@ancoleman/creating-dashboards

---
name: creating-dashboards
description: Creates comprehensive dashboard and analytics interfaces that combine data visualization, KPI cards, real-time updates, and interactive layouts. Use this skill when building business intelligence dashboards, monitoring systems, executive reports, or any interface that requires multiple coordinated data displays with filters, metrics, and visualizations working together.
---

# Creating Dashboards

## Purpose

This skill enables the creation of sophisticated dashboard interfaces that aggregate and present data through coordinated widgets including KPI cards, charts, tables, and filters. Dashboards serve as centralized command centers for data-driven decision making, combining multiple component types from other skills (data-viz, tables, design-tokens) into unified analytics experiences with real-time updates, responsive layouts, and interactive filtering.

## When to Use

Activate this skill when:
- Building business intelligence or analytics dashboards
- Creating executive reporting interfaces
- Implementing real-time monitoring systems
- Designing KPI displays with metrics and trends
- Developing customizable widget-based layouts
- Coordinating filters across multiple data displays
- Building responsive data-heavy interfaces
- Implementing drag-and-drop dashboard editors
- Creating template-based analytics systems
- Designing multi-tenant SaaS dashboards

## Core Dashboard Elements

### KPI Card Anatomy
```
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ Revenue (This Month)       │ ← Label with time period
│                            │
│  $1,245,832               │ ← Big number (primary metric)
│  ↑ 15.3% vs last month    │ ← Trend indicator with comparison
│  ▂▃▅▆▇█ (sparkline)       │ ← Mini visualization
└────────────────────────────┘
```

### Widget Container Structure
- Title bar with widget name and actions
- Loading state (skeleton or spinner)
- Error boundary with retry option
- Resize handles for adjustable layouts
- Settings menu (export, configure, refresh)

### Dashboard Layout Types

**Fixed Layout**: Designer-defined placement, consistent across users
**Customizable Grid**: User drag-and-drop, resizable widgets, saved layouts
**Template-Based**: Pre-built patterns, industry-specific starting points

### Global Dashboard Controls
- Date range picker (affects all widgets)
- Filter panel (coordinated across widgets)
- Refresh controls (manual/auto-refresh)
- Export actions (PDF, image, data)
- Theme switcher (light/dark/custom)

## Implementation Approach

### 1. Choose Dashboard Architecture

**For Quick Analytics Dashboard → Use Tremor**
Pre-built KPI cards, charts, and tables with minimal code:
```bash
npm install @tremor/react
```

**For Customizable Dashboard → Use react-grid-layout**
Drag-and-drop, resizable widgets, user-defined layouts:
```bash
npm install react-grid-layout
```

### 2. Set Up Global State Management

Implement filter context for cross-widget coordination:
```tsx
// Dashboard context for shared filters
const DashboardContext = createContext({
  filters: { dateRange: null, categories: [] },
  setFilters: () => {},
  refreshInterval: 30000
});

// Wrap dashboard with provider
<DashboardContext.Provider value={dashboardState}>
  <FilterPanel />
  <WidgetGrid />
</DashboardContext.Provider>
```

### 3. Implement Data Fetching Strategy

**Parallel Loading**: Fetch all widget data simultaneously
**Lazy Loading**: Load visible widgets first, others on scroll
**Cached Updates**: Serve from cache while fetching fresh data

### 4. Configure Real-Time Updates

**Server-Sent Events (Recommended for Dashboards)**:
```tsx
const eventSource = new EventSource('/api/dashboard/stream');
eventSource.onmessage = (event) => {
  const update = JSON.parse(event.data);
  updateWidget(update.widgetId, update.data);
};
```

### 5. Apply Responsive Design

Define breakpoints for different screen sizes:
- Desktop (>1200px): Multi-column grid
- Tablet (768-1200px): 2-column layout
- Mobile (<768px): Single column stack

## Quick Start with Tremor

### Basic KPI Dashboard
```tsx
import { Card, Grid, Metric, Text, BadgeDelta, AreaChart } from '@tremor/react';

function QuickDashboard({ data }) {
  return (
    <Grid numItems={1} numItemsSm={2} numItemsLg={4} className="gap-4">
      {/* KPI Cards */}
      <Card>
        <Text>Total Revenue</Text>
        <Metric>$45,231.89</Metric>
        <BadgeDelta deltaType="increase">+12.5%</BadgeDelta>
      </Card>

      <Card>
        <Text>Active Users</Text>
        <Metric>1,234</Metric>
        <BadgeDelta deltaType="decrease">-2.3%</BadgeDelta>
      </Card>

      {/* Chart Widget */}
      <Card className="lg:col-span-2">
        <Text>Revenue Trend</Text>
        <AreaChart
          data={data.revenue}
          index="date"
          categories={["revenue"]}
          valueFormatter={(value) => `$${value.toLocaleString()}`}
        />
      </Card>
    </Grid>
  );
}
```

For complete implementation, see `examples/tremor-dashboard.tsx`.

