---
title: Dashboards Overview
description: A Dashboard is a grid of widgets built in the editor and published to your Organization. Widgets bind to Device Variables to show live values and trends.
source: https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/dashboards/overview
---

# Platform Dashboards Overview

A Dashboard is a grid of widgets that you assemble in the dashboard editor and publish to your Organization. Widgets bind to Device Variables, so a board shows current values, historical trends and equipment states as readings arrive. Dashboards are how you answer "what is happening right now" and "how has this looked over the last hours or days."

> **Workflow Stage: Visualize**

## Overview

Every dashboard lives in your Organization and is listed under **Visualization → Dashboards**. The list has tabs for **Public** boards, **My Dashboards** and reusable **Components**, a name search, and filters for status, Device and owner.

![The Dashboards list in ControlCom Connect showing existing boards with search and filter controls](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/dashboards/01-dashboards-list.png)

*The Dashboards list, with the Dashboard button in the top right*

Where a Dashboard answers "what are the numbers right now," a [Diagram](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/diagrams-detail/overview) answers "where in the system are those numbers coming from." The two combine: a dashboard can embed a diagram through its Diagram widget, and an element on a diagram can open a dashboard.

## Video Tutorial

Video: [ControlCom Platform Dashboards Overview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_4AxGGDCE)

Part of the Visualize stage in the ControlCom Connect data workflow.

## Creating a Dashboard

Open **Visualization → Dashboards** and click **Dashboard** in the top right. The create dialog asks for a name plus three settings: **Lock Dashboard Updates** (only you can edit the board), **Public** (on by default, so every user in the Organization can view it), and **Limited to Device** (scope the board to a single Device, or leave it on All Devices).

Click **Create** and the board opens in the editor, where you add widgets from the palette, arrange them on the grid, and click **Publish** when the layout is ready. Each publish is recorded with a comment, and **History** lists previous versions and can restore one.

![The ControlCom Connect dashboard editor with the Add Widget palette on the left and the canvas on the right](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/dashboards/03-dashboard-editor.png)

*The dashboard editor: widget palette on the left, 12 column canvas on the right*

For the full walkthrough, from the create dialog through publishing and viewing the result, see [Creating a Dashboard](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/dashboards/creating).

## Widget Types

The **Add Widget** palette carries 15 widget types in four groups:

| Group                 | Widgets                                          |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **Display**           | Generic, Status, List, Asset Table, Radial, Text |
| **Visualization**     | Graph, Diagram                                   |
| **Interactive**       | Control, Menu                                    |
| **Layout & Advanced** | Section, Logic, Component, IFrame, Group         |

Most Display and Visualization widgets read a Device Variable: **Status** shows a current value with a label, **Radial** draws it as a gauge, and **Graph** plots a time series. **Asset Table** fills itself from your Assets, grouped by Location. **Control** sends commands back to a Device, and **Diagram** embeds an interactive diagram. **Section**, **Text** and **Menu** render without any data, which makes them a good starting point on a new Organization.

Widgets that plot values need the earlier workflow stages finished: hardware Connected through the Edge Server, readings Collected, and those readings Stored in the platform.

## Layouts and Refresh

The canvas is a 12 column grid on desktop, and the editor keeps a separate layout per screen size: ultra wide, desktop, tablet and mobile. Design the desktop board first, then switch breakpoints to adjust how the same widgets stack on smaller screens.

Published boards refresh themselves against live Device data, every 10 minutes by default. The view header shows the refresh interval and offers an immediate refresh, and full screen mode makes a board usable on a wall display in a control room. The **Report** button in the same header generates a report from the board's data.

![A published dashboard in view mode with its header controls for refresh, full screen and reporting](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/dashboards/07-dashboard-view.png)

*A published board as viewers see it, with refresh and full screen controls in the header*

## Access and Sharing

Dashboard access follows the permissions on a user's role: viewing boards requires the Read Dashboards permission, and creating, editing and deleting each have their own permission that an administrator grants per role.

Within that, each board carries its own visibility settings from the create dialog. A **Public** board can be viewed by every user in the Organization; turn Public off to keep a board out of the shared list, where it remains under **My Dashboards** for its owner. **Lock Dashboard Updates** restricts editing to the owner, which is useful for a board that should not drift once it is on a control room screen.

A Dashboard can also be assigned to an [Asset](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/assets) or a [Location](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/locations), so the board serves as that Asset's or Location's dashboard view.