Ability to set default Canvas Dashboard Theme for your organization

Feature Suggestions
,
1

Hello,

We recently noticed that new canvas dashboards default to a new look - the Vanilla theme instead of the Classic theme. I like the Vanilla theme better, but for consistency with our suite of dashboards we need to stick to Classic for now. Is there any way I can set the default theme for everyone in my organization to Classic? I didn’t see anything within the visualization settings.

Thanks,
Becca

2

Hi @Becca_Perry, thanks for the feedback!

Currently, setting a default theme for your organization isn’t supported yet, but the good news is that this feature is on our roadmap and your request has been documented. We’ll keep you updated as we make progress.

In the meantime, you can use the Code Search feature in Development to bulk update the themes of existing dashboards. Just search for theme: H.themes.classic and replace it with theme: H.themes.vanilla as needed.

Hope this helps! :beers:

2 Likes
3

Hi @Becca_Perry,

I’ve converted it to a feature request so others can upvote it as well! :smile:

As we’re exploring this feature, it would be helpful to understand more about your needs. Could you share your thoughts on which user roles should have access to this ability (e.g., Admins, Analysts, or all users with access to Development)?

Thanks for your input!

4

Thanks Theo!

My thought would be admins, similar to Chart Color Palettes and Default Records Limit. Users with access to Development mode can always override it on a one-off basis via the report, but I would think that site-wide defaults should be pretty limited in who can change them.

1 Like
5

Hi @Becca_Perry @anya.conti,

Good news! Since we consider implement default dashboard theme, we have a follow-up question to better understand your needs.
Let’s say an admin sets Theme A as the default, and a user creates a new dashboard with it. If the admin later changes the default to Theme B, should the existing dashboard automatically update to Theme B, or would the new default only apply to dashboards created after the change?

We look forward to hearing from you :blush:

1 Like
6

Hi Heidi,

We talked about it as a team, and can see some arguments for both options:

For option 1:

  • I’m going to assume that in this case, the dashboard theme in code would be set to something like “default”. As a result, dashboards that are set to alternative themes (ex. Theme C in your scenario) are NOT modified when the dashboard is changed. Is that right?
  • Pro: allows people to easily change an org wide default, which could be a lot of work if there’s quite a few dashboards
  • Con: means the already dashboard looks can be changed with no code changes, no peer review, and no ability to easily preview the changes unless you go in and make the manual code changes anyways

For option 2:

  • I’m going to assume that in this case, the theme in code would be explicitly set to “Theme A” for pre-existing dashboards, or if the default is changed to “Theme B” then new dashboards will by default have “Theme B” set in code, but these can be overridden.
  • Pro: themes are explicitly set in code and require a PR and peer review, as well as the ability to preview the changes in the UI before they go live
  • Con: a little more work to change the org wide default, but with holistics having implemented searching within code, I think this is easy enough to do

I think given all this, we’re leaning towards option 2, especially with the emphasis holistics has on everything as code. But as mentioned, we do appreciate the arguments on both sides.

Thanks so much,
Anya

1 Like
7

Hi @Becca_Perry and @anya.conti,

Great news! The Default Dashboard Template feature is officially live.

This was built specifically to solve your use case — instantly enforcing brand standards across your whole organization when creating new dashboards. For more information, you can check our community post here: [Phase 1 Release] Default dashboard template 📊

Could you dive in and try this out? We’d love to hear your initial feedback :blush: