Automate the Creation of a Simple Dashboard Using the Workflow Builder

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The Workflow Builder is JMP’s built-in macro recorder that lets users log and compile interactive operations into reuseable and generalizable programs. In this recipe we create a simple Dashboard using the Workflow Builder that can be used on any dataset that contains the same columns as the original dataset. In a follow along recipe, we will see how to generalize this to any dataset.

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Ingredients:

• Platforms: Workflow Builder, Control Chart Builder, Process Screening
• Objects: Data Tables
• JSL Features: Workflow Builder

Difficulty: Medium

Video Length: 3:39

Steps:

1. Launch and turn on the Workflow Builder, File > New > New Workflow. Click the red Start button at the top left on the Workflow Builder dialog.
2. Open the file Data1. Make sure the file was not previously opened, otherwise this step will not be recorded. If the file was previously opened, turn off Workflow Builder to make sure the Close File operation is not recorded then close the file. Turn the Workflow Builder back on and open the file.
3. Launch the Control Chart Builder. Analyze > Quality and Process > Control Chart Builder. Workflow Builder records report windows at two points, when the underlying platform is launched and when the report is closed. The later captures the final state of the report after any changes are made and overwrites the former step.
4. Select A as the Y and drag Datetime to the X axis.
5. Close the Limit Summaries Outline Box.
6. Turn on the Column Switcher. Under the hotspot to the left of the main Outline Box go to Redo > Column Switcher.
7. Select columns A through T and click OK.
8. Click Done.
9. Launch the Process Screening platform. Analyze > Quality and Process > Process Screening.
10. Select columns A through T as Process Variables. Click OK.
11. Position the report windows for horizontally with the Control Chart Builder on the left.
12. Under the Window menu select Combine Windows.
13. Check the check boxes next to the two reports and click OK.
14. Close the dashboard. Workflow Builder does not record the creation of the dashboard until it is closed.
15. Stop the workflow recording.
16. To generalize the workflow to other datasets, we will have to change the initial Open Data Table Operation. Open the Step Settings outline and click on the Open Data Table step.
17. Delete the hard coded file path. Leave the Open() function empty.
18. We will want to associate a table reference variable with the opened table. Change the code to:

    tblRef = Open()

19. Delete the second and third steps containing the Control Chart Builder and Process screening report snapshots. The platforms are embedded in the dashboard and are not needed.
20. In the second and only other remaining step replace the first line of code with

    Current Data Table(tblRef);

21. Next, we’ll step through the code to see that it works properly. Start by clicking the rewind button on the Workflow Builder dialog.
22. Click the Next Step button at the top. Select the table Data 2.
23. Continue clicking the Next Step button until the workflow is complete.
24. Click the Rewind button.
25. Next, click the Play button. This will run the entire workflow. Select Data 3.