## Customizable Dashboard Implementation

### Drag-and-Drop Grid Layout
```tsx
import { Responsive, WidthProvider } from 'react-grid-layout';
import 'react-grid-layout/css/styles.css';

const ResponsiveGridLayout = WidthProvider(Responsive);

function CustomizableDashboard() {
  const [layouts, setLayouts] = useState(getStoredLayouts());

  return (
    <ResponsiveGridLayout
      layouts={layouts}
      breakpoints={{ lg: 1200, md: 996, sm: 768 }}
      cols={{ lg: 12, md: 10, sm: 6 }}
      rowHeight={60}
      onLayoutChange={(layout, layouts) => {
        setLayouts(layouts);
        localStorage.setItem('dashboardLayout', JSON.stringify(layouts));
      }}
      draggableHandle=".widget-header"
    >
      <div key="kpi1">
        <KPIWidget data={kpiData} />
      </div>
      <div key="chart1">
        <ChartWidget data={chartData} />
      </div>
      <div key="table1">
        <TableWidget data={tableData} />
      </div>
    </ResponsiveGridLayout>
  );
}
```

For full example with widget catalog, see `examples/customizable-dashboard.tsx`.

## Real-Time Data Patterns

### Server-Sent Events (Recommended)
Best for unidirectional updates from server to dashboard:
```tsx
function useSSEUpdates(endpoint) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const eventSource = new EventSource(endpoint);

    eventSource.onmessage = (event) => {
      const update = JSON.parse(event.data);
      // Update specific widget or all widgets
      dispatch({ type: 'UPDATE_WIDGET', payload: update });
    };

    return () => eventSource.close();
  }, [endpoint]);
}
```

### WebSocket (For Bidirectional)
Use when dashboard needs to send commands back to server:
```tsx
const ws = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:3000/dashboard');
ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  const data = JSON.parse(event.data);
  updateDashboard(data);
};
// Send filter changes to server
ws.send(JSON.stringify({ type: 'FILTER_CHANGE', filters }));
```

### Smart Polling Fallback
For environments without WebSocket/SSE support:
```tsx
function useSmartPolling(fetchData, interval = 30000) {
  const [isPaused, setIsPaused] = useState(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (isPaused || document.hidden) return;

    const timer = setInterval(fetchData, interval);
    return () => clearInterval(timer);
  }, [isPaused, interval]);

  // Pause when tab inactive
  useEffect(() => {
    const handleVisibilityChange = () => {
      setIsPaused(document.hidden);
    };
    document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', handleVisibilityChange);
    return () => document.removeEventListener('visibilitychange', handleVisibilityChange);
  }, []);
}
```

For detailed patterns including error handling and reconnection, see `references/real-time-updates.md`.

## Performance Optimization

### Lazy Loading Strategy
```tsx
function DashboardGrid({ widgets }) {
  const [visibleWidgets, setVisibleWidgets] = useState(new Set());

  return widgets.map(widget => (
    <LazyLoad
      key={widget.id}
      height={widget.height}
      offset={100}
      once
      placeholder={<WidgetSkeleton />}
    >
      <Widget {...widget} />
    </LazyLoad>
  ));
}
```

### Parallel Data Fetching
```tsx
// Fetch all widget data simultaneously
const loadDashboard = async () => {
  const [kpis, charts, tables] = await Promise.all([
    fetchKPIs(),
    fetchChartData(),
    fetchTableData()
  ]);

  return { kpis, charts, tables };
};
```

### Widget-Level Caching
```tsx
function CachedWidget({ id, fetcher, ttl = 60000 }) {
  const cache = useRef({ data: null, timestamp: 0 });

  const getData = async () => {
    const now = Date.now();
    if (cache.current.data && now - cache.current.timestamp < ttl) {
      return cache.current.data;
    }

    const fresh = await fetcher();
    cache.current = { data: fresh, timestamp: now };
    return fresh;
  };

  // Use cached data while fetching fresh
  return <Widget data={cache.current.data} onRefresh={getData} />;
}
```

To analyze and optimize dashboard performance, run:
```bash
python scripts/optimize-dashboard-performance.py --analyze dashboard-config.json
```

