Configuring and customizing your Azure DevOps dashboard is a breeze, thanks to its intuitive interface. You can create a personalized dashboard by selecting the widgets you need and arranging them to suit your workflow.
Azure DevOps offers a variety of widgets to choose from, including work items, builds, and tests. Each widget can be customized to show specific data, such as project names or dates.
To add a widget, simply click the "Add widget" button and select from the list of available widgets. You can also drag and drop widgets to rearrange their order on your dashboard.
Customizing the layout of your dashboard is easy, with options to resize and reposition widgets as needed.
Getting Started
To create an Azure DevOps dashboard, you'll first need to familiarize yourself with the platform's capabilities, which include version control, project planning, build automation, testing, and release management.
Azure DevOps provides a comprehensive ecosystem for software development teams, and understanding its features will help you navigate the dashboard creation process.
Introduction
Azure DevOps is a powerful tool for software development teams, offering a wide range of capabilities that make it a one-stop-shop for all your project needs.
It provides version control, project planning, build automation, testing, and release management, making it an essential part of any development workflow.
The platform also includes support for dashboarding, which allows you to visually represent data from your project and get real-time insights into your team's progress.
You can use Azure Pipelines to run tests and then create dashboards to display the results, making it easier to track your team's performance and identify areas for improvement.
Why Use?
Dashboards for test results provide a clear and concise way to understand test performance at a glance.
Using dashboards helps in making informed decisions by showing test pass rates, test failure rates, and test coverage.
A dashboard can reduce the time taken to identify and respond to issues by displaying trends over time.
Clear and concise information helps improve overall project efficiency.
Project Configuration
Project Configuration is a crucial step in setting up your Azure DevOps dashboard. To create a project dashboard, you can copy another team's dashboard and update it for your team.
You can choose from two types of dashboards: Project and Team. The Project type is ideal for including information for more than one team or if the content isn't team-focused. The Team type is better suited for team-specific widgets.
To streamline your process, review the Out Of Box widget catalog to determine which widgets are configurable for a single team or multiple teams.
Project and Team
A project dashboard is owned by the person who created it, and the owner can set permissions for who can edit it. This is in contrast to team dashboards, which are owned by team administrators and can be edited by any member of the team.
Project dashboards are perfect for displaying information or status about a project, and for controlling who can edit the dashboard. Team dashboards, on the other hand, are great for focusing on information specific to a team.
All dashboards can be viewed by members of the project, and all widgets available for team dashboards are also available for project dashboards. This means you can use the same widgets to track progress and share information across teams.
Here are the key differences between project and team dashboards:
This table highlights the key differences between project and team dashboards. By choosing the right type of dashboard, you can ensure that the right people have access to the right information at the right time.
You can also switch between projects easily by selecting the Azure DevOps logo to browse all projects. This makes it simple to work on multiple projects and keep your information organized.
Create a New
To create a new dashboard, click on the ‘New Dashboard’ button. This will take you to a page where you can provide a Name, Description, and Dashboard Type for your dashboard.
You can choose from two types of dashboards: Project and Team. If you select Project, you can include information for more than one team or if the content isn't team-focused. If you select Team, you can include team-specific widgets.
To determine which widgets are configurable for a single team or multiple teams, review the Out Of Box widget catalog.
You can also streamline your process by copying another team's dashboard and updating it for your team.
Updating Project
Updating a project requires some specific steps to ensure everything stays up to date.
To update a project, you need to stop the dashboard first. This is because the Select-UDElement element doesn't refresh on its own.
Stopping the dashboard clears the current project list, making room for the updated list.
Once the dashboard is stopped, you can start it again with a specific command. This command is mentioned in the article as: stopping the dashboard then starting it with.
Customization
Customization is a powerful tool in Azure DevOps dashboards. You can configure and customize each widget to display data in a way that best suits your needs.
To start customizing your dashboard, you'll need to access your project's dashboard. This is done by navigating to the 'Dashboards' menu in Azure DevOps and selecting the '+' icon to create a new dashboard. Name your dashboard according to its intended focus.
You can add widgets to your dashboard by clicking the 'Edit' button and selecting 'Add a widget'. Azure DevOps offers a wide range of widgets, including Burndown and Burnup charts, Pull Request status, Recent build results, Release pipeline overview, and Test results summary.
Here are some popular widgets you can add to your dashboard:
- Burndown and Burnup charts
- Pull Request status
- Recent build results
- Release pipeline overview
- Test results summary
For more detailed insights, configure each widget by clicking the 'Configure' button (represented by a gear icon). This allows you to set up filters, choose projects or pipelines, define time frames, and specify other parameters.
