Create dashboard at runtime with draggable widgets

[GM_9528891]

Hi everyone,

this is my first post on PTC comunity and I thank you all in advance for the support.

The use case that I intend to develop with the thingworx platform is a tool for creating dashboards.

In particular, the end user must be able to drag widgets (starting from a special "widget-column") in his work plan, and drag the data that will have to populate these widgets from another column (a "data-column" that contains all the data from DBs and other sources). I am attaching a photo with the idea of ​​the final product.

I decided to write here for feedback on what approach to use to develop this solution.
My doubts are mostly about widgets: starting with the platform, I haven't been able to extend drag-and-drop functionality.
I therefore thought that the solution could be to use the SDK by developing my widgets with these additional features.
But reading the documentation, I came across the concept of gadgets, and I have doubts about what is the right practice and I would like to clarify my ideas.
Also, since the binding between data and widgets must be done at runtime, how can the data mapping capabilities be developed?

Hope that my questions are clear, best regards.

Giorgia

[odukiya]

Hello @GM_9528891 

Thank you for opening a post to community.

You can refer the following links to get more ideas about Gadgets and dashboard.

https://developer.thingworx.com/resources/guides/customizable-responsive-ui

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS209970

Let me know in case if this doesn't answer your query.

Thanks

Om Dukiya

[VladimirRosu · Accepted solution]

I would like to add my two cents here. The dashboards and gadgets are all useful in such a scenario, and I would definitely recommend using these OOTB feature than creating something custom.

With a proper requirements validation (it's dangerous when you see just a simple "data trending" statement ), the correct data sizing work done ahead and awareness about data storage limits this can work quite good.

However, be aware in such situations, especially when customers are not aware of ThingWorx's capabilities and purpose, which is not to be a perfect BI tool type of solution, this could end up with a lot of work.

Usually I would like to understand more what is the type of user who would use that: if he is an analytics engineer that has his own way to process the data, then it is better just to give him a data export and play with that in his own tool. If the type of the user is a machine operator, I would always invest in understanding what would really the operator want to see, and even design upfront his screen as a mashup, as opposed to a dashboard/group.

I hope it makes sense!

[slangley]

Hi @GM_9528891.

If you feel your question has been answered, please mark the appropriate response as the Accepted Solution for the benefit of others with the same question.

Regards.

--Sharon