Published Dashboards & Attachments via One Drive

jessica@phoenix

Is anyone else having issues w/ the new Dashboard UI? This started no more than a week ago.

I maintain multiple published dashboards and share them to subcontractors outside of my network. I attach documents from One Drive to the Dashboard using the shortcut widget w/ One Drive.

The documents I'm attaching are PDFs & I have the share setting in One Drive w/ no restrictions. Something like Viewable to "Anyone with access to this link".

I'm the Smartsheet System Admin (Business Subscription) and have checked to make sure there aren't any content sharing restrictions turned on.

I'm a SharePoint/One Drive Admin on our Office 365 Account and know that I have all the applicable settings matched how they should in order to share these documents.

With that said, I've tried the option to share these PDFs via a shared link created in One Drive and pasted in the Widget Link option on Smartsheet.

No matter what, if someone isn't in my organization and logged in, they're unable to access the documents via the Smartsheet Dashboard. Once redirected, One-Drive prompts them to login to Office 365.

I've used this process for over 2 years and have never had issues until this past week. I've reached out to Smartsheet for support and have received a ticket confirmation but no one has reached out to me yet. This is causing a huge delay for me on multiple projects.

Cherise Reguero

I see it occurring as well to be prompted to login to O365.

We also have a workaround for sharing documents that always works. Create a Smartsheet for your document depository and attach the PDF to the row. Then add a link to the repository on the dashboard. As long as permissions are set to view by anyone with the link and set to allow users outside of the organization, they should have no issues downloading.

jessica@phoenix

Thanks Charise, I use this same workaround. Thanks for mentioning it though because I'm sure many others are looking for a workaround and aren't familiar with this method. (Sorry in advance for the rant below.)

It's just so much more time consuming, especially with all the extra clicks the new UI requires. I'm not sure how your team/company use the tool but I'm curious? Since Smartsheet Support doesn't seem concerned with the loss of functionality, I'm worried less people use this feature than I assumed.

I use Dashboards to share live (time sensitive) information with subcontractors. I bid government projects... so I'm often in a time crunch and receiving last minute updates. I have to share many large files to multiple people in multiple organizations as quickly as possible (for each bid/project) to ensure our subs have as much time as possible for review & still meet a deadline.

The benefit to a Published Smartsheet Dashboard over a Shared OneDrive Folder was the ability to also include & easily update rich text. Usually Deadline Info, Contact Info & General Notes that reference the attachments. Many of my subcontractors work in the field & love the ability bookmark a dashboard on their phone (even without the app). This way, they can open the dashboard link (anywhere & time) and find the most current project information; including any addenda, date changes or notes I may add.

The major reason I prefer the OneDrive Data Source widget for attaching documents over the shared hyperlinks created in OneDrive is because of the extra time. Having to enter the name of the file that the hyperlink reflects is irritating since it's already named.

On average, I create 7 or 8 new Dashboards a month & maintain them all daily. Before the recent Dashboards UI update, for 2+ years, I was able to efficiently update these dashboards (using the method described above at the same company) & "Save As New" without any issues... making it easy to create new Dashboards (by copying & modifying an existing one) without having to reformat everything. Now, is a whole other story.

What really irritates me is how poor Smartsheet customer support has become. I first mentioned my concerns w/ the new UI when asked for feedback on it on 07/06. No one followed up or reached out. Once I realized there were actual functionality issues, I submitted a Smartsheet Support request. This was at 10:23 AM (EST) on 07/14. When I still hadn't received any response (email or call) by 4:07 PM (EST) on 07/14, I messaged Smartsheet's twitter asking about the issue since Smartsheet's Status page still said "All Systems Operational". I received a twitter message response, finally acknowledging the support ticket had been escalated and that someone should reach out soon... but that message wasn't sent until 4:08 PM (EST) on 07/15. Finally someone tried to call me about the issue at 5:43 PM (EST) on 07/15 and I wasn't at my computer. They said they'd email me requesting additional details. I received this email at 6:21 PM (EST) on 07/15... this requested additional details, providing a screen recording of my issues, screenshots of issues, screenshots of permissions/settings in one drive & smartsheet, links to the dashboards, etc. I immediately completed these tasks, documented & provided all requested information and more. I responded by email with all this info. by 7:29 PM (EST) on 07/15.

Not only has no one followed up or updated me on the escalation of the issue, but status.smartsheet.com still shows "All Systems Operational".

I've always been a major advocate for Smartsheet & have introduced to every company I've worked for since being introduced to it myself. I think it's the lack of acknowledgement that feels like a slap in the face.

Genevieve P.

Hi @jessica@phoenix 

Thank you for your feedback and for contacting our Support team with all of your documentation about this issue; I've checked in with them on the status of your ticket and I've had confirmation that our Escalations team is currently reviewing the additional details you provided. They'll be in touch to continue troubleshooting this with you through a private channel, thank you for your patience on this matter!

Kind regards,

Genevieve

cbredehoeft

two years later and the issue is still here. I am trying to add a link from Sharepoint and have been unsuccessful. Any ideas?

Nicole_Codi17

I am using dropbox to add pdf to a dashboard. When I x out of the pdf, it goes back to my dropbox with all my files. I don't want everyone using dashboard to view my files. I have also attached the pdf to a sheet but not sure how to link the pdf from sheet onto dashboard. That being said, is the workaround creating a shortcut to the sheet that has the attachment?