## Cross-Skill Integration

### Using Data Visualization Components
Reference the `data-viz` skill for chart widgets:
```tsx
// Use charts from data-viz skill
import { createChart } from '../data-viz/chart-factory';

const revenueChart = createChart('area', {
  data: revenueData,
  xAxis: 'date',
  yAxis: 'revenue',
  theme: dashboardTheme
});
```

### Integrating Data Tables
Reference the `tables` skill for data grids:
```tsx
// Use advanced tables from tables skill
import { DataGrid } from '../tables/data-grid';

<DataGrid
  data={transactions}
  columns={columnDefs}
  pagination={true}
  sorting={true}
  filtering={true}
/>
```

### Applying Design Tokens
Use the `design-tokens` skill for consistent theming:
```tsx
// Dashboard-specific tokens from design-tokens skill
const dashboardTokens = {
  '--dashboard-bg': 'var(--color-bg-secondary)',
  '--widget-bg': 'var(--color-white)',
  '--widget-shadow': 'var(--shadow-lg)',
  '--kpi-value-size': 'var(--font-size-4xl)',
  '--kpi-trend-positive': 'var(--color-success)',
  '--kpi-trend-negative': 'var(--color-error)'
};
```

### Filter Input Components
Optionally use the `forms` skill for filter controls:
```tsx
// Advanced filter inputs from forms skill
import { DateRangePicker, MultiSelect } from '../forms/inputs';

<FilterPanel>
  <DateRangePicker onChange={handleDateChange} />
  <MultiSelect options={categories} onChange={handleCategoryFilter} />
</FilterPanel>
```

## Library Selection Guide

### Choose Tremor When:
- Need to build dashboards quickly
- Want pre-styled, professional components
- Using Tailwind CSS in your project
- Building standard analytics interfaces
- Limited customization requirements

### Choose react-grid-layout When:
- Users need to customize layouts
- Drag-and-drop is required
- Different users need different views
- Building a dashboard builder tool
- Maximum flexibility is priority

### Combine Both When:
- Use Tremor for widget contents (KPIs, charts)
- Use react-grid-layout for layout management
- Get best of both worlds

## Bundled Resources

### Scripts (Token-Free Execution)
- `scripts/generate-dashboard-layout.py` - Generate responsive grid configurations
- `scripts/calculate-kpi-metrics.py` - Calculate trends, comparisons, sparklines
- `scripts/validate-widget-config.py` - Validate widget and filter configurations
- `scripts/optimize-dashboard-performance.py` - Analyze and optimize performance
- `scripts/export-dashboard.py` - Export dashboards to various formats

Run scripts directly without loading into context:
```bash
python scripts/calculate-kpi-metrics.py --data metrics.json --period monthly
```

### References (Detailed Patterns)
- `references/kpi-card-patterns.md` - KPI card design patterns and variations
- `references/layout-strategies.md` - Grid systems and responsive approaches
- `references/real-time-updates.md` - WebSocket, SSE, and polling implementations
- `references/filter-coordination.md` - Cross-widget filter synchronization
- `references/performance-optimization.md` - Advanced optimization techniques
- `references/library-guide.md` - Detailed Tremor and react-grid-layout guides

### Examples (Complete Implementations)
- `examples/sales-dashboard.tsx` - Full sales analytics dashboard
- `examples/monitoring-dashboard.tsx` - Real-time monitoring with alerts
- `examples/executive-dashboard.tsx` - Polished executive reporting
- `examples/customizable-dashboard.tsx` - Drag-and-drop with persistence
- `examples/tremor-dashboard.tsx` - Quick Tremor implementation
- `examples/filter-context.tsx` - Global filter coordination

### Assets (Templates & Configurations)
- `assets/dashboard-templates.json` - Pre-built dashboard layouts
- `assets/widget-library.json` - Widget catalog and configurations
- `assets/grid-layouts.json` - Responsive grid configurations
- `assets/kpi-formats.json` - Number formatting rules
- `assets/theme-tokens.json` - Dashboard-specific design tokens

## Dashboard Creation Workflow

1. **Define Requirements**: Fixed or customizable? Real-time or static?
2. **Choose Libraries**: Tremor for quick, react-grid-layout for flexible
3. **Set Up Structure**: Global state, filter context, layout system
4. **Build Widgets**: KPI cards, charts (data-viz), tables (tables skill)
5. **Implement Data Flow**: Fetching strategy, caching, updates
6. **Add Interactivity**: Filters, drill-downs, exports
7. **Optimize Performance**: Lazy loading, parallel fetching, caching
8. **Apply Theming**: Use design-tokens for consistent styling
9. **Test Responsiveness**: Desktop, tablet, mobile breakpoints
10. **Deploy & Monitor**: Track performance, user engagement

For specific patterns and detailed implementations, explore the bundled resources referenced above.