---
title: "Build a dashboard using the Infinity data source | Grafana Labs"
description: "Learn how to build a dashboard that visualizes JSON data"
---

# Build a dashboard using the Infinity data source

A Grafana dashboard is a set of one or more [panels](/docs/grafana/intro-to-data-sources/panels-visualizations/panel-overview/), organized and arranged into one or more rows or tabs, 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 visualizations.

A data source can be an SQL database, Grafana Loki, Grafana Mimir, or an API endpoint. 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.

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The instructions in this milestone are based on the publicly available [Traffic density](https://thingspeak.com/channels/38629/feed.json) JSON file, which has the following structure.

JSON ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```json
{
  "channel": {
    "id": 38629,
    "name": "Traffic Monitor",
    "description": "Traffic Monitor showing density of cars detected",
    "latitude": "42.28",
    "longitude": "-71.35",
    "field1": "Density of Westbound Cars",
    "field2": "Density of Eastbound Cars",
    "created_at": "2015-05-19T20:14:03Z",
    "updated_at": "2019-07-24T20:12:00Z",
    "last_entry_id": 18679924
  },
  "feeds": [
    {
      "created_at": "2025-04-02T17:44:34Z",
      "entry_id": 18679825,
      "field1": "7.000000",
      "field2": "7.000000"
    },
```

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

01. Click **Dashboards** in the main menu.
02. Click **New** and select **New Dashboard**.
03. Click the **Add new element** icon (blue plus sign) and click or drag a panel onto the dashboard.
    
    [](/media/docs/grafana/dashboards/screenshot-empty-dashboard-v13.0.png)
04. Click **Configure visualization**.
05. In the **Queries** tab, click the **Data source** drop-down list.
06. Search for the Infinity data source and select it.
07. In the URL field, enter the URL endpoint of the JSON data you want to visualize.
    
    For example: `https://thingspeak.com/channels/38629/feed.json`
08. Expand **Parsing options & Result fields**.
09. In the **Rows/Root** field, enter a row name.
    
    For example, enter `feeds`.
    
    > Did you know?
    > 
    > Many APIs return more data than what you want to show in Grafana. For example, they might return metadata about the number of records, the last time the data was updated, or sensor location. The Infinity data source gives you the ability to specify the section of data that’s relevant for your graph. In the traffic density data, the relevant section is the `feeds` field. Specifying this field means that the visualization will only contain data that belongs to that section.
10. Click **Add Columns**.
11. Complete the following fields:
    
    - **Selector**, for example `created_at`
    - **Title**, for example `Created at`
    - **format as**, for example `Time`
12. Continue adding columns, as necessary.
13. Click **Refresh**.
    
    You should see a dashboard preview.
14. Click **Save dashboard**.
15. Enter a message and click **Save**.
    
    The dashboard is now available for others to see.