IBM® WebSphere® Dashboard Framework is a flexible tool that augments the capabilities of WebSphere Portal to rapidly build service-oriented architecture (SOA) dashboards.
Key features
Seamless deployment of widgets to IBM Mashup Center: Users can now generate iWidget 1.0 compliant dashboard widgets without writing code. It supports widget events for creation of situational application and extends widget customization capablities to business users, while providing seamless deployment to Lotus Mashup server and toolbox.
Builders for business intelligence (BI) systems: Allows BI data to more easily interact with data from other applications and portlets, and to integrate more richly with portal functions; includes builders for Cognos BI, Business Objects Enterprise and Hyperion Essbase. Learn more.
Reusable components: Extends IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory with reusable dashboard-specific Builders that capture dashboard design patterns, helping to speed creation of custom dashboard portlets.
Business user configuration: Enables developers to easily extend the configuration of portlets to business users, including portlet look-and-feel, data, thresholds, process flow, etc.; with this capability, companies can increase the flexibility of their dashboards and help reduce maintenance costs.
More hi-fidelity charting options: New WebCharts 3D and Flash-animated charts provide the ability to create dynamic, configurable charts; includes support for a wide range of chart types (such as pie, dial/gauge, bar and line), file formats (for example SQF, PNG, JPG, BMP) and back-end data sources (Microsoft® Excel, SAP, Siebel, IBM Lotus® Domino®, databases, Web services).
Enhanced dashboard short message service (SMS) alerting: Now customers can use Clickatell and CellTrust SMS gateways to send alerts from dashboard applications covering more than 600 networks in 200 countries.
Collaboration: Seamlessly integrates with IBM WebSphere Portal to easily allow real-time collaboration (chat, e-mail, etc.) directly from Dashboard; also allows online annotations to data in portlets for collaborative discussion/review of specific areas of interest/concern.
Improved sample applications and tutorials: Helps jump-start new dashboard framework developers with new SOA dashboards running on WebSphere Application Server (WAS).
Flexible filtering capabilities: Allows developers to quickly create filters that enable end-users to dynamically filter the data in their dashboard portlets based upon criteria, such as region, dates, product, brands, etc; filtering works hand-in-hand with IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory Dynamic Profiling technology.
New builders: Several new builders have been added, including an enhanced annotation builder, spreadsheet import builder and calculation builder that can perform many types of calculations on XML-type data sources.
Open document format (ODF) export: Support provided to export directly from dashboard portlets in ODF.
Microsoft® Excel enhanced integration: Enhancements allow for integration of complex Excel spreadsheets for direct display as dashboard graphs/tables.
Key benefits
Build once, deploy where you need—using Lotus Expeditor, customers can deploy composite dashboard applications to Notes® 8 and Sametime® clients, Lotus Mashups (with new iWidget support), Portal, WAS, Quickr® teamrooms and BlackBerry devices.
Helps reduce dashboard development and maintenance costs by simplifying and speeding the entire dashboard development cycle.
Allows BI data (from Cognos, Hyperion and Business Objects) to be leveraged in context to business issues and key performance indicators. Learn more.
Accelerates problem resolution by empowering Dashboard users to drive action right from the dashboard, without having to pick up the phone or navigate multiple systems.
Helps improve employee productivity by delivering tailored access to relevant information and alerts in a variety of platforms.
Leverages existing skill sets and infrastructures with standards-based tooling.
Helps improve decision-making and visibility into business operations with consolidated, timely data.
Increases dashboard flexibility and helps lower maintenance costs via business user configuration.
