DashCreator

DashCreator is a client-side dashboard creator gem. It can be used with any database to create filters, charts and dashboards of your own with a graphical interface.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'dash_creator'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install dash_creator

Then run the generator:

$ rails g dash_creator:install

It will add to your project:

• DashCreator routes in config/routes.db
• DashCreator migrations in db/migrate
• acts_as_dash_creator to app/models/user.rb if this file is found
• user_for_dash_creator helper function in app/controllers/application_controller.rb
• dash_creator.rb initializer in config/initializers
• template views to display your dashboards

In the added initializer, by default Redis is used. If you don't use Redis, then go in the initializer and change:

$redis = Redis::Namespace.new("app_chart_cache", :redis => Redis.new)
config.redis_store_variable = $redis

To:

config.redis_store_variable = nil

Then you can migrate:

$ rails db:migrate

Initialization

In config/initializers you will find a dash_creator.rb file after having run the generator. In this initializer you can define several options used by the gem:

• user_class: the name of the app's user model that will own the dashboards
• except_models: array of the names of the models you do not want to use in DashCreator
• except_attributes: array of the names (such as they are in database) of the attributes you do not want to use in DashCreator
• attributes_aliases: the name aliases of the attributes from DB to model name
• columns_aliases: the column name aliases of the attributes from Rails to DB
• displayed_model_names: change displayed names for models
• displayed_model_attributes: change displayed names for attributes for each model

For example, we have in Contact model:

belongs_to :owner, class_name: 'User', foreign_key: 'owned_by'

Then we should provide in the initializer:

config.attributes_aliases = {
    owned_by: 'user_id'
}
config.columns_aliases = {
    owner_id: 'owned_by'
}

• columns_aliases translate names from the ones used in Rails ('owner' => 'owner_id') to the ones used in database ('owned_by' foreign_key)
• attributes_aliases translate names from the ones used in database ('owned_by' foreign_key) to the associated model ones ('User' model => 'user_id')

One must also add the following functions:

• In main application controller, user_for_dash_creator: provide right user to DashCreator (default: current_user)
• In user model, acts_as_dash_creator: add ownership of filters, charts and dashboards to the right model (default: user.rb)
• In model, acts_as_dashboard_object: add object to list of dashboard_objects that can be displayed in a dashboard

If you use pgcrypto extension (PostgreSQL) in your DB to encrypt the ids, it will be used by default for DashCreator tables, except if you set it to false in initializer.

For the moment the following types are handled:

• numeric: integer, float, decimal
• string, text
• boolean
• datetime, date

You can define your own layout for DashCreator in initializer. If your layout includes links, you may have to change them from 'blabla_path' to 'main_app.blabla_path'. Don't forget to also include the following lines in the head of your layout for DashCreator to work properly:

<%= stylesheet_link_tag 'dash_creator/application', media: 'all', 'data-turbolinks-track': 'reload' %>
<%= javascript_include_tag 'dash_creator/application', 'data-turbolinks-track': 'reload' %>

Usage

DashCreator is made of three components:

• The Filter Creator: create filters based on your database and on the initializer's options
• The Chart Creator: create charts using your filters' data
• The Dashboard Creator: create dashboards in which you can display charts and self defined objects (using acts_as_dashboard_object in the wanted models)

In each creator, you can get, save, modify and delete the objects you have created.

The usual flow would be to:

• First create filters to get the precise records you want from database (if you want all records from a model, just add a filter for this model and leave it empty)
• Then create charts using your filters and save them
• Finally create your dashboard using your saved charts

Now that you have built your own dashboards, you can access them in a controller. For example:

user = current_user
@dashboards = DashCreator::Dashboard.where(user_id: user.id)

A default engine route is provided to render your dashboards in a full page, using the engine layout. However you may want to customize the display of your dashboard.

If you want to have a full page for each of your dashboards, then you may want to do something like the following. In your routes.rb file:

get '/dashboard/:dashboard_id', to: 'user#dashboard'

And in your user controller:

def dashboard
  user = current_user
  @dashboard = DashCreator::Dashboard.where(user_id: user.id).find(params[:dashboard_id])
end

Running the generator added two files to your app/views/user folder, to help you display your dashboards:

• dashboard.html.erb: a template view for a dashboard
• _section_card.html.erb: a template partial for rendering a section of your dashboard

It also added a new dash_creator/dashboard_object folder to your views, in which you can provide the partials for your self-defined dashboard items, and containing a template partial for rendering charts.

DashCreator natively only includes charts as dashboard objects. If you want to add more widgets to your dashboards, you can create your own, either by:

• Adding acts_as_dashboard_object to a model
• Directly creating the DashCreator::DashboardObject record in your database

The DashCreator::DashboardObject model attributes are:

• name: the one displayed on the dashboard creator interface
• code: used in the background
• related_model: the related model if there is one, otherwise leave it nil
• options: a jsonb object containing whatever additional info to use in your templates

Known bugs

Don't plot charts using filters with a defined number of records. Result will be wrong and not limited to the wanted number.

TODO List

Fix partial templates copying with generator

• It would be good to find an alternative to redis to store chart_data
• Add a share chart function (send chart id with a temporary hash stored in redis), export chart as image
• Allow different filters using same model at once
• Handle time type

Customize everything on your chart:

• points style and size, line style for each dataset
• tooltips (add info)
• bar (horizontal, several colors for non date)

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.