Help — Analytics Dashboard Studio

Getting started

Analytics Dashboard Studio lets you design Pentaho CDF, CDE, and CDA dashboard components visually — no hand-coding required. Open a browser, choose a data source, drop it onto the canvas, and export a production-ready file in minutes.

Step 1

Pick your data

Browse the Query Library on the left. Search by name, table, or column. Drag a query onto the canvas to create a new chart panel.

Step 2

Configure the chart

Click a panel on the canvas to select it. The Inspector (right side) lets you choose a chart type, bind columns, and tune visual options.

Step 3

Export and deploy

Use Export ▾ to download a self-contained CDF .html, an editable CDE .cdfde, the raw .cda, or a full bundle — ready to drop onto any Pentaho server.

⚡

Auto-build: click New ▾ → Auto-build to instantly scaffold a complete dashboard from any set of queries — KPIs from KPI data accesses + a chart per chartable DA, all in one click. Edit from there.

The builder

The workspace is divided into three resizable panes. Each pane can be collapsed to a labeled rail by clicking the ‹ / › collapse button.

Three panes

Query Library (left) — All CDA data accesses organized by group. Search by name, table, or column keyword. Drag any card onto the canvas to create a panel. In Advanced mode, use ＋ New source to author your own CDA query.
Live preview (center) — The real dashboard rendered in an iframe. This is byte-identical to what the CDF export produces — no approximation. Click a panel to select it; drag the title bar to reorder; drag the right edge to resize.
Inspector (right) — Contextual editor for whatever is selected. When nothing is selected, shows the dashboard-level controls. Click a panel → panel inspector. Click a KPI tile → KPI inspector. Click a filter → filter inspector.

Drag and drop

Drag a DA card from the library → drop on the canvas to add a chart panel.
Drag a panel's header grip → drop between any other panels to reorder (across rows).
Drag the right edge of a panel → resize its column span (1–4 columns).
Double-click a panel title on the canvas to rename it inline.

Undo / Redo

Every structural edit (add, remove, reorder, resize, rename) is snapshotted. Use Ctrl Z / ⌘ Z to undo and Shift Z to redo. The topbar ↶/↷ buttons work too. Text-field edits are not tracked individually (to avoid flooding the history).

Examples

Use Examples ▾ in the topbar to open one of the 16 bundled example dashboards — CDF showcases and CDE-editable samples across observability, governance, storage, and more. A great way to explore what's possible before building your own.

Chart types

47 chart types are available, grouped by purpose. Select the chart type in the panel inspector after clicking a panel on the canvas. Types marked CDF are CDF-only; types marked with both badges also round-trip to CDE.

Comparison

CDF CDE

Bar chart

Side-by-side bars for comparing categories; horizontal or vertical.

CDF

Lollipop

Dot on a stem — a cleaner ranked-list alternative to bars.

CDF

Radar / spider

Polygon overlaid on concentric rings; great for multi-metric profiles.

CDF

Waterfall

Running total with cumulative deltas; rises green, falls red.

CDF

Funnel

Stage-to-stage conversion; bars shrink proportionally to conversion rate.

CDF

Gantt / Timeline

Horizontal floating bars spanning a start-to-end range — tasks, phases, and project schedules.

CDF

Dumbbell

Gray start dot + colored end dot per row; connector green = improvement, red = decline.

CDF

Marimekko / Mekko

Variable-width stacked bars: column width = category share, height segments = composition.

CDF

Diverging bars

Positive bars extend right, negative bars extend left from a shared zero baseline.

CDF

Parallel coordinates

Multi-dimensional entity profiles across N vertical axes — each row is a polyline.

CDF

Radial bar

Concentric arc tracks where arc length encodes value — striking for ranking a handful of key metrics in a circular layout.

CDF

Population pyramid

Mirrored horizontal bars from a shared centre axis — compare two groups (e.g. Female / Male) across shared categories.

CDF

Pareto chart

Descending bars + cumulative % line (80/20 rule) — instantly shows which vital few categories account for most of the total.

CDF

Grouped bars

Multiple series side-by-side per category — ideal for Q1/Q2/Q3 by Region or Budget vs Actual vs Forecast by Department.

Composition

CDF CDE

Donut / pie

Part-of-whole with a center total or caption label.

CDF CDE

Stacked bars

Multi-series stacked on one axis; composition across categories.

