Keeping a dashboard up to date
A dashboard shows the data captured the last time it was refreshed. You can keep it current in two ways: make it Live so it refreshes automatically on a schedule, or refresh it yourself with Update now.
How refreshing works
Each refresh gathers the figures again from the dashboard's sources, recalculates them and replaces the numbers. The design (charts, layout and theme) stays exactly as it was, including on locked dashboards. If a source can't be read, the dashboard keeps its existing data, the refresh reports the problem, and no figures are made up.
Each dashboard shows when it was last Updated. This is the last time the dashboard changed in any way, including design, sharing and lock changes, so it isn't always the time the data was last refreshed.
Make a dashboard Live
In the dashboard's chat, ask SoterAI to refresh it on a schedule. For example:
SoterAI creates a refresh workflow named after the dashboard, links it to the dashboard and sets the schedule in your local time zone. You can choose:
| Frequency | Runs |
|---|---|
| Hourly | Every hour |
| Daily | Every day at the time you choose (recommended for most dashboards) |
| Weekly | On the days you choose |
| Monthly | On the day of the month you choose |
Hourly refreshes are rarely needed: every run uses resources, so choose the least frequent schedule that keeps the dashboard useful.
If your dashboard's data changes over time, SoterAI offers to make it Live once the dashboard is first built.
Save the refresh workflow
When SoterAI sets up the refresh, the workflow opens in the panel beside the chat. If a dashboard is open there, it closes to make room; reopen it later from its card in the chat. Check the workflow, then click Save workflow at the bottom right of that panel. Until you save, nothing runs and the dashboard keeps its current numbers.
If the panel isn't showing, for example because you've come back to the dashboard later, click Open chat on the dashboard, then click Open workflow in the chat. The refresh workflow opens so you can check it and save it.
You can also go to Records › Custom Workflows, open the workflow named after your dashboard (its status is Draft) and click Publish. Once saved or published, the workflow is visible to everyone in the workspace.
The dashboard then shows a Live label. Hover over it to see what it means: Data can be refreshed through a linked workflow. When available, Update now lets the author start a refresh. Live doesn't by itself mean a schedule is running.
Refresh now
On a Live dashboard, click Update now in the dashboard's header or in the card's ⋯ menu to refresh the data straight away. You stay on the dashboard: a message confirms that the update has started, with a link to the refresh conversation, and the dashboard shows that it's updating. To follow the refresh later, click Open update conversation in the dashboard's header. You can also click Updated … on the dashboard's card to start a refresh.
Only the dashboard's author can use Update now.
When Update now is greyed out, hover over it to see why: Make this dashboard Live in its chat to enable updates. (the dashboard isn't Live yet) or Its workflow isn't saved yet or is no longer available. (save or publish the refresh workflow). In the card's ⋯ menu on the Dashboards page, the reason is shown directly under Update now.
If a refresh is already running, clicking Update now again shows An update is already running and doesn't start another one.
Open dashboards update themselves
If a dashboard is open when a refresh finishes, the new data appears automatically within about 30 seconds, without reloading. This applies in SoterAI, in the full-page view and through a public link.
Changing or stopping the schedule
Click Open chat on the dashboard and ask SoterAI, for example:
To see the refresh workflow itself, click Open chat on the dashboard, then Open workflow.
Notifications
Each scheduled refresh notifies you once, in the app and by email, with a link to that run. Refreshes you start with Update now don't send a notification. See Notifications in SoterAI.
Archived dashboards
While a dashboard is archived, Update now is unavailable. Archiving doesn't stop its schedule: the refresh keeps running but can't update an archived dashboard. If you no longer need it, stop the schedule as described above. Restoring the dashboard doesn't change the schedule either.
Things to know
Dashboards don't query your data continuously
They show the data from the last refresh.
Live dashboards depend on your connections
If a connector is disconnected or its access expires, refreshes from that source fail until you reconnect it. See Connecting External Apps to SoterAI.
Locked dashboards still refresh
Locking protects the design only. See Locking a dashboard.