How to render a Datazen dashboard as an image file

I was going to run with part two of my productivity blog series, but knowing the start of the NFL season is tonight, I’m guessing most folks will be watching that vs. searching for my blog posts.  So instead, I have a couple quick items for folks –

1. A minor server update was posted this week that fixed a couple small bugs that were on our backlog.  You can download the latest build here – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48112

2.  There’s a way to render your Datazen dashboard as a static jpeg file if you need to do so.  How practical this tip is might be debatable (as you’ll see shortly), but here’s how you do it  –

Using the web browser, navigate to the demo Datazen server – http://demos.datazen.com

Enter the username/password – datazen/datazen and hit enter.

Click on any of the dashboards to have them come up in your browser.  Note the guid of the dashboard in the address bar and copy it –

Change the address to the following format.  Note I have added the guid after the ‘xaml=’ part of this url –

http://demos.datazen.com/m/DashboardServer.axd?xaml=bfd44166-e13f-42a2-b453-da6f7539793c&v=635775225103435624&output=image&width=1024&height=768

Now the item returned in your browser will be a static image of the dashboard, which I can save and use locally.  It only returns the default state  and doesn’t accept parameters in the url.  Nor will it change to reflect the current dashboard state if you’ve interacted with it, etc. –

However, notice the fonts/style match those of the Windows Store App vs. the ones you see in a web browser.  This made it a useful trick when I needed a quick screenshot and I was still using a Windows 8/8.1 machine.  It also gave me an easy blog topic, so perhaps it was more useful than I originally thought.

Now, with that out of the way – Are you ready for some football?