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John_Perkins's avatar
John_Perkins
Qrew Cadet
6 months ago

How to set Dashboard on a per-user basis? NOT based on a role.

We are trying to test out a new version of a form. Our testing group contains people from roles that all use different dashboards. Say we have 20 people in group 1 using dash 1, 20 in group 2 using dash 2, and 20 in group 3 using dash 3. We want 5 people from each of those groups to test out a new form.

If we create a role that uses that new form, and move it up the hierarchy they'll get the new form, but they'll all have to share a dashboard. This is not something we can have them do. They need to continue to use their existing dashboards? When will we have the ability to set Dashboards on a per-user level instead of only on a per-role? And what is the reason behind not allowing that?

I understand that in this current scenario our only option is likely to create 3 new roles, but that's silly, and starts to become impossible to maintain once we start needing to have others testing different forms and mix-and-match them from different groups. The most simple solution would be to allow per-user Dashboards. 

Dashboards

3 Replies

  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    6 months ago

    I can describe a problem and a solution I came to which may be relevant to your use case. 

    In my use case we have different dashboards by Role, but sometimes the user will be in multiple Roles and of course they can't land on multiple dashboards at the same time,  they can only land on one of them.

    So how do we dynamically provide dashboard links to take them to their alternate dashboards based on the roles they are currently in?  

    So I made a table of Dashboards with the Role Name and a URL to the Dashboard and the Role ID#.  Then I made a report with a single column, which was the Hyperlink to the Dashboard.

    "<a href=" & [Dashboard URL] & ">" & [Dashboard Name] &  "</a>"

    Then I created a formula checkbox field called [OK to View Dashboard?] to dynamically calculate if the Current User was in that Role ID#

    Contains(ToText(UserRoles("ID")), [Dashboard Role #])

    or

    Contains(ToText(UserRoles("ID")), "12") // 12 is the Role ID for Admin

     

    ... and set either Permissions or a report filter to limit the records to those where [OK to View Dashboard?] is checked

    Then I put that report on every dashboard. The effect of that is that users have a little single column report on their dashboard that would take them to any other Dashboard for a Role they are currently in, and the Admin will see all the links. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • John_Perkins's avatar
      John_Perkins
      Qrew Cadet
      6 months ago

      That's an interesting solution, but does require some input from the user. It seems like it would be much better if a list like that existed within the individual user's settings and they could select their default dashboard based on ones available to their role.

      We could also utilize code pages to have much more dynamic dashboards, although the limit placed on iFrames has made it so we can't use target="_top". This means we'd have to open a new tab any time we wanted to take the user to another section of Quickbase or even another Dashboard.

      This is just a couple of somewhat complicated workarounds for something that should be (and is) standard in most any application of this type. Quickbase is the only system of its kind I'm aware of that doesn't allow per-user dashboards.

      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        6 months ago

        Well, admittedly, it's a work-a-round, but in the defence of the work-a-round, if you do want users to be able to properly test in another Role, you may also need to give them different additional permissions in that other Role. So by adding them into the additional Role on the list of users in the app, then you accomplish the Permission side and also accomplish an extra link showing up on their dashboard report dynamically.