Dashboard creation process

We can start creating our dashboard once we complete the initiation phase. The dashboard creation process is very simple, as we can see in the following diagram:

Now, let's discuss each step in more detail as follows:

• Import data: The first logical step in the dashboard creation process is to import data to your dashboard, which can be done by linking our dashboard MS Excel model with a dynamic data source, such as Live Office, Web service or Direct Universes query. This option will help us dynamically refresh the data in our dashboard after we publish it. On the other hand, we can also import the Excel raw data into our dashboard. In this case, our dashboard will depend on the data imported, and somehow it will be static.
• Build the model: We can start building the model after importing the data by adding dashboard components, and by linking them with the data we imported in the preceding section. We may link our dashboard objects directly to the source data, or we may need to use Excel formulas to shape the data and prepare it before linking it with the dashboard components.
• Publish the model: The last step after we complete the design of our dashboard is to publish it to the BO server to be used by the end users.

By now, you might be bored of reading a lot of theory. So, let's start implementing the eFashion dashboard as per the sketches and prototype that we have. We start with the workspace preparation and data import.