CDF CDE

Treemap

Nested rectangles sized by value; drill into categories at a glance.

CDF

Sunburst

Hierarchical arcs; single-ring or two-ring (group + item) mode.

CDF

Polar area

Equal-angle wedges where area (not radius) encodes value.

CDF

Packed bubbles

Force-directed bubble cluster; circle area ∝ value — which items are biggest?

CDF

Word cloud

Text items sized by numeric value (log scale) and placed on a spiral layout.

CDF

Waffle chart

10×10 grid where each cell = 1% of total — ideal for 'X in every 100' proportional storytelling.

CDF

Icicle / partition

Two-level rectangular partition: parent categories across the top, child items within each column — encodes both parent share and within-parent composition.

CDF

100% stacked bars

Every bar totals 100% and is divided into proportional segments — ideal for comparing compositional mix across categories (market share, budget allocation, survey breakdown).

Trend

CDF CDE

Line / area

Series over time or ordered categories; optional area fill.

CDF CDE

Stacked area

Cumulative bands stacked on one baseline; great for volume trends.

CDF

Bar + line (combo)

Dual-axis: bars on the left scale, line on the right.

CDF

Slope chart

Before/after per category: green line = rise, red = fall.

CDF

Step chart

Right-angle horizontal-then-vertical transitions — ideal for step-function or tier data.

CDF

Bump / ranking

Rank positions across periods; crossing lines show competitive overtaking.

CDF

Stream graph

Centered stacked ribbons with a flowing organic shape — evolving volume or share.

CDF

Candlestick / OHLC

Open-High-Low-Close bars for time-period ranges, price data, or performance spread.

CDF

Timeline / milestones

Events alternating above/below a horizontal baseline — product roadmaps, releases, project milestones.

CDF

Area range / band

Shaded band between upper and lower bounds with an optional centre line — confidence intervals, forecast corridors, min/max ranges.

Flow

CDF

Sankey (flow)

Flow ribbons from source nodes to destination nodes; width ∝ value.

CDF

Chord / wheel

Circular dependency diagram; arcs connect related nodes.

CDF

Network / topology

Radial node-link diagram; node size ∝ total flow volume.

Single value

CDF

KPI tile

Big-number callout with optional sparkline (line/bar/area) and delta.

CDF

Gauge

Needle-style arc for a single value vs a configurable max.

CDF

Bullet chart

KPI vs target with red/amber/green quality-zone bands.

Distribution

CDF CDE

Scatter / bubble

X/Y dots; bind a third column to set bubble radius.

CDF CDE

Heatmap (pivot)

Color-encoded matrix; row × column cross-tabulation.

CDF

Calendar heatmap

GitHub-style day grid; cells colored by daily value. Requires a YYYY-MM-DD date column.

CDF

Box plot

Five-number summary (min/Q1/median/Q3/max) per category.

CDF

Dot plot

Sorted dots on a horizontal axis; optional second column for two-group comparison.

CDF

Beeswarm plot

Individual points jittered along one axis; optional category groups.

CDF

Histogram

Auto-bins a numeric column into equal-width buckets to show frequency distribution.

CDF

Violin plot

KDE-based symmetric silhouette per category showing the full value distribution shape.

CDF

Ridgeline / joy plot

Horizontally stacked KDE density curves per category with configurable overlap — compare distribution shapes across many groups in a single compact view.

Comparison

CDF

Quadrant chart

2×2 matrix: position items on an x/y scatter plane divided into four labelled zones by configurable threshold lines. Perfect for BCG growth-share, effort/impact prioritisation, and risk/probability grids.

Detail

CDF CDE

Table

Sortable grid showing all columns from the bound data access.

CDF

Text / annotation

Markdown panel: headings, bold, italic, code, lists — no data binding needed.

💡

Simple mode shows only the 13 most universally understood chart types. Switch to Advanced mode (⋯ More → Simple mode off) to unlock all 51 types plus specialist annotation tools.

Data sources & CDA

Every chart panel is bound to a data access (DA) — a named CDA query. The Query Library (left pane) contains the full catalog of available DAs grouped by domain. In Advanced mode you can also author your own queries.

Using catalog queries

Drag any DA card onto the canvas to create a chart panel pre-bound to that query.
Or select an existing panel and use the Query picker in the inspector to switch its DA.
The Query preview section in the panel inspector shows the SQL snippet, column headers, and 3 sample rows so you can verify the binding without leaving the builder.

