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Visualize CSV data
13 min
Milestone 1
The case for observability
2 min
Milestone 2
Advantages
1 min
Milestone 3
Install data source
1 min
Milestone 4
Add data source
1 min
Milestone 5
Enter authentication credentials
1 min
Milestone 6
Test connection
1 min
Milestone 7
Select PDC and test connection
1 min
Milestone 8
Build dashboard
2 min
Milestone 9
Destination reached!
1 min

Build a dashboard using the Infinity data source

A Grafana dashboard is a set of one or more panels, organized and arranged into one or more rows, that provide an at-a-glance view of related information. These panels are created using components that query and transform raw data from a data source into charts, graphs, and other visualizations.

A data source can be an SQL database, Grafana Loki, Grafana Mimir, or a JSON-based API. It can even be a basic CSV file. Data source plugins take a query you want answered, retrieve the data from the data source, and reconcile the differences between the data model of the data source and the data model of Grafana dashboards.

The instructions in this milestone are based on the publicly available Traffic density CSV file, which has the following structure.

csv 
created_at,entry_id,field1,field2
2025-04-07 12:19:26 UTC,18706390,6.000000,20.000000
2025-04-07 12:19:41 UTC,18706391,4.000000,19.000000
2025-04-07 12:19:56 UTC,18706392,8.000000,25.000000
2025-04-07 12:20:11 UTC,18706393,7.000000,27.000000
2025-04-07 12:20:26 UTC,18706394,8.000000,25.000000
2025-04-07 12:20:42 UTC,18706395,11.000000,29.000000
2025-04-07 12:20:57 UTC,18706396,15.000000,28.000000
2025-04-07 12:21:13 UTC,18706397,11.000000,18.000000
2025-04-07 12:21:29 UTC,18706398,4.000000,18.000000
2025-04-07 12:21:44 UTC,18706399,12.000000,20.000000
2025-04-07 12:21:59 UTC,18706400,5.000000,21.000000

To build a dashboard with the Infinity data source, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Dashboards in the main menu.

  2. Click New and select New Dashboard.

  3. On the empty dashboard, click + Add visualization.

    Empty dashboard state

  1. Search for the Infinity data source and select it.

  2. In the Type dropdown field, select CSV.

  3. In the URL field, enter the URL endpoint of the CSV data you want to visualize.

    For example: https://thingspeak.com/channels/38629/feed.csv

    Example that shows a populated URL

  4. Expand Parsing options & Result fields.

  5. In the Advanced Options section, type , on the Delimiter field.

  6. Click Add Columns.

  7. Complete the following fields:

    • Column Name, for example created_at
    • Title, for example Created at
    • format as, for example Time

  8. Continue adding columns for the field1 and field2 column:

    • Column Name, for example field1

    • Title, for example Density of Westbound Cars

    • format as, for example Number

    • Column Name, for example field2

    • Title, for example Density of Eastbound Cars

    • format as, for example Number

  9. Click Refresh.

    You should see a dashboard preview.

  10. Click Save dashboard.

  11. Enter a message and click Save.

The dashboard is now available for others to see.

More to explore (optional)

At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths:

Modify dashboard settings

Manage dashboards

Filtering data / Using template variables in Query

Select PDC and test connection
page 9 of 10
Destination reached!