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Rolling out to selected workspaces. SourceMedium Dashboards is not available in every workspace yet, and labels on the Dashboards & Apps page can change while it rolls out. If your workspace does not show it, use your own Metabase today or contact support.

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TL;DR

  • SourceMedium Dashboards is a Metabase that SourceMedium runs for your workspace, built on open-source Metabase. It comes with the same foundation dashboards the Metabase template installs.
  • A workspace Admin or Editor sets it up from Dashboards & Apps. There is no server to run, no key file to download and no Metabase account to create.
  • You open it from SourceMedium and sign in with your SourceMedium account. There is no second login.
  • Admins and Editors build questions (in the query builder or SQL), dashboards and collections. Viewers view.
  • SourceMedium administers it, so some Metabase features are not included. For full control, run your own Metabase instead: compare the two.
SourceMedium is not affiliated with or endorsed by Metabase, Inc. See Open source and license.

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Your workspace address

Your dashboards open at <workspace>-dashboards.sourcemedium.app, for example democo-dashboards.sourcemedium.app. An app SourceMedium hosts for the same workspace uses <workspace>-app.sourcemedium.app. The workspace part is shared and stays the same when you rename your workspace. Your existing dashboard links keep working when SourceMedium updates the address.

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What you get

  • One Metabase per workspace. It has its own server, its own application database for your content, and its own read-only warehouse credential. No other customer’s content or credentials are in it.
  • The foundation, kept current. SourceMedium installs the foundation dashboards, models, metrics and SQL snippets, and updates them when the Metabase template is released, a few workspaces at a time.
  • Always on. It is not stopped when nobody is using it, so opening it does not wait for Metabase to start. SourceMedium applies updates in a weekly maintenance window, and repairs can occasionally interrupt it at other times.
  • A credential you never handle. SourceMedium holds the warehouse credential. It is listed among your app keys as read-only: it cannot be downloaded, replaced or revoked there, and removing the app revokes it.

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Set it up

You need an Admin or Editor role in the workspace, and an active warehouse that has delivered your data.
  1. Open Dashboards & Apps and find the Metabase section. On the SourceMedium Dashboards card, choose Set up.
  2. If your workspace has more than one store, choose a reporting store. The foundation’s money totals default to that store and its currency, so adding a store with a different currency later cannot silently change a total. The All stores tab still shows every store as its own row, and anyone can pick another store in the Store filter or from that tab. The reporting store is a default, not an access restriction. With one store, it is chosen for you.
  3. Confirm. The card shows the setup’s progress. You can leave the page; setup continues without you.
Before it installs anything, setup checks that your warehouse is reachable, that SourceMedium’s metric catalog and the tables the Overview tab needs have been delivered, and that each store has a reporting currency. If a check fails, the card says what to fix. Content whose sources your warehouse does not deliver is left out and listed on the card. If the tables exist but hold no rows yet, the dashboards install and show as empty rather than failing. If setup stops on a problem that can be fixed, Retry setup resumes the same setup. It does not create a second copy.

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Open it

Choose Open on the card. You are signed in with your SourceMedium account; you never get or need a Metabase password.
  • Each member has their own Metabase user, so edits and revision history show who made them.
  • A change to your SourceMedium role or access takes effect on the next request your browser makes to it.
  • Signing out inside Metabase signs you out of this Metabase on all your devices. You stay signed in to SourceMedium, and Open signs you in again.
  • Signing out of SourceMedium also ends your sessions in this Metabase.

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Who can do what

Every member also has a personal collection. Access limited to brands or stores cannot open it because its warehouse connection reaches every store in the workspace, and open-source Metabase cannot restrict rows by store. Store and channel filters help you navigate; they do not restrict access. SourceMedium refuses to open it for a scoped grant rather than show data the grant does not cover. Manage who has access in SourceMedium (roles and permissions), not in Metabase. Removing someone’s access ends it on their next request. Content they created stays.

