Setting up a dashboard context

Dynamic Dashboards

Dynamic Dashboards make it possible to link a Dashboard Template directly to an Insight Web form. Once linked, the template appears as an additional tab within that form, placing relevant charts and metrics right alongside the record being worked in.

What makes these dashboards dynamic is context. The form automatically passes the context of the current record—such as the specific customer, order, or product being viewed—directly to the dashboard and its components as parameters. The dashboard reflects the entity in focus without any manual setup.

The benefit is immediate: there's no need to navigate away to a standalone dashboard or manually enter parameters to filter down to the record at hand. The right information is presented in context, exactly where the work is happening.

In this example, the goal is a Dashboard showing customer-specific information, embedded directly into the Customers form. When opened, it should automatically pass the Key ID of the current customer record (venID) to the Dashboard and its components.

Step 1: Identify the form's key field

The first step is to identify the key parameter of the form, so it can be set up as the input parameter that provides context to the dashboard. In this example, the dashboard will be assigned to the Customers form.

Open the User Interface Designer, search for the "Customers" form, open it, and navigate to the Main Section.

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Open the Edit Component dialog for the Results Region. Here you will find the name of the main Data Source.

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Next, open the Data Sources section and locate "DsCustomers" in the Object Name column. On the right side, you will find the underlying Data Service—in this case, OrganizationCustomers.

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Now open the Data Services form, search for "OrganizationCustomers", open it, and navigate to the Data Collection tab. The Columns table lists all columns/fields this data collection provides, including the key field venID. This is the primary key field to pass as context into the Customer Dashboard.

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Step 2: Set up the Dashboard parameter

The next step is to ensure a parameter exists for the key field to be used. Open the Lookup Tables form and navigate to the dbo.Parameters table. Here, a record for venID is required. In this example, the @venID parameter already exists (provided by the system). If it doesn't exist, create it—making sure to fill in the Parameter SQL statement and Data Type.
 

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Step 3: Prepare Dashboard Template

For this example, the Dashboard Template shown below has been prepared.
 

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It uses Dashboard Components that all share the Customer (venID) input parameter, along with From and To date parameters (StartDate, EndDate).
 

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The Stored Procedure parameters are set accordingly:
 

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Step 4: Add the dashboard context (link it to a form)

The next step is to add the dashboard context by linking it to the Customers form. Open the Dashboard Layouts form, navigate to the Template, and edit it. Go to the Context tab and click Add in the Forms region.
 

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In the dialog, select the form to assign the dashboard to, and define the Name for the tab that will render the dashboard.
Click Save in the dialog.

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Next, select the newly added form entry in the Forms table and click Add in the Parameter Override region to add a parameter override for this form context.

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Select the Customer parameter and enter the name of the parameter to override—in this case, venID.
Click Save in the dialog, then save the Dashboard Template.

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Step 5: Validate the result

Open the Customers form and confirm that a new tab called KPI now appears.
Clicking it opens the embedded customer dashboard within the form, showing data specific to this customer—because the form now passes the venID of the selected customer record directly into the dashboard components.
 

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To verify that the form passed the context correctly, open the Parameters of any of the dashboard components.

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For each parameter defined in the context, it should display "Set by context"—in this case, for the Customer (venID) parameter—confirming that everything is working as expected.
 

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