Utilize the Private URL widget to create your own custom widget! With this widget, you can hook your dashboards up to almost any data source on the web. This is an alternative to our GoogleSheets or CSV Widget.

Benefits of using the Private URL widget are: you'll always have a backup copy of your data, users can't accidentally delete your data, you don't have to run crons, and gives you the added flexiblity of choosing the chart-type (pie, list, cohort, area, etc.).

Private URL:

Introduction

As an alternative to googlesheets or csv file, Cyfe can visualize a dynamically created CSV on your website. 

For example, you can export data from a platform not supported in Cyfe, and point that data (after matching required Cyfe format) to a URL endpoint.

The data format of the CSV must match Cyfe chart type requirements. Take a look at two examples below - the format of the CSV for chart_type = Table and chart_type = Gauge are different: 

Overview of Steps

Step 1: Determine the Chart type you want visualized in Cyfe

• Line, bar, pie, cohort, etc.

Step 2: Format Data available at endpoint

• Data format available at endpoint must match the format of the chart type selected
  • Each row must be a comma separate list of values
• You can dynamically create the CSV file or utilize your favorite programming language such as PHP or ASP and host it on your website

Step 3: Configure Private URL Widget within your Cyfe Dashboard

• The widget connects only to http urls. 

Step 1: Determine Chart Type

The following Chart Types are available:

After determining the type of chart you want to use, the data you want to visualize must match the format of the chart type.

Step 2: Formatting Data

Labels (required)

• Specify what labels you would like to use for your metrics. This is the first row of your data (headers)
• You can also specify the type of values your labels will represent (i.e. dollar amount, percentage, time) by appending "($)", "(%)", or ""(:)" at the end of each label:

Date,Revenue($),Users,Activity Level(%)

• If you would like to take advantage of historical data (date feature in Cyfe - i.e. data range selection or custom date range), the first value must always be "Date". Some graph types, like a Funnel Graph, don't require the "Date" parameter. 

Data

• Starting from the second row, append a list of values for your metrics starting with the date (YYYYMMDD) as the first value in each row (depending on Graph Type)

Example:

Customizing Format (Rules)

Colors,#ffc15a, #000000

Cumulative,1,0,0,0

Average,1,0,0,0

Total,542,23,42,49

Comparison,-10,50,42,0

Reverse,1,0,0,0

ReverseGraph,1,0,0,0

YAxis,0,0,0,0

YAxisMin,0,20,100,0

YAxisMax,1000,2000,500,600

YAxisShow,1,0,0,0

LabelShow,1,0,0,0

Formatting Data by Chart Type (Examples)

Pie/Donut:

plan 1, plan 2, plan 3 13, 53, 34 color,#ff7t00,#00cb13,#ee0000

List:

Sales Rep, Revenue($) Jane Doe, 100132 Crystal Smith, 52035 Jack Carter, 10342 Mona Junior, 5413 Home Simpson, 100 color,#ff7t00

Funnel:

Type, Count Visitors, 135 Leads, 110 Customers, 103 Repeat Customers, 100

Table:

Sales Rep,Revenue($),Sales Jane Doe,100132,213 Crystal Smith,52035,102 Jack Carter,10342,54 Mona Junior,5413,21 Homer Simpson,100,1

Gauge:

Revenue($),Target 600000,1000000

Number:

Revenue($) 700000

Cohort:

Month,Sign Ups,1,2,3,4,5,6 May 2016,1504,1203,984,504,201,145,45 Jun 2016,1640,1540,1423,1354,1245,1198,1046 Jul 2016,2640,2410,2012,1874,1693,1420,1013

Gantt:

Event,Start Date,End Date Marketing Campaign, 20200102, 20200108 Sales Webinar, 20191228, 20200106 Staff Meeting, 20191217, 20191227 Company Retreat, 20191110, 20191230

Dynamic Dates/Data & the X-Axis

The data itself with Private URL could be as dynamic as you like. The only thing to remember is that if you use the "Date" label for the first column of your data and pass in daily dates (e.g.YYYYMMDD) then your widgets will be in sync with your dashboard's date range and Cyfe will automatically calculate certain values in the widget header.

Additional Notes:

• You can then add the {date_start} and {date_end} merge tags to your Private URL (e.g. http://www.yourdomain.com/script?start_date={date_start}&end_date={date_end})
• The merge tags will be automatically replaced by the respective dates in YYYYMMDD format when your URL is loaded. You can use these tags to generate dynamic content that respects the dashboard date range feature.
• Every time a user wants to view data for a specific date range, Cyfe will call your script with that date range in the URL so your script can output the appropriate data for THAT time period.

If you don't use "Date" as the first column of your data: 

• If you use any other label for the first column of your data, then Cyfe will simply create a chart for you, put the first column's data on the x-axis and the other columns on the y-axis. 
  • For example, this would work just fine -- in this case, the X-axis would be the minutes BUT it wouldn't respect the date picker in the top right.  But with the Merge Tags in the URL above, you'd still be able to respect the date picker. 
    • Minute,Events
    • 12:00 AM,56
    • 12:01 AM,10

Step 3: Configuring Widget within Cyfe

How to Configure:

1. Follow the steps for "Adding a Widget."
2. When the widget window appears, select "Configure Widget."
3. Enter the following information:
   • Widget Title: Title you would like displayed for the widget.
   • Chart Type: Select how you want the data to display.
   • Private URL: Provides access to the data you want to display.
   • Refresh Rate: Select how often you want the link to refresh.
4. Select "Save Widget."

Security with Private URL

• For additional security, you can lock down your private URL with a Custom Key, which is found in your Settings (https://app.cyfe.com/settings/dashboard/customkey)
• You could also generate URLs with their own keys like this: https://demo.yourcompany.com/integration/url/694?data=customers&start={date_start}&end={date_end}&key=f7897fg654dg987h65g7h6d5h6987
• That way the user never has to worry about the whole custom key aspect and copy/pasting it in two different places. It's one less step in the process. Also, allow them to reset the URLs with a click of a button in case the URLs are leaked accidentally.

Examples of Private URL Use

Like the GoogleSheets and CSV Widget, the Private URL widget is used to create a custom widget. For example, some of our customers export data from a platform not supported in Cyfe, and point that data (after matching required Cyfe format) to a URL endpoint. The Private URL widget is then used to visualize that data:

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