Convert Dashboard to PDF
Description
Section titled “Description”Renders a dashboard to PDFs and writes them to a document account. Use it to put a dashboard on a schedule — a month-end pack, a distribution to people who do not log in, or an archived snapshot of what the numbers looked like on a given day.
The step renders once per row of a filters dataset, applying that row’s values as the dashboard’s filters, so one step can produce a per-region or per-entity set of PDFs in a single run.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”Dashboard
Section titled “Dashboard”The dashboard to render.
Filters Dataset
Section titled “Filters Dataset”The table whose rows drive the renders: one PDF per row.
Output Path
Section titled “Output Path”The document account and folder the PDFs are written to.
Options
Section titled “Options”- Concurrent PDF Generation — how many renders run at once. Defaults to 8; lower it if the dashboard is heavy enough that parallel renders time out.
- Render Wait Time (seconds) — present in the step configuration but not currently applied by the workflow runner. Setting it has no effect today.
Dashboard Filters
Section titled “Dashboard Filters”The dashboard’s own filters, each with its Dashboard Filter ID. They are read from the dashboard when you populate the mapping.
Source Column Mapping
Section titled “Source Column Mapping”The filters dataset’s columns, and how each one is used. Use Inspect Source › Populate Mapping Table to read the columns and the dashboard’s filters; a column named like a dashboard filter is tagged as a filter on it. Populating again keeps the Kind and Mapped Filter Column you have already set on a column.
Set each column’s Kind:
- Column Filter — the column’s value sets the dashboard filter named in Mapped Filter Column, which must be one of the dashboard’s filters.
- File Name — the column supplies each PDF’s file name. Only one column can be the File Name. Without one, the step warns and generates names automatically.
- No Filter — the column isn’t used.
At least one column must be a Column Filter.
What’s Checked When You Save
Section titled “What’s Checked When You Save”Saving the step is refused, naming the column, when:
- No column is a Column Filter with a Mapped Filter Column — Tag at least one source column as a Column Filter, with the Mapped Filter Column it sets.
- A Column Filter has no Mapped Filter Column, or names one that isn’t among the dashboard’s filters — The Mapped Filter Column ‘Region’ for source column ‘region’ isn’t one of the dashboard’s filters.
- More than one column is the File Name — Only one source column can be the File Name; region, entity all are.
- A Column Filter or File Name column has no data type — Source column ‘region’ has no data type; inspect the source again to refresh it. Some steps saved in the step form are missing their columns’ types, and fail every run until they get them back. Run Inspect Source › Populate Mapping Table to restore them; your Column Filter and File Name tags are kept.