When a user creates a dashboard, it is added to their personal dashboard. When a user subscribes to a shared dashboard, a link to the shared dashboard file is added to the user’s personal dashboard. The personal dashboard is a file that is used to display all dashboards that appear when a user logs in to Information Console. Dashboards built by users exist inside this file.

One personal dashboard file is created for each user and is in the user’s home directory or, if the user does not have a home directory, in the root directory of the Encyclopedia volume. All layout and configuration settings for a users’s dashboards reside in this file. The personal dashboard file is created when a user creates a new dashboard or subscribes to one. Deleting this file removes all the dashboards from the user’s personal dashboard.

Sharing a dashboard makes a copy of the selected dashboard and gadgets in a dashboard file. These dashboard files are saved in BIRT iHub.