Authoring new data sources (Advanced)

Click ＋ New source in the library header to open the data-source builder. Supported types:

SQL — Write a SELECT query (or use the visual SQL Builder: FROM / JOIN / WHERE / GROUP BY / ORDER BY / LIMIT). Use "Detect from query" to pull column names automatically.
MDX — Multidimensional query against a Mondrian cube.
Kettle — Reference an existing .ktr PDI transform (path + output step). Or use the KTR Builder to generate a simple pipeline and download the .ktr.
Metadata — Pentaho Metadata domain + query.
Scripting — JavaScript/Groovy/Python DA for custom logic.

Joins and compound DAs

Click ⧈ Join in the library to create a Compound data access — either a join (left/right DA + key columns) or a union (stack rows from N DAs). These map directly to CDA <CompoundDataAccess> XML.

Exporting dashboards

Click Export ▾ in the topbar to open the export menu. Every option opens an export modal with file size, a copy-to-clipboard button, and a download button.

Format	Badge	What you get	Use when
CDF HTML	CDF	A fully self-contained `.html` file with all toolkit JS/CSS inlined. No server required — open in any browser.	Sharing demos, embedding in portals, or deploying as a standalone CDF dashboard on Pentaho.
CDE dashboard	CDE	`.cdfde` (layout + component XML) + `.wcdf` (metadata JSON) pair — opens and edits in Pentaho CDE.	When the team needs to continue editing in CDE, or to round-trip Studio ↔ CDE.
CDA file	CDA	`.cda` XML file defining all data accesses, connections, and output options.	Updating the data layer independently, or importing into an existing CDE project.
Bundle (ZIP)	CDF CDE CDA	All three artifacts zipped — `.html`, `.cdfde`, `.wcdf`, `.cda`.	Full delivery to a Pentaho SE or server admin.

Saving and loading your work

Save spec (Ctrl S / ⌘ S) — downloads a .studio.json spec file. This is the editable source of truth; re-open it with Open file….
Open file… — accepts .studio.json, .cdfde, .cda, or a previously exported .html (Studio embeds the spec in exported files).
Auto-save — the Studio quietly saves your work to browser localStorage after each edit. If you accidentally close the tab, a restore banner appears on next open.

Push to server (Advanced)

With an active Pentaho server connection (⚙ Servers), use Export ▾ → Push to server to publish all artifacts directly. You can also use the CLI tool tools/push.js for automated or scheduled deploys.

Keyboard shortcuts

All shortcuts work when the builder pane has keyboard focus (click anywhere on the canvas or inspector first). Open the in-app reference with ?.

Keys	Action
`Ctrl Z` / `⌘ Z`	Undo the last structural edit
`Shift Z` / `Shift ⌘ Z`	Redo
`Ctrl S` / `⌘ S`	Save spec (`.studio.json` download)
`Ctrl D` / `⌘ D`	Duplicate the selected panel or KPI
`↑` / `↓`	Reorder the selected panel up / down
`Shift ←` / `Shift →`	Resize selected panel span narrower / wider
`Delete` / `Backspace`	Delete the selected panel or KPI
`Escape`	Deselect panel; close any open modal or menu
`?`	Open / close the keyboard shortcuts reference modal

Simple mode vs Advanced mode

Toggle Simple mode in the ⋯ More menu to switch between two experience levels. The setting persists across sessions.

Simple mode

13 chart types shown in the gallery (the most universally understood).
Advanced inspector sections hidden (Drill-through, Cross-filter, Conditional formatting, Callout arrow, Color scale, Period highlight, Event markers, etc.).
Query Library is read-only browse + drag — no CDA authoring controls.
Guided Getting started checklist and What's next? tips appear in the dashboard inspector to help newcomers.
KPI and panel data sections show an Auto-pick button to assign columns automatically.

Advanced mode (default)

All 50 chart types + specialist annotation and interaction tools.
Full CDA authoring: author SQL / MDX / Kettle / Metadata / Scripting data accesses; create compound joins and unions; manage connections; configure output options.
Drill-through, Detail drawer, Cross-filter, Conditional formatting, Color scales, Target lines, Reference bands, and more.

🎯

SE demo tip: start a customer demo in Simple mode, toggle Focus mode (⋯ More) to hide all builder chrome and show only the live dashboard, then switch back to Advanced mode to demonstrate the power features in context.