Embedding a data visualisation dashboard

Data visualisation dashboards are a dynamic and interactive way to communicate complex data relationships and provide data-driven insights in an easy-to-understand way. 

Supported data visualisation dashboards

You can embed dashboards on vic.gov.au and other Single Digital Presence (SDP) websites using an iframe.

Below is a list of the data visualisation dashboards that are currently whitelisted for use on vic.gov.au:

• Microsoft Power BI

• Tableau

• Flourish.

If you embed iframe content from a URL that is not on our whitelist (content security policy), it will not display on your live page.

To add a data visualisation URL to our whitelist, you should submit a SDP technical support request (you'll need to log in to Jira or sign up to log requests).

Accessibility requirements

Although we allow the embedding of data visualisation dashboards, we don't encourage them on vic.gov.au because they don't meet our digital accessibility requirements, where content should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. 

Dashboards don't display well on mobile devices and can be difficult to navigate for people using assistive technologies such as screen readers.

If you embed a dashboard on your page, you must add an accessibility disclaimer to your page, including contact details so that users can request your dashboard data in an accessible format.

If you add an external link to your dashboard (instead of embedding it on a page) you don't have to add an accessibility disclaimer to your page.

Data visualisation dashboards accessibility tips

• Microsoft provides some guidance on making your Power BI dashboards accessible, but your dashboards still won't meet the WCAG AA standards.

• Tableau has a free online webinar on applying web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) to data visualisations.

• Flourish posted a blog article detailing three ways to make your charts more accessible.

Sizing and display

When you embed a dashboard, you have the option of setting the height and width of the iframe. You can leave these blank, as your dashboard will always expand to be 818 or 1056 pixels wide.

If social sharing or a site-section navigation (side menu) is enabled, the maximum width your dashboard can display is 818 pixels.

If you disable social sharing or site-section navigation, the maximum width your dashboard can display is 1056 pixels.

If you want your dashboard to display at full-screen size, you'll need to add an external link to your dashboard instead of embedding it on a vic.gov.au page.

Embedding your dashboard

If you’re ready to embed a dashboard on your page, please follow the ‘Embed third-party content on a page using an iframe’ help article.

Power BI and sharing via email

Currently, the ‘share’ feature on Power BI is not fully supported.

To share a Power BI dashboard that is embedded on a Single Digital Presence site, we recommend:

• sharing the full page URL

• clicking the ‘open in a new window’ button under the dashboard and copying the direct Power BI URL.