Chapter 57. Exporting, importing, and deploying dashboards

After you create a dashboard in Business Central, you can export the dashboard data and import it in another instance of Business Central, in Dashbuilder Runtime, or in Dashbuilder Standalone.

Note

This feature is only accessible by administrator users.

57.1. Exporting Business Central dashboard data

You can export dashboard data such as data sets, pages, and navigation from Business Central as a ZIP file.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, select the Admin icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Dashbuilder Data Transfer.

  2. To export the dashboard data, complete any of the following tasks:

    If you want to export all of the dashboard data as a ZIP file, complete the following tasks:

    1. On the Dashbuilder Data Transfer page, click Export all.

      An export.zip file containing all of the dashboard data is downloaded. The export.zip file structure is separated by data type, as shown in the following example: 

      dashbuilder/datasets/definitions/dataset-example1.dset
dashbuilder/datasets/definitions/dataset-example2.dset
dashbuilder/datasets/readme.md
dashbuilder/perspectives/page1/perspective_layout
dashbuilder/perspectives/page1/perspective_layout.plugin
dashbuilder/perspectives/page2/perspective_layout
dashbuilder/perspectives/page2/perspective_layout.plugin
dashbuilder/perspectives/readme.md
dashbuilder/navigation/navigation/navtree.json
dashbuilder/navigation/readme.md
VERSION

    If you want to export the customized user created and provide dashboard data as a ZIP file, complete the following tasks:

    1. On the Dashbuilder Data Transfer page, click Custom export.

    2. Select the datasets and pages that you want to include in a ZIP file in the Export Wizard panel and click Next.

      The Export Wizard panel validates the selected data sets and pages. The summary of the data sets and pages is available on the panel.

      Note

      Navigation is always included in the exported ZIP file.

    3. If your export is ready, click Download.

      An export.zip file containing customized dashboard data is downloaded.

      Note

      You must select the associated pages and data sets in the Export Wizard panel. If you fail to select both data sets and pages, then an error is generated and you cannot download the export.zip file. Therefore, you must select at least one page.

    4. Click Finish.

57.2. Importing Business Central dashboard data

You can use a ZIP file to import dashboard data that you created in Business Central to another Business Central instance if the archive is structured as shown in the following example: 

dashbuilder/datasets/definitions/dataset-example1.dset
dashbuilder/datasets/definitions/dataset-example2.dset
dashbuilder/datasets/readme.md
dashbuilder/perspectives/page1/perspective_layout
dashbuilder/perspectives/page1/perspective_layout.plugin
dashbuilder/perspectives/page2/perspective_layout
dashbuilder/perspectives/page2/perspective_layout.plugin
dashbuilder/perspectives/readme.md
dashbuilder/navigation/navigation/navtree.json
dashbuilder/navigation/readme.md
VERSION

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, select the Admin icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Dashbuilder Data Transfer.

    Warning

    You must import dashboard data to a clean installation of Red Hat Process Automation Manager in order to avoid overwriting data on an existing system.

  2. On the Dashbuilder Data Transfer page, click the Choose File icon.
  3. Navigate to the ZIP file you want to import and select the file.
  4. Click the Upload icon.
  5. Click Import.

57.3. Deploying dashboards from Business Central on Dashbuilder Runtime

You can automatically deploy the dashboards from Business Central on Dashbuilder Runtime. Business Central is linked to Dashbuilder Runtime using a gradual export feature.

Prerequisites

  • Dashbuilder Runtime is configured on your system.
  • You have set the dashbuilder.runtime.multi system property to true in the standalone.xml file.

  • You have set the value of dashbuilder.runtime.location system property to the Dashbuilder Runtime URL, as shown in the following example: 

    <property name="dashbuilder.runtime.location" value=" http://localhost:8080"

  • You have set the dashbuilder.export.dir system property to the shared directory where Dashbuilder Runtime reads its model, as shown in the following example: 

    <property name="dashbuilder.export.dir" value="/tmp/dashbuilder/models/"

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. In the Components panel, drag and edit the required component types to the canvas as needed and click Save to finish.
  3. Select the Admin icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Dashbuilder Data Transfer.
  4. On the Dashbuilder Data Transfer page, click Custom export.
  5. Select the pages that you want to include in the ZIP file in the Export Wizard panel, and click Next.

  6. Select Export Wizard and click Open.

    You can see the Dashbuilder Runtime home page. If you are not logged in, you are redirected to the login page.

  7. Go to Dashboards → Runtime Dashboards and you can see the pages.

    The selected data is exported and Dashbuilder Runtime updates the model content when it is opened.