Extensible Documents - Dashboards in PowerPoint

[FlorisvdPoel]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a solution to insert dashboards in extensible PowerPoints. I know how to put cube views, reports, etc., into PowerPoint. However, in the object lookup, there is no option for embedded dashboards or other dashboard components.

Some background about the dashboard. It is set up using the same way dashboards are set up in Golfstream. It uses some state indicators and labels. The headers and state indicators are set up in separate dashboards and are merged into one dashboard using 2 rows and 1 column. 

I have looked at workarounds on how to get the dashboard into a PDF or report. However, I did not find a working solution yet. Therefore I am reaching out to the community.

Any help would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks

Floris van der Poel

cpmview

E: Fvanderpoel@cpmview.com

[molly_lvc]

Hi Floris,

I have not figured out how to insert a Dashboard directly into an extensible PowerPoint document; however, I have had some success with adding the Dashboard to a Report first.

After adding the Dashboard to a Report, you can use the code below in the Alt Text field of a placeholder image in PowerPoint to insert the Report, updating "Report_Name" to the name of your Report. I found these format settings to present the best for my Dashboard. This Alt Text will replace the placeholder image with an image of your Dashboard.

{XF}{Application}{Report}{Report_Name}
PageNumber=1, CropLeft=0, CropTop=325, CropWidth=0, CropHeight=0, Zoom=100, MaintainAspectRatio=True, FillMode=Width, Anchor=TopLeft, IncludeBorders=False, IncludeReportMargins=True, IncludeReportHeader=False, IncludeReportFooter=False, IncludePageHeader=False, IncludePageFooter=False

I hope this helps!

[FlorisvdPoel]

Hi Molly,

Thank you for your reply. This was indeed something I was looking at. 

I haven't had any success with adding the Dashboard to the Report. Can you guide me to any instructions related on that specific topic? I've tried looking for something like 'add components' in the report designer. However, these were only report components and not components from the DB groups!

Thanks for your help.

Floris

[molly_lvc]

Floris,

These are the steps I took to add the Dashboard to a Report.

1) Create a Report Dashboard Component.

2) On the Data Adapters tab, add the Cube View Data Adapter (assuming this was already created in a previous step to reference a Cube View).

3) On the Report Designer tab, click on the XF Sub-Report icon in the tool bar in the bottom left (you will have to scroll to the bottom, it looks like a clipboard). Click and drag the icon into the DetailBand section of the report grid.

4) In the Report Explorer section, click on the newly added xfSubreport1 item. On the Data tab in the Properties section, type the name of the Chart (Advanced) component (also assuming this was already created) into the XF Subreport Item Name section. Change the XF Subreport Type to DashboardComponentChart.

5) Click on the Preview button to ensure the Dashboard is populating correctly.

I just tested this out in GolfStream and it worked; I hope it works for you as well!

Molly

[FlorisvdPoel]

Hey Marly,

Thanks for your clear explanation. We are getting closer to a solution, I think.

However, I am not trying to add the Chart (Advanced) (or in that case, any chart) to the report (and export to PPT). What I would like to do, is export an Embedded Dashboard to PowerPoint. When I add the Embedded Dashboard name to the XF Subreport Item Name section and change the XF Subreport Type to DashboardComponentChart, I get an error saying: 'There was an error processing sub-report 'xfSubreport1'.' When I add a Chart (Advanced) component in this section it works fine. However, this is not my end goal.

Hope you can help me find a way to add the Embedded Dashboard to a report or to a PowerPoint.

For now, thanks for all your help!

Kind regards,

Floris

[molly_lvc]

Floris, 

I see your problem now. The Reports I have built have only included one element. I don't think you can reference an Embedded Dashboard, but you could probably insert multiple subReports to the same Report or create a Report for each element and rebuild the dashboard on the PowerPoint slide. 

[FlorisvdPoel]

Hi Molly,

Ok, thanks for you help. I think I will start building my report that way.

Thanks so much,

Floris