar charts. To change the format, navigate to the Reports tab and click on the Query Builder menu item located under Dynamic Reports. The navigation path is: Reports > Dynamic Reports > Query Builder.

• This action will open the Query Builder, a powerful tool that enables users to write their own SQL queries to interact with the Genius CE and Enterprise databases.
• To modify how a report is visualized, simply click on the Select a Report menu within the Query Builder.

(For example) This report provides a breakdown of the number of sections that have been completed by each learner across different affiliations.

• To begin, click on the Select a Report menu and scroll down to locate the "Enrollments Completed by Affiliation" report.
• Once selected, the corresponding SQL query for this report will be displayed in the Query field.
• At this point, you can choose how you want the report to be presented by selecting an option from the Report Format menu. For instance, you can change the Report Format from List to Bar Chart and then click Save Changes to ensure that your selection is recorded in the system.

With these changes made, you can now view the results by adding this report to your dashboard.

To add a report to your dashboard, follow these steps:

• Click on the Home tab, and your admin role-based dashboard will be displayed.
• To make edits to the dashboard, click the gear icon located in the upper-right corner of the screen.
• Select Add Chart, and then choose whichever chart you prefer on your dashboard.

You will then have the ability to place and resize this chart within your Admin Dashboard according to your preferences.

• After positioning the chart, click Save Changes, and the new chart will be successfully added to your Dashboard. 

If you revisit the Query Builder, you have the option to modify how this report is rendered: whether as a list, bar chart, line chart, or pie chart.

• To see the results of your changes, you can click the Home tab again.
• You can apply the same process to create interactive visualizations from results that involve two columns, one containing text strings and the other with numerical values, across any of the role-based Dashboards included with Genius CE and Enterprise.