After you create a custom dashboard, you might want to modify thedashboard.For example, you might want to convert a line chart, which displays everytime series, to a stacked-area chart so that you can view theproportion each time series contributes to the sum.

This document describes how to change a widget's type, how to modify which timeseries a widget displays, and how to delete a widget by using theGoogle Cloud console. For information about how to manage custom dashboards byusing the API, seeCreate and manage dashboards by API.

For information about how to add widgets to a dashboard, see the followingdocuments:

• Add charts, tables, and indicators
• Display incidents and charts for alerting policies
• Display log entries
• Add text and group widgets
• Display service-level objectives (SLOs)

This feature is supported only for Google Cloud projects.ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.

Before you begin

Complete the following in the Google Cloud project where you want tomanage your dashboards:

• To get the permissions that you need to create and modify custom dashboards by using the Google Cloud console, ask your administrator to grant you theMonitoring Editor (roles/monitoring.editor) IAM role on your project. For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

  You might also be able to get the required permissions throughcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

  For more information about roles, seeControl access with Identity and Access Management.

View JSON representation

The JSON representation of a dashboard or a widget can be helpful whenyou prefer to manage your dashboards by using the Cloud Monitoring API butyou prototype your dashboards by using the Google Cloud console.

To view or modify the JSON representation for the dashboard, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to thedashboard Dashboards page:

   Go toDashboards

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading isMonitoring.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.
3. Select a dashboard or clickCreate dashboard.

4. Do one of the following:

   • To view or modify the JSON representation for the dashboard,in the dashboard toolbar, clicksettingsSettings,clickJSON, and then clickJSON Editor.

     You can now view or modify the JSON representation. If you makemodifications, then ensure that you clickApply changes.

   • To view or modify the JSON representation for a specific widget,place your pointer on the widget to activate the toolbar,clickedit Edit widget, and thenclickcode JSON Editor.

     You can now view or modify the JSON. If you make modifications, thenensure that you clickApply changes.

Change a widget's type

When a widget is displaying the correct data but notpresenting it in the most useful way, consider changing the widget's type.For example, suppose you have a line chart on your dashboard. To view howeach time series contributes to the sum,change that line chart to a stacked-area chart.

You can change a widget's type only if the destination widget can represent thedata shown by the source widget. For example, you can always changea line chart into a stacked-area or stacked-bar chart. Similarly,you can always convert a gauge, which shows a single time series, into aline chart. However, you might not be able to convert a line chart, which canshow multiple time series, into a gauge.

You can't change the type of a chart that displays datafor an alerting policy, a logs panel, or acollapsible group. You can't convert any widget to a logs panel or toa collapsible group widget.

Create alerting policy from a line chart

To convert a line chart that displays a single metric type to a chartthat displays data for an alerting policy, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to thedashboard Dashboards page:

   Go toDashboards

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading isMonitoring.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.
3. Select a dashboard or clickCreate dashboard.

4. Place your pointer on the widget to activate the toolbar,clickmore_vertMore options, and then selectConvert to alert chart.

   When you make this selection, theCreate alert policy dialog opensand the metric, filter, and grouping selections from your chart areapplied to the alerting condition. Complete the specificationof the alerting policy and then clickCreate. For information aboutthose steps, seeCreate an alerting policy.

5. To apply your changes to the dashboard, in the toolbar,clickApply. To discard your changes, clickCancel.

Set the widget type

To perform any conversions other than converting a line chart to achart that displays data for an alerting policy, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to thedashboard Dashboards page:

   Go toDashboards

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading isMonitoring.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.
3. Select a dashboard or clickCreate dashboard.
4. On the widget whose type you want to change,place your pointer on the widget to activate the toolbar, and thenclickedit Edit widget.

5. In theDisplay pane, expand theWidget type menu,and then make a selection.

   TheWidget type menu lists all widget types that can display thesame type of data; however, some widgets might not be enabled.

