Charts are a great way to visualize information. They let you arrange data in meaningful ways, allow you to tell a story, and can really catch the reader's eye. But when dealing with large datasets, visualizing all the data at once can be somewhere between a tough to impossible mission. You usually need to filter the data and concentrate on a specific part that is of interest, and then when you want to see a different part of the data you'll need to filter it again and refresh the view. That's why we're happy to announce the introduction of dashboards in Apps Script, which allow you to compose multiple charts and filters into a single experience!
What is a dashboard? A dashboard is a visual structure that lets you organize and manage multiple charts that share the same underlying data. The three building blocks of a dashboard are the data source, charts, and controls. Controls are user interface widgets (category pickers, range sliders, or autocompleting text boxes) that someone can interact with in order to drive the data managed by a dashboard to the charts that are part of it.
Dashboards in Apps Script Because of its interactive nature, a dashboard is built in a Google Apps Script UI application. A UI application can be embedded in a Spreadsheet or a Site or served as HTML using the "Deploy as web app" option. They are perfect for creating interactive reports, where users can gain extra insight through exploring the data.
Creating a simple dashboard UI Application Have a look at the following example dashboard where a category picker and a range slider are used to drive the data visualized by a pie chart and a table chart.
Note that a dashboard is an interactive entity. Playing with its controls will change the charts in real time. You can see exactly how this dashboard was created, and learn more about how to build dashboards in general, by reading through our new Building a Charts Dashboard tutorial.
Going further Dashboards can of course be much more complex than the above example. Here is a video demonstrating a more complex dashboard embedded in a Spreadsheet:
To conclude, dashboards are powerful gadgets that allow you to handle and get valuable insights on complex datasets. Now made easy to build in Apps Script, try it on your data.