If the standard widgets don't meet all your requirements, you can use the REST APIs to create custom widgets. This requires some development skills, but it gives you the flexibility to develop highly tailored solutions that integrate seamlessly into your dashboards.
However, if you're looking to enhance your project's visibility but need expertise in Azure DevOps customization, consider looking into options such as hiring experienced professionals. This can significantly accelerate development and ensure that your dashboards provide maximum value.
Extensibility and Integration
Azure DevOps dashboards can be customized to meet your specific needs. You can create a dashboard widget using the REST API service.
If the standard widgets don't meet your requirements, Azure DevOps provides REST APIs for advanced customization. These APIs can be used to create custom widgets that integrate seamlessly into your dashboards.
You can develop highly tailored solutions by harnessing these APIs within your own code. For example, the JavaScript snippet provided demonstrates how to fetch work items from Azure DevOps using the REST API.
API Integration for Customization
You can create custom widgets by harnessing Azure DevOps REST APIs within your own code. This allows for highly tailored solutions that integrate seamlessly into your dashboards.
The standard widgets may not meet all your requirements, so using the REST APIs is a great option. You can fetch work items from Azure DevOps using the REST API, as demonstrated in a JavaScript snippet provided by Azure DevOps.
To fetch work items, you'll need to replace placeholders with actual values and include your personal access token for authentication. This is a crucial step in using the REST API.
If you're looking for more customization options, you can also configure each widget by clicking the 'Configure' button, represented by a gear icon. Here you can set up filters, choose projects or pipelines, define time frames, and specify other parameters.
Azure DevOps offers a wide range of widgets, including Burndown and Burnup charts, Pull Request status, Recent build results, Release pipeline overview, and Test results summary. You can drag and drop these widgets onto your dashboard, positioning them as needed.
Here are some specific customization options for each widget:
- Burndown and Burnup charts: Select needed pipeline, set a Primary chart to show the outcome count of all tests, set a Secondary chart to the percentage of passed tests
- Pull Request status: Configure as needed, including setting up filters and choosing projects or pipelines
- Recent build results: Configure as needed, including setting up filters and defining time frames
- Release pipeline overview: Configure as needed, including setting up filters and choosing projects or pipelines
- Test results summary: Configure as needed, including setting up filters and defining time frames
Caching Build Data
Caching Build Data is a game-changer for performance.
Constantly calling the API can slow the application down, so it's essential to implement a caching mechanism.
A Scheduled endpoint is used to update the build data every 5 minutes, which is a great interval for most applications.
The build number and commit properties are added to the object as links, allowing users to easily navigate to the respective pages.
The commit id is shortened to the first 6 characters, making it more user-friendly.
The final part of the $BuildDataRefresh endpoint is to sync the grid, which updates the grid with the new values in the build list.
This ensures that the grid is always up-to-date, even after a schedule run.
Builds that were previously failing can now pass, thanks to the efficient caching system.
Share
Sharing your Azure DevOps dashboard with others is a breeze. You can share it with your team by clicking on the Dashboard 'Settings' button, then choosing 'Manage permissions for this dashboard'.
To share your dashboard, you need to select the team or team members with whom you want to share it. You can give them the appropriate permissions so they can see it.
Here's a step-by-step guide to sharing your dashboard:
- Click on the Dashboard ‘Settings’ button
- Choose the ‘Manage permissions for this dashboard’ settings
- Select the team or team members with whom you want to share it
- Give them the appropriate permissions so they can see it
- Click on Save.
You can also share dashboards across teams by adjusting the dashboard's visibility settings. This ensures that everyone involved in the project has access to up-to-date information tailored to their role.
Project and team dashboards have different ownership and editing permissions. Project dashboards are owned by the person who created the dashboard, while team dashboards are owned by team administrators.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Azure dashboard?
An Azure dashboard is a customizable workspace in the Azure portal that provides a focused view of your cloud resources. It's a centralized hub for monitoring and managing your resources, making day-to-day operations more efficient.
What is the difference between an Azure dashboard and a workbook?
An Azure dashboard combines Azure Monitor data with data from other Azure services, whereas an Azure workbook provides richer functionality. If you need advanced features, a workbook is the better choice, but for a simple data combination, a dashboard is the way to go.
Sources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/report/dashboards/dashboards
- https://ultimateqa.com/how-to-create-customizable-dashboards-in-azure-devops/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/report/dashboards/dashboard-focus
- https://reintech.io/blog/customizing-azure-devops-dashboards-project-visibility
- https://matthewdavis111.com/powershell/build-dashboard/
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