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Pause, resume or remove

An Admin or Editor can do each of these from the card.
  • Pause stops everyone from opening it. Metabase keeps running and nothing is deleted.
  • Resume reopens it straight away.
  • Remove asks you to type a confirmation. Access ends at once, Metabase stops and its warehouse credential is revoked. SourceMedium keeps its content for 30 days. Within those 30 days, contact support to restore it; restoring it applies your current members and roles, and everyone signs in again. While it can still be restored, Set up points you to a restore rather than creating a second copy.
After 30 days your Metabase and its content are deleted. Copies in SourceMedium’s routine backups are not erased at that moment; they expire on those backups’ own schedule. Pausing your SourceMedium workspace blocks access and turns off its warehouse credential. When a workspace is offboarded, SourceMedium offers an export before deleting your Metabase.

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What is not included

SourceMedium Dashboards runs Metabase’s open-source edition and is administered by SourceMedium, so these are not available:
  • Metabase administration: users, groups, database connections, settings and API keys. Access comes from SourceMedium roles.
  • Server access, plugins and extra database drivers.
  • Public links and embedding.
  • Email and Slack subscriptions and alerts.
  • Uploading files as tables, and writing to your warehouse.
  • API access for your own scripts or AI agents.
  • Features of Metabase’s paid plans, such as row and column security, single sign-on settings and snippet folder permissions.
  • Opening it with access limited to specific brands or stores (why).
If you need any of these, run your own Metabase. You can use both.

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Customize the foundation

The foundation lives in the SourceMedium foundation collection. It is view-only, so SourceMedium can keep it current without touching your work. Metabase foundation dashboards describes each tab and what its numbers mean. To change a question or dashboard, duplicate it into Our dashboards (shared with the workspace) or your personal collection, then edit the copy.
  • Your copy keeps your edits. Foundation updates never overwrite or adopt it.
  • References follow the foundation. A copied dashboard card that still points to a foundation question, a question built on a foundation question or model, and SQL that uses a foundation snippet ({{snippet: SM ...}}) all pick up SourceMedium’s changes. Only what you copied is yours.
  • Foundation snippets cannot be edited or archived, because foundation questions compute their metrics from them. Create your own snippets for your own SQL.
To keep a definition from changing with the foundation, copy the snippet’s SQL into your question instead of referencing it, or point your dashboard card at your own copy of the question.

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Query cost

Every question you run, and every dashboard card that loads, runs a BigQuery job. SQL questions can scan a lot of data and can incur warehouse charges.
  • Queries run in your warehouse’s query project with its billing, reservations and limits, as they do for any app credential.
  • All queries use your workspace’s warehouse identity, so usage is attributed to your workspace, not to individual members.
  • SourceMedium sets a query timeout and turns off Metabase’s scheduled filter-value scans and table refingerprinting. These limit routine background cost; they are not a spending cap. There is no per-workspace spending cap or query budget.
  • Setup and the daily schema sync also run queries. On SourceMedium’s small demo warehouse, setup and its first checks billed about 4 GB.
Its warehouse credential reads what an app credential reads. On a dedicated warehouse, that is every dataset in the warehouse project, including datasets you create later. On a shared warehouse, it is the datasets granted to your workspace plus shared utility datasets. Anyone who can write SQL in SourceMedium Dashboards can query all of it.

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Move to your own Metabase

To move to a Metabase you run, contact support. The same export is offered when a workspace is offboarded.
  1. SourceMedium makes the export from an isolated copy of your Metabase, never from the live one. It keeps your questions, dashboards, collections, users and revision history, and removes SourceMedium’s credentials, sessions and sharing settings.
  2. You receive a backup of Metabase’s application database, the encryption key Metabase needs to read it, the Metabase version it was made on, and restore instructions. An administrator login for your team is sent separately through a secure channel.
  3. Restore it into a Metabase you run on that version, and sign in as that administrator. Other members’ passwords must be reset before they can sign in.
  4. Download a key file and upload it on the existing SourceMedium database connection in Metabase. Your questions keep working on the same connection.
When the new Metabase works, an Admin or Editor can remove SourceMedium Dashboards.

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Open source and license

SourceMedium Dashboards runs the unmodified open-source edition of Metabase, which Metabase, Inc. publishes under the GNU Affero General Public License. SourceMedium does not patch it or add plugins. Metabase’s own version and license notices stay in the product, on its About screen. SourceMedium is not affiliated with or endorsed by Metabase, Inc.

Which Metabase should I use?

Compare SourceMedium Dashboards with running your own Metabase.

Metabase foundation dashboards

Every tab and what its numbers mean.