Share dashboards publicly: setup and best practices

Some people who need your numbers should not need an account in your BI tool: a client checking campaign results, an investor between board meetings, a partner watching shared metrics. A public link gives them a read-only view of one dashboard in the browser, with no sign-up.

This guide covers how public links work in clariBI, how to prepare a dashboard before you publish it, and when a different sharing method is the better choice.

Who can create public links

Public links are part of the Professional and Enterprise plans. On Free, Trial, Lite and Starter the switch is visible but locked. If you are on a lower plan, you can still share dashboards with named colleagues in your organization.

Good uses for a public dashboard

• Client reporting. One dashboard per client with their campaign or project numbers, instead of a PDF every week.
• Investor updates. A small KPI dashboard board members can open whenever they like.
• Office screens. A company metrics dashboard on a TV without anyone staying signed in.
• Partner scorecards. Shared metrics with a supplier or reseller who should not see anything else.

Step 1: prepare the dashboard for outside eyes

Everything on the dashboard is visible to anyone with the link, including the details in each chart's tooltips and drill-down. Before you publish:

• Build a separate dashboard for external use. Do not share your internal one and hope nobody notices the margin chart in the corner. Duplicate it from the card menu and remove what outsiders should not see.
• Remove sensitive data. Individual customer names, employee figures, costs, margins and anything under a confidentiality agreement.
• Name widgets in plain language. "Revenue from new customers, monthly" is better than "NC_REV_M". Outsiders do not know your abbreviations.
• Keep it short. Five to eight widgets. External viewers spend less time on it than your team does.
• Check the refresh schedule. The public page shows data as of the dashboard's last refresh, and the page says when that was. A daily refresh suits most client and investor dashboards; see refresh schedules.

Step 2: turn on the public link

1. Open the dashboard and click Share Link.
2. Turn on the Public Link switch.
3. Click Copy to copy the address.
4. Click Save Changes.

Anyone with that address can now open the dashboard without an account. The dashboard sharing docs show the same dialog with screenshots.

Step 3: check it as a viewer

Open the link in a private browser window, where you are not signed in. Check that:

• every widget loads and shows data;
• nothing sensitive appears in tooltips or drill-down;
• the dashboard makes sense without you there to explain it.

What a public viewer sees

• The dashboard's widgets and charts, with tooltips and drill-down.
• When the data was last updated.
• A small "Made with clariBI" badge, which cannot be removed.

What they do not see: navigation, your other dashboards, reports or data sources, or any account menu. The page is read-only. It cannot be edited or commented on from there, whatever access level is chosen in the dialog.

What to know about security

Public links in clariBI are deliberately simple, so it is worth being clear about what they do not do:

• No password. The address is the key. Anyone who has it can open the dashboard.
• No expiry date. A link works until you switch it off.
• Switching it off works immediately. Turn Public Link off and the address stops working. Turning it on again creates a new address, so old copies stay dead.
• No embedding. Public dashboards open as their own page; they cannot be placed inside another website as an iframe.

That leads to a few habits:

• Share the link only where you would share the content itself. Links in email get forwarded.
• Use one dashboard and one link per audience. Client A's link should never show client B's numbers.
• Switch links off when a project ends.
• Review now and then. Check which dashboards have a public link and turn off any that nobody needs.

When another method fits better

A public link is the right tool for a single dashboard and a relaxed audience. For anything more sensitive or more ongoing, clariBI has other options, also on Professional and Enterprise:

• Client workspaces. Create a workspace per client, add their dashboards and reports, and invite the client's contacts with the Viewer role. They sign in with their own clariBI login and see only that workspace. Do not add client contacts as members of your organization, because organization members can open every dashboard.
• A public workspace link. One link that opens a whole workspace, including its dashboards and reports.
• Public report links. For a written report rather than a live dashboard; see public report links.
• Scheduled reports. A report emailed every week or month, so the audience sees the numbers even if they never open a link. Our guide to automated weekly reports walks through the setup.

A good pattern for clients is both: a workspace for the people who want to explore, and a scheduled monthly report for the people who only read email.

Troubleshooting

A viewer says the dashboard is empty. A source behind it may be disconnected or not synced yet. Open the dashboard while signed in and look for a banner about a missing or disconnected source.

The numbers look old. The public page shows data as of the last dashboard refresh. Check the dashboard's refresh frequency and when its sources last synced.

The link stopped working. Someone switched the public link off, or off and on again, which creates a new address. Copy the current link from Share Link and send it again.

A viewer sees something they should not. Switch the link off straight away, remove the widget, then create a new link.

The help article on sharing dashboards covers every sharing option in one place. To start, duplicate the dashboard you would show a client, strip it down to five widgets, and open its public link in a private window before you send it anywhere.