Data Management

Data management is the foundation of effective visual dashboard design. This chapter is divided into two sections, covering everything you need to know about preparing, organizing, calculating, and managing data in Dashboardx Designer.

1. Dataspace — organize and manage all of your data in a spreadsheet-like interface.
2. Datasets — turn the data you want to visualize into datasets, and manage them in the Datasets panel so widgets can use them.

Why data management matters

Data preparation is a necessary step before visualization. Effective data management ensures:

• Accuracy: Clean, reliable data leads to accurate insights
• Performance: Well-structured data improves dashboard response speed
• Flexibility: Properly organized data supports more visualization options
• Maintainability: Clearly organized data sources are easier to update and maintain

Import Data from External Sources

Starting from version 1.2, Dashboardx Designer supports importing data from XLSX, CSV, and TSV files. This feature enables you to bring your existing data into the application without manual entry.

Supported File Formats

• XLSX: Import Excel workbooks with comprehensive support for cell data, styling, formulas, and structure.
• CSV: Import comma-separated values files for tabular data.
• TSV: Import tab-separated values files, commonly used in data analysis tools.

XLSX Import Capabilities

When importing XLSX files, Dashboardx Designer preserves:

• Worksheets: All worksheets in the workbook
• Cell Data: Values, formulas, named ranges
• Number Formats: 50+ built-in formats (currency, date, time, percentage, scientific, fraction, accounting) + custom format codes
• Fonts: Family, size, color, bold, italic, underline (single, double, accounting), strikethrough
• Fills: Solid colors, pattern fills (gray, dark/medium/light patterns)
• Borders: 13+ styles (thin, medium, thick, dashed, dotted, double, hair, etc.) with per-side control
• Alignment: Horizontal (left, center, right, justify, distributed), vertical (top, middle, bottom), text rotation, wrap text, indent
• Freeze Panes: Frozen rows and columns
• Conditional Formatting: Rules preserved

Since v2.0.0 the import runs in the background with a live progress bar that tells you which stage it is in, so a large file no longer locks up the interface while it loads. See Datasets That Load in the Background.

Tables and filtered views (v2.1.0)

The spreadsheet's own tables now feed datasets directly:

• Create from a table. Choose Table when creating a dataset inside a table; the dataset reads the whole table with the first row as field names, and the dataset list marks it with a table icon.
• Follow the filtered view. A dataset created on a filtered range reads the visible rows. Changing the filter, hiding rows or re-sorting refreshes it; a view with no visible rows is reported before an empty dataset is created.
• Change field types. A dataset field's context menu changes its type without a formula workaround.

See Datasets.

How to perform data management

• Most individuals or organizations have experience using spreadsheets (such as Excel, WPS Spreadsheets) for data management, and many have already summarized best practices that fit their own needs. These experiences can be fully transferred to Dashboardx Designer to complete most data management tasks.

• Based on the above work, we need to further consider the following questions:

  1. Which data needs to be visualized? → Use them to create datasets
  2. Does the data that needs visualization depend on certain variables? For example, quarterly statistics depend on the quarter value selected by the user
  3. If dependent variables exist, do these variables need to be presented in the dashboard?
  4. If presentation is needed, are variables filled directly by users through input components?
  5. If not, variables may depend on other data. Usually, these variables can be obtained by slicing existing data. It is necessary to ensure that existing data has defined datasets.

• In the above process, attention should also be paid to whether the relationships between datasets in the final dashboard are reasonable, and whether the dashboard as a whole meets requirements.

Capacity limits

A dataset holds at most 2,000 rows and 15 columns. Selecting a larger range is refused at creation, with the reason stated. Aggregate first, then bind — charts almost never need the raw level of detail. See Datasets That Load in the Background.

Where to go next

• Dataspace — the detailed guide to preparing data
• Datasets — the Datasets panel and its operations
• Data Binding — how widgets consume your data
• Data Slice — turning a click into a filter for other widgets