United States Food and Drug Administration's Data Dashboard

How to Use the Dashboard

Instructions below describe general behavior on desktop devices. Mobile devices and touch screens may use different or additional actions and gestures. Data Dashboard web site is also best viewed in: Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

When a dashboard graphs page first loads, the complete dataset is presented. To narrow the view/result, you can apply data filters in one of several ways:

  1. By clicking on the Filters button.
    Figure 1.a: Clicking the Filters button displays the Filters panel.

    The flyout Filters panel will open from the left side of the window. Once selections are completed, click the X in the top right corner to close the panel.

    Figure 1.b: Figure shows the Filters panel.
  2. By making selections in the filter panes.
    1. Click on pane to open drop-down.
      Figure 2.a: Open Fiscal Year filter drop-down.
    1. Click on one or more values to select/unselect.
      Figure 2.b: Figure displays Fiscal Year drop-down with search term and selected search result.
    1. Or enter search text then click to select values.
      Figure 2.c: Figure shows the search result item(s) selected.
    1. Be sure to click the green check mark to confirm your selection. Active selections will be listed on the selection bar.
      Figure 2.d: Figure displays active selections on the Selection Bar
  3. By clicking on one or more categorical group labels on an axis or edge of a graph. Confirm with the green check mark.
    1. Multiple items may be selected by clicking on each one. Ctrl or Shift keys are not needed. Confirm with the green check mark.
      Figure 3.a: Figure displays single X-axis label selected on a line graph.
      Figure 3.b: Figure displays multiple X-axis labels selected on a line graph.
      Figure 3.c: Figure displays single Y-axis selected on a bar graph.
    2. Select and confirm one Fiscal Year to drill down to Month view. Return to Fiscal Year view by clearing the Fiscal Year in the selection bar OR by clicking Fiscal Year in the axis title.
      Figure 3.d: Figure shows how to restore Fiscal Year view.
  4. By clicking on the graphs themselves. Confirm with the green check mark.
    Figure 4.a: Figure displays bars selected on a bar graph.
    Figure 4.b: Figure displays slices selected on a pie graph.
    Figure 4.c: Figure displays a region selected on a map.
  5. By clicking on the legend. Confirm with the green check mark.
    Figure 5: Figure displays a legend item selected on a line graph

The following are features for zooming in and out of a map and for selecting objects on the map.

Figure 5: Map showing home icon, selection tools, and map control tools
Maps Zoom/Pan Filtering Tools Legend
Legend
Label Tool Image Tool Name Action
Label No.1 Lasso Selection Tool Lasso Selection Draw an area to select
Label No.2 Circle Selection Tool Circle Selection Drag out from center point of circle to select within distance radius
Label No.3 Clear Selection Tool Clear Selection Clear a selection already made
Label No.4 Cancel Selection Tool Cancel Selection Cancel selection in progress
Label No.5 Confirm Selection Tool Confirm Selection Commit/Proceed with the selection
Label No.6 Reset Tool Home Reset
Label No.7 Pan Tool Pan Direction Pan in the selected direction
Label No.8 Zoom In Tool Zoom In Tool Zoom into a location on the map
Label No.9 Zoom Out Tool Zoom Out Tool Zoom out from a location on the map
No Label Zoom in/out Tool Mouse Wheel (Scroll Up)
Mouse Wheel (Scroll Down)
Zoom in
Zoom out

The instructions that follow are specific to the graphs pages throughout the site and not applicable to the Imports Entry Data Search page, which has standard search features that do not require special instructions.

Free-text search can be performed by typing into the search box. Results matching the search criteria can then be selected and applied to the dataset.

Figure 6: Figure displays results from a search for “State”

The instructions that follow are specific to the data tables on the graphs pages and not applicable to the data table on the Imports Entry Data Search page.

Data tables have many features, including search, sort, filter, data export, and more. See details below on each feature available for use.

Figure 7: Data table with search and sort tools open
Data Table Filtering Tools Legend
Legend
Label Tool Image Tool Name Action
Label No.1 Magnifying Glass Magnifying Glass Initiate a search
Label No.2 Selection Menu Selection Menu Filter all or possible matches
Label No.3 Clear Selection Tool Clear Selection Clear a selection already made
Label No.4 Cancel Selection Tool Cancel Selection Cancel selection in progress
Label No.5 Confirm Selection Tool Confirm Selection Commit/Proceed with the selection
Label No.6 Search Box Search Box Input search keywords
Label No.7 Sorting Icon Sorting Icon Sort in ascending/descending order*
Label No.8 Download Dataset button
Download Dataset  button with dropdown options of Entire Dataset or Filtered Data
Download Dataset button with Download Data in the dropdown
Download Dataset Download data in Excel format.
Button and dropdown appearance vary depending on the dashboard page and whether filters are applied.
  • Entire Dataset option downloads all of the data.
  • Filtered Data and Download Data options download the results after applying the current filters.
*Select a column header to show the sorting icon.