Explore: Default Filter

Hey there Danny, 

That's a very good question. If you weren't adding filters to the queries, there is another way to save the state of your widget without needing to apply the filters every time. This would be via Bookmarks, when you add a bookmark interactive widget, it freezes the current state of filters. Viewers can switch to different bookmarks to see different filter states.

I'd recommend checking out this article here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022185254-Adding-interactive-dashboard-widgets#topic_kbd_rzg_2v that talks over adding Bookmarks and just how you can set them up.

I hope this helps!

This is not a useful mechanism. For one, the bookmark seems to be attached to a single tab, instead of the whole dashboard, and there appears to be no way to delete or rename a single bookmark so if I've created more than one I have to delete the entire widget. 

I also don't want to allow this to be one option of many. How would I set the entire dashboard (or at least tab) to be filtered to a specific group not as a user interactive filter, simply as a predefined, global filter so there isn't a way to change it?

Hello 379377024514,

So once you create a bookmark, you should have the ability to click in the down arrow within the bookmark to open the submenu and choose edit. 

As for having a way to change how the dashboard I've included an article linked below, that should breakdown how to implement the customization you are looking for. 

Best practices for using dashboard filters

Best regards.

Hi Jay,

I'm not sure if you solved this one or not but I thought I'd jump in with a possible solution in case it's still needed!

You may or may not be aware that you can hide widgets in dashboards, including bookmarks. So, you could create the bookmark you need that sets the filter, and then hide it. This way, users can't change it. Here's a screenshot that shows some hidden widgets in my dashboard. And here's how you would hide a widget.

One reason you'd definitely need to do this (and what I have set up in that screenshot) is if you ever want to add a filter for "Updater name" or "Assignee name". These, by default, pull in all end users, which is a real nightmare. So, you can create a hidden widget to filter on "Updater role" or "Assignee role", along with a bookmark to keep the filter in place.

Another option to set a global filter would be to add the filter to the query itself, rather than on the dashboard level. (Although, if you then have the same attribute as a filter on the dashboard, it could end up overriding it.)

Hope this might be helpful!

Thanks. There is something I might be missing. With a book mark, isn't it so that if someone comes to the dashboard they have to click the bookmark to apply it's settings?

Hi Jay,

I think Bookmarks are usually intended to be displayed so users can interact with the dashboard, but they can be hidden if you want to avoid anyone making changes. You can select a default bookmark by clicking on the pin icon (like this), and then once it's hidden, nobody can deselect that bookmark!

I have found that it's a lot of trial and error with getting dashboards working how you want them to! 😅

Thanks!

I like Explore and the flexibility, but it seems some features like filtering by Current User should be possible and they are not. I get the flexibility of bookmarks, but we should also still have a way to set default filters. The idea that we have to select a bookmark to see it they way we want the dashboard is a bit convoluted. Without the Current User filter, it is even worse when we want agents to look at their own stats. We have to use the trick described above of having a hidden filter by role using a bookmark, and then the agent still has to select their own name from a list. I don't see the benefit of making everyone prepare for a move to a new service that doesn't quite offer the flexibility of what is already in place with Insights. 

Hey @Jeremy Holmes

I completely agree with you. I was really surprised this wasn't available when we moved to Zendesk (we came from Help Scout).

In case it helps, we decided to create a separate dashboard for our agents, which is easier for them to look at and only has the stats they're interested in to track their productivity. Rather than having KPI queries and then a name filter on the dashboard, we display the stats in tables with all agents listed. This means they don't have to go to the trouble of selecting their names. Here's how it looks (I've blurred our agents' names). Our agents have shared that they've found this much easier to use.

The Zendesk Dashboard defaults to the past 30 days. How do I do his to my other dashboards?

Hi Ryan,

For you to be able to make the same time filter from the default Zendesk dashboards into your other dashboards, you will have to set the same time filter from any of the default Zendesk dashboard (as seen on the screenshot below) to your other dashboards and set a default bookmark on the current state.

Hope this helps! :)