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Grafana Cloud Enterprise Open source

Data flow

This page explains how the Business Variable panel processes data.

A visualization panel versus the Business Variable panel

The following two schemas compare data flow in different panel types. The first schema shows the data flow for a regular Grafana visualization panel. Typically, a panel requires a data source to fetch data for display.

Data flow when working with a regular Grafana visualization panel.

The Business Variable panel doesn’t require a data source. The panel works with your dashboard variable, which is already a set of values. The Business Variable panel uses your dashboard variable as a data source.

You can optionally use a data source for two purposes:

  • To display a color status next to your variable, provide a numeric value to evaluate using thresholds.
  • To create a TreeView format, provide node relations through the connected data source.
Data flow when working with the Business Variable panel.