Report Reorganization

February 12 2009, 9:39pm

We’ve just deployed some reasonably large changes to the way reports look and act in Dash.

Previously, reports were a 2-column grid, and boxes could be configured to sit in either column—or across both. While this was a visually compact design (and there’s something to be said for that), configuration was a hassle, the importance of individual boxes unclear, and it seriously limited our options for new, more interesting data visualizations in the future.

Through feedback, we’ve also discovered how important the Application Events (deployments and exceptions) are in reports, and felt that they warranted a special, out-of-the-box status, along with links to important help topics. To that end, we’ve built in a new sidebar with this information, and reorganized the configurable report boxes into a single column, with the default (most important) box at the top.

The report owner can reorder boxes without having to jump into a configuration panel—just use the simple positioning buttons or drag-and-drop the box itself.

This update is just an incremental step towards simpler, more useful reports. We’ll be rolling out changes soon to improve the appearances of the new, expanded boxes, and have a wide range of other new features to add. Please continue to submit your feedback, questions, and problems as we work towards a public beta!

Also in this deployment are bugfixes for application sharing (App -> Configuration -> Sharing), and a better landing page for new users.