Learning Views
Overview
One of the first things any user should learn in Avantalytics are views. Views are what some people might call “dashboards.”
"Why should I learn about views first?"
Creating views is a simple drag-and-drop process, and views allow you intuitive, visual access to dozens of reports and key metrics, all with a few clicks of your mouse. Most users can monitor and analyze their business without ever entering the reporting interface just by setting up a few customized views.
So, lets get started!
Step 0 – No Views Created
When you first login, if you have no views created, you’ll be presented with the screen above (click on image to zoom). This screen appears as long as you have not created a default view and set it as the default screen upon login.
The default view has a few special features that makes it distinct from other views. You cannot create any other views until you’ve created the default view. You also can't share the default view with other people, by design. Since the default view is the likeliest view you will change, and anyone with access to see your view can see the changes, this reduces the chance of unwanted data sharing.
Did you know?
If you want to learn more about how to share views, please visit our documentation page on the topic.
Step 1 – Create New View
To create a new view, go to the collection of icons in the upper-right hand side of the page and click on the page icon. Text will appear when you hover over the icon, confirming that selecting this option allows you to create a new view.
A new window will pop up, allowing you to create your view. We've named our view "Avantalytics Example View" and we can see a couple of drop down menu items. The one that is selected by default is the "Create New" option, which allows you to create a view from scratch. We'll talk about the other options in a moment, so for now, just click "OK."
What you now see is a blank, default view, ready to be customized with insight panels. You can either click the "Click To Add Insights" text, located within the dashed blue lines, or you can click the "+" icon, to add a new insight panel to your view.
Clicking the "+" brings up an accordion-style list of all of the categories of insight panels. Clicking on any of the names expands the accordion. We've clicked on "Sales Insights" and the list of individual insight panels comes up. Clicking on any panel name gives you a preview and a short description of the insight panel, making it quicker and easier to assemble your views with the exact types of views you want. Let's try adding the State Sales Heat Map now. We add the panel to the view by either double clicking "State Sales Heat Map" or by clicking the "Add Insight" button, located beneath the preview of the State Sales Heat Map.
Once your panel is loaded onto the view, it is not fully saved. The arrow points out the slight green-gray tinge on the outside of the panel. This is your visual clue that the panel has not been permanently saved to the view. In other words, if we were to refresh now, the panel would not load, and you would have to re-add the panel. Simply clicking the save icon outlined in red in the upper right will save the panel to the view. The green shadow will be replaced with a light green shadow when this is complete.
To drag a panel around, all you need to do is click and hold the header and drag it to the other side of the screen. When multiple panels are already loaded, you can drag them around in any order on the page. Clicking the "Save" icon locks the new orientation in place.
You can repeat this same process with other insight panels until you have built your desired view. Now, anytime you login and select your view that you just created, it will load with the latest sales figures and data automatically. If you want to change the view, drag around, add and delete the panels you'd like, and press "Save" again to commit the changes. Once the default view is created, you can repeat this whole process to make as many more , custom named views as you like using the exact same process described here!
If you need to make multiple views that are mostly the same (example: a view for each retailer), you can clone an existing view simply by selecting "Copy From" in the "Create New View" drop down menu. All existing views will come up, and you can make your selection from them. Alternatively, you can also clone views that other users made by clicking the "Copy From Shared:" drop down menu. This will pull up all the views that your coworkers have created and made sharable, and the view will have the name of the user who created the view associated with it.
Step 2 – Deleting Views
This one is easy. Just click the "X" button on the top right corner of each insight panel on the view you wish to delete. When they’re all gone – click the "Save" icon. This will delete the view!