The Dashboard Spy has launched a series of video tutorials on business intelligence dashboard design and commentary. Named “Ask The Dashboard Spy”, these videos feature the Dashboard Spy answering questions from the blog readership.

The first video demonstrates how to code basic HTML and CSS for the following dashboard portlet. View the video at the main Dashboard Spy site: Ask The Dashboard Spy.

While very simple, this portlet is actually quite interesting. The HTML is simple and straight-forward, but the portlet actually serves a pie chart with dynamically updated data. How? Here’s a clue - have you used the google docs web-based spreadsheet? It allows web publishing of spreadsheet graphics! View the end of the video for how I integrate the google spreadsheet for a poor man’s dashboard portlet.

Tags: Dashboard Video Tutorial, Ask The Dashboard Spy, Coding HTML for Dashboard Portlets