Dashboard link types

You can create and share the links. After you send the link, you or another user can change the dashboard. Depending on the type of the link that you send, the recipient might see a different dashboard view than the saved one.

Simple link: opens the default view of the dashboard.
The recipient of a simple link always sees the recently saved dashboard view.
Full context link: opens the saved view of the dashboard.
Even if the dashboard view has been changed, the recipient of the full context link, sees the view that was saved at the time when the full context link was created.
Relative context link: represents the difference between the saved view and the simple link.
The relative context link contains any values that were changed since the dashboard view was saved.

Example - How the various types of link work

This example illustrates the use of three types of link:

Note: The example is valid only if the initial value of the parameter connection is stored in dashboard. That is, the parameter value does not depend on the leading widget. For more information about setting the leading widget, see Communication between widgets.

A dashboard has three parameters: shape, color, and fill.

These are the saved values of the widgets:
- Shape: Circle
- Color: Red
- Filled: Yes
Resulting view:
A user makes these changes to the values, but does not save the changes:
- Shape: Square
- Color: Blue
- Filled: Yes
Resulting view:

The user then creates and sends a simple link, a full context link, and a relative context link.

This table shows the three different types of link, the different information that those links contain, and the resulting views that the recipients of the links see.

	Simple link	Full context link	Relative context link
Sent information	Default values	Shape: Square Color: Blue Filled: Yes	Shape: Square Color: Blue
Resulting view:

The user then makes this further change to the values and saves the changes:

Shape: Square
Color: Green
Filled: No

Resulting view:

Note: Even though the links did not change, the resulting view for both simple link and the relative context link changes, because the dashboard has changed. The recipient of the simple link sees the newly saved values. The recipient of the full context link still sees the previous values, that were saved when the link was sent. The difference between the full context link and the relative link is the change to the filled option. The values were changed and were saved after the links were sent.

	Simple link	Full context link	Relative context link
Sent information	Default values	Shape: Square Color: Blue Filled: Yes	Shape: Square Color: Blue
Resulting view: