rill-explore

Instructions for developing an explore dashboard in Rill

Introduction

Explore dashboards are resources that configure an interactive, drill-down dashboard for a metrics view. They are Rill's default dashboard type, designed for explorative slice-and-dice analysis of a single metrics view.

Explore dashboards are lightweight resources that sit downstream of a metrics view in the project DAG. Their reconcile logic is fast (validation only), so they can be created and modified freely without performance concerns.

When to use explores vs canvases

• Explore dashboards: Best for explorative analysis, drill-down investigations, and letting users freely slice data by any dimension.
• Canvas dashboards: Best for fixed reports, executive summaries, or combining multiple metrics views into a single view.

Development approach

Explore dashboards require minimal configuration. In most cases, you only need to:

1. Reference the metrics view
2. Select which dimensions and measures to expose (usually all, indicated by '*')
3. Optionally configure defaults and time ranges

Best practice: Keep explore configurations simple. Only add advanced features (security policies, custom themes, restricted dimensions) when there is a clear requirement. The metrics view already defines the business logic; the explore just controls presentation and access.

Inline explores in metrics views

Metrics views create an explore resource by default with the same name as the metrics view. For legacy reasons, this does not happen for metrics views containing version: 1. You can customize a metrics view's explore with the explore: property inside the metrics view file:

# metrics/sales.yaml
type: metrics_view
display_name: Sales Analytics

model: sales_model
timeseries: order_date

dimensions:
  - column: region
  - column: product_category

measures:
  - name: total_revenue
    expression: SUM(revenue)

# Inline explore configuration (optional)
explore:
  time_ranges:
    - P7D
    - P30D
    - P90D
  defaults:
    time_range: P30D

Use inline explores for simple cases where you want to keep the metrics view and its dashboard configuration together. Use separate explore files when you need multiple explores for the same metrics view or more complex configurations.

Example with annotations

Note that most explore dashboards work great without any of the optional properties shown here.

# dashboards/sales_explore.yaml

# Required: resource type
type: explore

# Required: the metrics view this dashboard renders
metrics_view: sales_metrics

# Optional: display name shown in the navigation and header
display_name: "Sales Performance"

# Optional: informational banner at the top of the dashboard
banner: "Data refreshes daily at 6 AM UTC"

# Optional: which dimensions to expose (use '*' for all)
dimensions: '*'

# Optional: which measures to expose (use '*' for all)
measures: '*'

# Optional: customize the time range dropdown
time_ranges:
  - P7D
  - P30D
  - P90D
  - P12M
  - rill-MTD
  - rill-YTD

# Optional: default dashboard state on first load
defaults:
  time_range: P30D
  comparison_mode: time

# Optional: pin specific time zones to the top of the selector
time_zones:
  - America/Los_Angeles
  - America/New_York

# Optional: custom theme
theme: my_theme

# Optional: restrict access to specific users.
# Note: usually you should do this in the metrics view, not the explore resource.
security:
  access: "{{ .user.admin }} OR '{{ .user.email }}' LIKE '%@example.com'"

Minimal example

For most use cases, a minimal explore is sufficient:

type: explore
metrics_view: sales_metrics
display_name: "Sales Dashboard"
dimensions: '*'
measures: '*'

Reference documentation

Here is a full JSON schema for the explore syntax:

allOf:
    - properties:
        allow_custom_time_range:
            description: Defaults to true, when set to false it will hide the ability to set a custom time range for the user.
            type: boolean
        banner:
            description: Refers to the custom banner displayed at the header of an explore dashboard
            type: string
        defaults:
            additionalProperties: false
            description: |
                defines the defaults YAML struct
                  ```yaml
                  defaults: #define all the defaults within here
                    dimensions:
                      - dim_1
                      - dim_2
                    measures:
                      - measure_1
                      - measure_2
                    time_range: P1M
                    comparison_mode: dimension #time, none
                    comparison_dimension: filename
                  ```
            properties:
                comparison_dimension:
                    description: for dimension mode, specify the comparison dimension by name
                    type: string
                comparison_mode:
                    description: 'Controls how to compare current data with historical or categorical baselines. Options: `none` (no comparison), `time` (compares with past based on default_time_range), `dimension` (compares based on comparison_dimension values)'
                    enum:
                        - none
                        - time
                        - dimension
                    type: string
                dimensions:
                    $ref: '#/definitions/field_selector_properties'
                    description: Provides the default dimensions to load on viewing the dashboard
                measures:
                    $ref: '#/definitions/field_selector_properties'
                    description: Provides the default measures to load on viewing the dashboard
                time_range:
                    description: Refers to the default time range shown when a user initially loads the dashboard. The value must be either a valid [ISO 8601 duration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Durations) (for example, PT12H for 12 hours, P1M for 1 month, or P26W for 26 weeks) or one of the [Rill ISO 8601 extensions](https://docs.rilldata.com/reference/rill-iso-extensions#extensions)
                    type: string
            type: object
        description:
            description: Refers to the description of the explore dashboard
            type: string
        dimensions:
            $ref: '#/definitions/field_selector_properties'
            description: List of dimension names. Use '*' to select all dimensions (default)
            examples:
                - dimensions:
                    - country
                - dimensions:
                    exclude:
                        - country
                - dimensions:
                    expr: ^public_.*$
        display_name:
            description: Refers to the display name for the explore dashboard
            type: string
        embeds:
            additionalProperties: false
            description: Configuration options for embedded dashboard views
            properties:
                hide_pivot:
                    description: When true, hides the pivot table view in embedded mode
                    type: boolean
            type: object
        lock_time_zone:
            description: When true, the dashboard will be locked to the first time provided in the time_zones list. When no time_zones are provided, the dashboard will be locked to UTC
            type: boolean
        measures:
            $ref: '#/definitions/field_selector_properties'
            description: List of measure names. Use '*' to select all measures (default)
            examples:
                - measures:
                    - sum_of_total
                - measures:
                    exclude:
                        - sum_of_total
                - measures:
                    expr: ^public_.*$
        metrics_view:
            description: Refers to the metrics view resource
            type: string
        security:
            $ref: '#/definitions/dashboard_security_policy_properties'
            description: Security rules to apply for access to the explore dashboard
        theme:
            description: Name of the theme to use. Only one of theme and embedded_theme can be set.
            oneOf:
                - description: Name of an existing theme to apply to the dashboard
                  type: string
                - $ref: '#/definitions/theme_properties'
                  description: Inline theme configuration.
        time_ranges:
            description: |
                Overrides the list of default time range selections available in the dropdown. It can be string or an object with a 'range' and optional 'comparison_offsets'
                  ```yaml
                  time_ranges:
                    - PT15M // Simplified syntax to specify only the range
                    - PT1H
                    - PT6H
                    - P7D
                    - range: P5D // Advanced syntax to specify comparison_offsets as well
                    - P4W
                    - rill-TD // Today
                    - rill-WTD // Week-To-date
                  ```
            items:
                $ref: '#/definitions/explore_time_range_properties'
            type: array
        time_zones:
            description: Refers to the time zones that should be pinned to the top of the time zone selector. It should be a list of [IANA time zone identifiers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones)
            items:
                type: string
            type: array
        type:
            const: explore
            description: Refers to the resource type and must be `explore`
            type: string
      required:
        - type
        - metrics_view
      title: Properties
      type: object
    - $ref: '#/definitions/common_properties'
description: Explore dashboards provide an interactive way to explore data with predefined measures and dimensions.
id: explore-dashboards
title: Explore Dashboard YAML
type: object