What is Splunk Dashboard Studio?

Splunk Dashboard Studio provides tools to customize dashboards in Splunk, such as designing your dashboard's layout, colors, images, and more.

Note: Dashboard Studio is included with Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform as a default application. Disabling this default application may lead to unpredictable behavior.

The following image is an example of a dashboard created using the Splunk Dashboard Studio. A dashboard showing various mock ecommerce data.

The Examples Hub is a page you can access from the Dashboards landing page where you can view example dashboards for many popular use cases. The example dashboards include visualization panels, their source code, and the run-anywhere SPL search used to create the example.

A screenshot of the dashboards Examples Hub.

Compare classic Splunk Dashboards (Simple XML) and the Splunk Dashboard Studio

The Splunk Dashboard Studio is a new way for you to build Splunk dashboards using a variety of tools for greater customization. While many features and visualizations are similar to the classic Splunk dashboard framework, there are differences, both in what features are available in the new framework and the way visualizations look.

The following tables display which features are supported by what framework. This list will change with each new release of the Splunk Dashboard Studio.

Visualizations

Not all formatting options that are available in the classic framework are available in the Splunk Dashboard Studio. For more information on Simple XML visualizations, see Simple XML visualization reference. Some features, like thresholding and other trend coloring options, are configured differently in Dashboard Studio than the way you configure them when using Simple XML.

You can configure some visualization options in Splunk Dashboard Studio only using the source editor. The options available for each visualization, and where you configure them, are listed in the specific visualization topics and in the Configuration options reference.

Some formatting options are only available in Dashboard Studio and not in the classic framework. For example, you can use the new Action menu when you select objects in Edit mode to layer, copy, and delete those objects.

Use the following table to get an overview of supported features for both classic Splunk Dashboards (Simple XML) and Dashboard Studio:

Visualization Classic Dashboards Dashboard Studio Notes
3rd party visualizations Yes Yes n/a
Splunk-built custom visualizations Yes Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, certain custom visualizations are now added as default visualizations.
Area and line charts Yes Yes n/a
Bar and column charts Yes Yes n/a
Bubble chart Yes Yes n/a
Choropleth maps (USA and World) Yes Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, the process of creating and formatting choropleth maps is different than in Simple XML. See Maps.
Choropleth SVG images No Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can use custom SVG images to create custom choropleth visualizations by connecting them to your Splunk data.
Cluster maps Yes Yes n/a
Events viewer Yes Yes n/a
Filler and marker gauges Yes Yes n/a
Parallel coordinates, Sankey diagram, timeline No Yes n/a
Pie chart Yes Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can use the option to turn a pie chart into a donut chart.
Scatter chart Yes Yes n/a
Shapes, lines, text boxes, icons, and images No Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can add and edit shapes and text boxes in the new app. You can use default Splunk icons, or use custom icons. You can use custom images for your dashboard backgrounds or as individual visualizations.
Single value and single value radial Yes Yes n/a
Single value icon No Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can use this option to add a custom icon to a single value visualization.
Table Yes Yes n/a
Trellis Yes Yes; limited If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can use the trellis option for single value visualizations and area, line, bar, and column charts.

Data use

You can set some data source options only in source mode. These options are listed under the data source topic they apply to.

Feature Classic Dashboards Dashboard Studio Notes
Ad hoc searches Yes Yes n/a
Chain searches Yes Yes If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can configure chain searches directly in the visual editor. Chain searches are equivalent to post-process searches in Classic Dashboards. See Chain searches together with a base search and chain searches.
Saved searches (reports and alerts) Yes Yes See Use reports and saved searches with ds.savedSearch.

Dashboard features

Dashboard-level features such as defaults and inputs, can affect entire dashboards.

Feature Classic Dashboards Dashboard Studio Notes
Inputs Yes Yes See Inputs. Dashboard Studio does not support radio, checkbox, and link list inputs.
Dashboard defaults No Yes You can define defaults for data sources, visualizations, and tokens to set the same option for all relevant dashboard components to streamline dashboard management. See Set defaults.
Drilldown Yes Yes n/a
Tokens Yes Yes, limited For Classic Dashboards and Dashboard Studio, you can configure the following with tokens:
  • eval
  • Set tokens from inputs, searches, and visualization clicks
  • Pass tokens through URLs
  • Embed user and environment details with environment tokens
  • Set conditional show or hide for dashboard panels

  • Evaluate token values

  • Linking interactions, such as linking to another dashboard

Dashboard Studio does not support setting tokens using the following event handlers:

  • unset

  • condition

Classic Dashboards also support custom token logic, such as if/then statements.
Tokens in base, chain, and saved searches Yes Yes n/a
Layouts Row-column layout Absolute and grid layouts If you are using Dashboard Studio, the absolute layout is a free-form editing experience. The grid layout snaps your visualization panels to rows that change size with the largest visualization.
Content export - single visualizations Yes, limited Yes For Classic Dashboards and Dashboard Studio, you can export CSV files.

If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can select individual visualizations to download in PNG format. See View mode visualization panel actions.
Content export - dashboards Yes, limited Yes For Classic Dashboards and Dashboard Studio, you can download dashboards in PDF format for on-demand, API, or scheduled export.

If you are using Dashboard Studio, you can download a dashboard as a single PDF or PNG image. The result looks exactly the same as the dashboard appears in View mode. Dashboard Studio also maintains the layout and styling, and allows for the. See Download a dashboard or visualization.
Custom JavaScript Yes No n/a
Cascading Style Sheets Yes No n/a