Dynamic View for Allowing Many Users Simultaneous Access to Dashboards

bkw1962 · 04/14/25

Hello -

I have created an implementation for managing our IT organization's project status information. It provided Portfolio, Program, and Project-level information in real-time to our executives on their desktops, however, using metrics widgets on dashboards as the display mechanism poses the obvious problem - Stakeholder B selecting a report 2 to view on his/her desktop at the same time as Stakeholder A is already viewing report 1 on their desktop…multiple simultaneous users of the same dashboard compete for the view. I need upwards of 75 executives to be able to populate the same dashboard on their respective desktops with whatever report they choose to review - simultaneously without concern for "collision" with other users. All report data resides in 2 sheets - Master Project and Master Archive - which function exactly as their titles imply.

I already know I can copy the dashboards (and 2 associated helper sheets) as many times as I need and split my user group into many smaller sub-groups, and assign those groups to specific copies of the dashboards to minimize the chanced of "collision", however, that's not ideal and still does not fully mitigate the potential. Would Dynamic View solve this issue? If so, in principle, how?

Any suggestions, help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Brian

Gia Thinh · 04/15/25

Hi Brian,

You may want to use Viewer Mode = Their own perspective option for a Report in your Dashboard

and in the Report, you can add a filter of Current user so that the Report will show only rows relevant to the user that is viewing the Report.

I hope this helps.

bkw1962 · 04/15/25

@Gia Thinh unfortunately, it does not. This issue is not about restricting users to their own content. Actually it is the converse - I need them all to be able to view content they select from the dashboard without interfering with someone else doing the same thing. Effectively, they each need their own instance of the dashboard to do with what they please. The dashboard has a pulldown on it (through a form) that allows them each to select the project status they want to see. The dashboard is comprised of reports and metrics widgets. "Current User" filer will not get the job done. Thank you for offering the help, though!

Gia Thinh · 04/16/25

Could you provide screenshots of the dashboard showing the embedded form and responses after a submission?

Georgie · 04/17/25

Hi @bkw1962,

Yes, Dynamic View would help here! You can restrict your Dynamic View by the current user using a contact column (such as an “Assigned To” column), meaning that whoever is looking at the view will see only the rows that are assigned to them.

Once you’ve set up the dynamic view with this restriction, you can then copy the link and paste it in a web content widget on your dashboard. This would mean that you only need one widget on the dashboard for all users looking at it to see only the rows that relate to them, and they won’t need to make any changes to the dashboard to do so.

For more information on Dynamic View, take a look at the following resources:

Intro to Dynamic View
Dynamic View
Dynamic View: Create and manage views of your data (see “Configure your view” for more information on restricting by current user - you can also choose to restrict by sheet filter if desired).

Hope that helps!

Georgie

bkw1962 · 04/17/25

@Georgie restricting content is not what I am intending. Quite the opposite. I simply want upwards of 75 viewers to be able to use a SINGLE dashboard in real-time to view content EACH INDIVIDUAL chooses by using a pulldown on an embedded form on the dashboard, e.g. Viewer 1 should be able to display Status A (a combination of roughly 20 metrics widgets) on the dashboard at their desk at the same time Viewer 2 is displaying Status B on the SAME dashboard at THEIR desk. As it is today, regardless of who or how many people are viewing the dashboard on their respective desktops, the content being displayed IS THE SAME on all screens because by default, Smartsheet dashboards are shared assets meaning that when an update is made, the same update is made wherever it is being displayed. This issue has nothing to do with content ownership or contacts or permissions. Ideally, each user that opens the dashboard, gets THEIR OWN INSTANCE of it such that other simultaneous users will not "steal" the display by selecting different content to display. Thanks, though, for responding.

Georgie · 04/17/25

Hi @bkw1962,

Apologies for the misunderstanding!

I see now that you’d like your dashboard to be dynamic, meaning that users would be able to see different instances of the dashboard based on the selection they make. This is currently not possible in Smartsheet, but it’s a popular idea and is on our wishlist - you can add your vote to this idea here: Dynamic Filter on Dashboards. You’ll then receive updates when the status of the idea changes!

Adding Dynamic Views on the dashboard would allow users to see those widgets with the content that relates to them, or to change the filters on those Dynamic Views without it affecting what other users are seeing, but I see that this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for.

Thanks,

Georgie

bkw1962 · 04/17/25

It seems the only workaround is to copy the dashboards and associated helper sheets a number of times, with all copies referencing the SAME master data sheets. This may REDUCE the potential for users to "steal" the dashboard from each other by assigning access to fewer users per copy resulting in a smaller chance of simultaneous access occurring. Still not a great answer, but frankly, this is what we in this user community have come to expect from Smartsheet - not great answers. Thanks again.