   For example, consider a chart that displays multiple time series,where each measurement is a double:

   • The logs panel isn't listedbecause it can't display time-series data.
   • TheScorecard andGauge widgets are listed under the headingCompatible with adjustments because these two widgets can onlydisplay a single time series and the chart is displaying multipletime series. Before you can convert to one of these types,you must modify the grouping configuration.
   • TheHeatmap widget is disabled because these widgets only displaydistribution-valued data.
   • TheStacked area,Stacked bar, andTable widgets are listedunder the headingCompatible. You can select one of these values.

6. To apply your changes to the dashboard, in the toolbar,clickApply. To discard your changes, clickCancel.

Modify a widget's configuration

To change which time series a widget displays or to change how those timeseries are combined, modify the widget's configuration. For example, whena chart displays many time series, you can improve the chart'sperformance and visual clarity by grouping time series by one or more labels.

To modify a widget's configuration, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to thedashboard Dashboards page:

   Go toDashboards

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading isMonitoring.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.
3. Select a dashboard or clickCreate dashboard.

4. Edit the widget:

   • For all widgets other than the single-view widget and thecollapsible group widget, place your pointer on the widget to activatethe toolbar, and then clickedit Edit widget.

     The configuration page for the widget opens.

   • For the collapsible group widget, do any of the following:

     • To edit the group name, clickeditEdit group,and then complete the dialog.
     • To add widgets to the group, drag the widgets from the dashboardto the group.
     • To remove widgets from the group, delete the widgets or drag themto unused space on the dashboard.

   • For the single-view widget, expand theWidget menu,clickeditEdit group, and then do any of the following:

     • To add a widget to the group,clickAdd widget and then complete the dialog.

     • To remove a widget from the group, do one of the following:

       1. To delete a widget, clickdeleteDelete widget.
       2. To remove a widget from the group and move it tothe dashboard, clickcancelRemove from group.

5. To apply your changes to the dashboard, in the toolbar,clickApply. To discard your changes, clickCancel.

Delete a widget

How quickly a dashboard displays data depends on the number of widgetsthe dashboard displays and on the number of time series each widget displays.To improve the performance of a dashboard, one option is to place rarely usedwidgets in a collapsible group widget and collapse the group. Data for widgetsin a collapsed group is loaded at alower priority than for other dashboard widgets. An alternative to using thecollapsible group widget is to delete thosewidgets that you don't use.

Deleting a chart associated with an alerting policy doesn't delete thealerting policy whose data was displayed on the chart.To delete an alerting policy, go to theAlerting page in theGoogle Cloud console. For information about how to delete a policy,seeManage alerting policies. You can't delete analerting policy from a custom dashboard.

To delete a widget on a dashboard, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to thedashboard Dashboards page:

   Go toDashboards

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading isMonitoring.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.
3. Select a dashboard or clickCreate dashboard.

4. Delete the widget:

   • For all widgets other than the single-view widget and thecollapsible group widget,place your pointer on the widget to activate the toolbar,clickmore_vertMore options, and thenselectDelete widget.

   • For the collapsible group widget,place your pointer on the widget to activate the toolbar, and then doone of the following:

     • To delete the collapsible group widget and the widgets it contains,clickdeleteRemove group and its children.
     • To delete a collapsible group widget and move the widgets to thedashboard,clickcancelRemove the group but keep its children.

   • For the single-view widget, expand theWidget menu,clickeditEdit group, and then do one of the following:

     • To delete the single-view group widget and the widgets it contains,clickdeleteDelete group.
     • To delete the single-view group and move the widgets it contains tothe dashboard, clickcancelUngroup.

5. To apply your changes to the dashboard, in the toolbar,clickApply. To discard your changes, clickCancel.

What's next

• Explore charted data
• Configure legends
• Filter a dashboard:
  • Add temporary filters to a custom dashboard
  • Add permanent filters to a custom dashboard