---
title: Dashboards
sidebar_position: 4
---

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# Dashboard Renderer Contributions

Extensions can replace Superset's built-in dashboard renderer with a custom implementation. This allows dashboards to be displayed in entirely different ways — kiosk layouts, alternative grid engines, story-style presentations — while reusing Superset's data fetching, authentication, theming, and URL/permalink handling.

## Overview

The dashboard renderer is a **single-slot** contribution point:

- At most one custom renderer is active at a time. The most recently registered renderer wins; a previously registered renderer is displaced and unregistered with a console warning.
- When no custom renderer is registered, the host renders the built-in dashboard renderer.
- Custom renderers handle **view mode only**. When a dashboard enters edit mode, the host always renders the built-in renderer (which owns drag-and-drop editing, undo/redo, and the component pane), returning to the custom renderer when edit mode exits.
- A custom renderer that throws is contained by an error boundary; the host does not fall back to the built-in renderer on error.

The host keeps its behavior identical regardless of which renderer is active: it fetches the dashboard, charts, and datasets, resolves initial filter state from the URL (permalinks, `native_filters_key`, legacy filter params), injects dashboard CSS, and manages the document title. The renderer receives the results as props.

## The Props Contract

Your renderer component receives `DashboardRendererProps` from `@apache-superset/core/dashboards`:

| Prop | Type | Description |
|------|------|-------------|
| `dashboard` | `DashboardInfo` | Identity and parsed metadata: `id`, `uuid`, `slug`, `title`, `css`, `metadata` (parsed `json_metadata`), `layout` (parsed `position_json`), `isPublished`, `isManagedExternally` |
| `charts` | `DashboardChart[]` | Chart (slice) definitions as returned by `GET /api/v1/dashboard/{id}/charts` |
| `datasets` | `DashboardDataset[]` | Datasets as returned by `GET /api/v1/dashboard/{id}/datasets` |
| `initialDataMask` | `DashboardDataMask` | Initial filter state resolved by the host from the URL |
| `initialActiveTabs` | `string[]?` | Layout component ids of the initially active tabs (from permalink) |
| `initialAnchor` | `string?` | Layout component id to scroll to on mount (permalink anchor) |
| `uiConfig` | `DashboardUiConfig?` | Chrome-hiding flags (`hideTitle`, `hideTab`, `hideChartControls`, `emitDataMasks`), mirroring the embedded SDK's uiConfig |
| `onDataMaskChange` | callback? | Reserved — not supplied by the host yet |
| `onActiveTabsChange` | callback? | Reserved — not supplied by the host yet |

The contract is designed to be Redux-free: everything a renderer needs to display a dashboard arrives via props, and host services are available through the public `window.superset` namespaces (`authentication`, `navigation`, `theme`, `translation`, and so on).

### Renderer responsibilities

- **Chart data fetching**: the host does not fetch chart data. Query for it yourself (e.g. `POST /api/v1/chart/data` with query contexts built from each chart's `form_data`).
- **Filter orchestration**: applying `initialDataMask`, reacting to filter interactions, and refreshing affected charts are the renderer's responsibility.
- **Layout interpretation**: `dashboard.layout` is the parsed `position_json` component tree (rows, columns, tabs, charts, markdown); interpret as much or as little of it as your presentation needs.

Theming works out of the box: renderers are mounted inside the host's theme providers, so `useTheme` from `@apache-superset/core/theme` reflects the dashboard's active theme.

## Registering a Renderer

Register the renderer as a module-level side effect in your extension's entry point:

```typescript
import { dashboards } from '@apache-superset/core';
import type { ComponentType } from 'react';

const KioskDashboardRenderer: ComponentType<
  dashboards.DashboardRendererProps
> = ({ dashboard, charts, initialDataMask }) => (
  <main>
    <h1>{dashboard.title}</h1>
    {/* render charts from `charts` + `dashboard.layout` */}
  </main>
);

dashboards.registerDashboardRenderer(
  { id: 'acme.kiosk-dashboard', name: 'Kiosk Dashboard Renderer' },
  KioskDashboardRenderer,
);
```

`registerDashboardRenderer` returns a `Disposable`. Disposing it removes your renderer if it is still the active one; disposing after being displaced by a newer registration is a no-op.

You can observe slot changes with `dashboards.onDidRegisterDashboardRenderer` and `dashboards.onDidUnregisterDashboardRenderer`, and inspect the active provider with `dashboards.getDashboardRenderer()`.

## Manifest Declaration

Declare the renderer in your extension's `Contributions` metadata (at most one per extension):

```json
{
  "dashboardRenderer": {
    "id": "acme.kiosk-dashboard",
    "name": "Kiosk Dashboard Renderer",
    "description": "Full-screen kiosk presentation of dashboards"
  }
}
```

## Current Limitations

- Extensions load asynchronously after startup, so a dashboard opened before your extension finishes loading renders with the built-in renderer first and swaps to yours when registration lands.
- `onDataMaskChange` and `onActiveTabsChange` are defined in the contract but not consumed by the host yet — filter state changed inside a custom renderer does not persist to permalinks.
- While a custom renderer is active the host still hydrates its internal dashboard state so permalinks and embedded behavior remain intact; this is transparent to renderers but means the built-in state bookkeeping still runs.