You can insert library components and report data components as well as labels, images, special fields, filtering tools, third-party objects, and HTML components into dashboards via the Resources panel. To access the panel, click Show Resources 
on the side bar.
The following shows inserting specific components in detail.
When inserting a library component from component library into a dashboard, you are not copying the component from the library, but instead referencing it from the library, in this sense, the changes to the component in the library will be reflected in all of the dashboards referencing the component. The contents of library references in dashboards cannot be edited since they are referenced resources.
To reference a library component into the dashboard body:
on the side bar to display the Resources panel. Data components such as tables, crosstabs, charts, and geographic maps in existing page reports or web reports can be directly inserted into dashboards after being converted into library components automatically.
Since both library components and web reports use business views as data sources, all data components in web reports can be converted to library components successfully.
However, page reports use queries or report cubes or business cubes as data sources other than business views, and business cubes are built on tables while report cubes and business views are created on top of the same queries, therefore, only when data components in page reports use queries or report cubes as data sources and the queries or report cubes have corresponding business views, can the components be converted to library components and used in dashboards. So if you would like your page report components to be added in dashboards, you need to make sure the components are created on queries or report cubes and a business view is created for each of the report cubes.
Currently library components do not support some features of page report components, after the latter are inserted into dashboards, those features will be removed. This may result in that the data components in dashboards looks different from they are in page reports. For features that are not supported in JDashboard, they will either be ignored, removed, or applied with the default values.
The following table lists how JDashboard deals with the unsupported page report features:
| In Page Report Components | In Library Components |
|---|---|
| Display types like Barcode, Check box, and so on | Ignored |
| Special fields | Removed |
| Dynamic resources | Changed to constant resources |
| Master/Detail reports | Ignored |
| Subreports | Removed |
| Nested data components that is one contains another | The ownership is removed and the involved data components are regarded as individual components. |
| Definition properties | Ignored |
| Formula-controlled properties | Default values are applied. |
| Other components | Removed |
To insert a report data component into the dashboard body:
on the side bar to display the Resources panel.
on its title bar and select Edit Setting from the drop-down list to display the configuration panel. Change the parameter values in the panel and then click OK to apply the new values. The inserted report data component runs with the report's catalog. It will not be able to run if the catalog is removed or updated. The report component does not synchronize with the other library components in the dashboard via messages and is not controlled by the runtime sliders or filters.
Visual Analysis components after being saved into the server resource tree can be inserted into dashboards. This feature requires a license for Visual Analysis.
To insert a Visual Analysis component into the dashboard body:
on the side bar to display the Resources panel.The inserted Visual Analysis component will be wrapped into a runtime library component and its data presentation area and legend area without legend icons will be displayed, just for view. However if no field binds with any legend, the legend area will not be shown. The default title is the server resource name of the parent Visual Analysis template without the suffix .va.
If the Visual Analysis component uses parameters, you can click on its title bar and then select Edit Setting from the drop-down menu to change the parameter values.
You can enable the Visual Analysis component to receive the built-in 0001 - Filter messages sent out by other library components in the dashboard. To do this, click on the component title bar and then select Enable Receiving Filter Message from the drop-down menu. For more information about the built-in 0001 - Filter message, see Delivering messages between library components in the JReport Designer User's Guide.
Dashboard filters can work on Visual Analysis components.
Visual Analysis components cannot be exported or printed, therefore when exporting or printing a dashboard, they will not be listed and the cells containing them will be left blank.
Labels can be inserted in the dashboard header. To do this, click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel, then from the Toolbox node, drag Label to the destination in the dashboard header. Double-click the label and edit the text as required. If you want to further format the label, hover the cursor on the label and click the button 
in the appearing dotted rectangle to open the Edit Label dialog, in which you can edit the properties of the label such as font, size, color, and so on.
A dashboard title is a special label. It can be inserted in the dashboard header. To do this, click Show Resources on the side bar to display the Resources panel, then from the Toolbox node, drag Dashboard Title to the destination in the dashboard header. Double-click the title and edit the text as required. If you want to further format the title, hover the cursor on the title and click the button in the appearing dotted rectangle to open the Edit Label dialog, in which you can edit the properties of the title such as font, size, color, and so on.
Images can be inserted in the dashboard header.
on the side bar to display the Resources panel. Once an image is inserted in the dashboard header, if you want to replace it with another one, hover the cursor on the image and click the button in the appearing dotted rectangle. In the Edit Image dialog, select another image to use.
You can insert these types of special fields in the dashboard header:
To do this:
on the side bar to display the Resources panel. in the appearing dotted rectangle.Sliders can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using sliders.
Filter controls can be inserted in the dashboard body. They are used to filter component data. For details, see Using filter controls.
A web page can be inserted in dashboards. All you need to do is give its URL. Note that some websites such as http://www.google.com do not allow Gadgets to load them.
on the side bar to display the Resources panel.You should provide a complete URL address. A URL without "http://", for example www.jinfonet.com, will not be automatically added "http://" since it is regarded a relative path, which may lead to that the URL cannot be opened in some browsers.
on the side bar to specify the parameter values as you want, then you can get different web pages based on different parameter values. You can further modify the web page frames inserted into a dashboard if you want. To do this, click on the title bar of a web page frame and select Edit Setting from the drop-down list. In the Edit URL Frame dialog, edit the setting as required.
An HTML component allows for typing text, comments, and messages using a simple-featured text editor. It can be inserted in the dashboard body.
on the side bar to display the Resources panel.You can further modify the HTML components inserted into a dashboard if you want. To do this, click on the title bar of an HTML component and select Edit Setting from the drop-down list. In the Edit HTML dialog, edit the setting as required.
