How Bold BI Stores and Manages Dashboards in Embedded Applications

Overview

When Bold BI is embedded into an application, dashboards are created, saved, and managed by the Bold BI Server — not stored as files within the application that embeds them.

The host application uses the Bold BI Embed SDK and REST APIs to display and interact with dashboards, while dashboard definitions, resources, and related information are maintained by Bold BI.

Introduction

A common question when embedding Bold BI into a .NET Core application is:

“Where are the dashboards stored? Are they saved as files within our application, or can they be stored in a database or cloud storage such as Azure Blob Storage?”

When Bold BI is embedded into an application, dashboard storage is entirely managed by Bold BI. Although users can create, edit, save, and publish dashboards from within the embedded experience, the dashboards are not stored or managed by the host application.

For example, a user may design and publish a dashboard from your .NET Core application using the embedded dashboard designer. In this scenario, the save request is initiated from the embedded application, but the dashboard is stored and managed by the Bold BI Server. The embedding application acts as the interface through which users interact with Bold BI, while dashboard persistence and storage remain the responsibility of Bold BI.

The actual storage location is determined by the Bold BI deployment configuration. Dashboard information is stored in the configured Bold BI database, while associated resources can be stored using local file storage or supported object storage providers such as Azure Blob Storage, Amazon S3, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Object Storage.

As a result, the embedding application does not need to maintain dashboard files, implement dashboard storage logic, or manage storage infrastructure. Users can create and save dashboards from the embedded application, but the ownership of dashboard storage and management always remains with Bold BI.

Data Storage in Bold BI

During Bold BI application startup, database and storage configurations are provided to manage application information and resources.

The Bold BI stores dashboards metadata, users, and their resource access permissions. Supporting resources are maintained using the configured storage type, as described below.

Resource Storage Configuration

Bold BI also provides storage configuration for application resources, based on the selected configuration mode:

Simple mode: A single database is used for Bold ID, Bold BI, and Data Store, and sites are deployed to the local file system by default.
Advanced mode: Separate databases can be configured for Bold ID, Bold BI, and Data Store. Storage for Bold ID and Bold BI resources can also be configured independently. In Advanced mode, the default storage type for Bold ID and Bold BI resources is File Storage. Bold BI also supports the following object storage options:
- Azure Blob Storage
- Amazon S3
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Object Storage

Conclusion

Bold BI manages dashboard resources independently of the application in which it is embedded. The required database and storage locations are configured during Bold BI application setup and can use local file storage or a supported object storage provider depending on your deployment needs.