What you will need
To follow along with this course, you will need:
-
A Neo4j instance (Aura or Desktop)
-
Basic understanding of graph databases, data modeling, and Cypher query language (optional)
If you are new to Neo4j, familiarize yourself with the following courses:
Introducing Neo4j Dashboards
Neo4j Dashboards is a tool for visualizing and exploring your graph data. Using the Movies dataset, you’ll learn to build dashboards that visualize insights about movies, actors, ratings, and relationships.
Use the Natural Language feature in the card editor to ask questions about your movie data (e.g., "Show movies by decade" or "Visualize actor relationships"), and Neo4j Dashboards will generate the Cypher queries and visualizations for you.
The Movies dataset: Throughout this course, you’ll work with the same Movies dataset used in the Neo4j Fundamentals, Graph Data Modeling Fundamentals, and Aura Fundamentals courses. This dataset contains information about movies, actors, directors, genres, and ratings—perfect for building dashboards.
The picture below shows a sample dashboard that visualizes movie data sorted by decade, helping you understand how movie production has changed over time:
Dashboards help you:
-
Visualize patterns in ratings and movie popularity
-
Monitor trends in genre preferences and actor collaborations
-
Share insights with stakeholders (content teams, marketing, executives)
-
Explore data interactively without writing complex queries
-
Make data-driven decisions based on visual insights
In this course, you will learn how to build dashboards similar to the one below using the Movies dataset:
Check your understanding
Purpose of Neo4j Dashboards
Which of the following statements best describes the primary purpose of the Neo4j dashboard tool?
-
✓ The dashboard tool enables you to create visual representations of your graph data and share insights with stakeholders.
-
❏ The dashboard tool is designed for administrators to manage user roles and permissions in Neo4j instances.
-
❏ The dashboard tool is primarily used for importing large datasets into the Neo4j instance.
-
❏ The dashboard tool only works with natural language and does not support writing Cypher queries.
Hint
Dashboards transform data into visual insights that can be shared with stakeholders. You can create visualizations using natural language prompts (which generate Cypher queries) or by writing Cypher queries directly.
Solution
The dashboard tool enables you to create visual representations of your graph data and share insights with stakeholders.
Neo4j Dashboards allows you to visualize your graph data in multiple ways. You can use natural language prompts to generate queries automatically, or write Cypher queries directly for more control. The primary purpose is to create visual insights that help stakeholders understand data patterns and make data-driven decisions.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned how Neo4j Dashboards can visualize movie data, actor relationships, and user preferences to help stakeholders make data-driven decisions. This course uses the Movies dataset to demonstrate dashboard creation.
In the next lesson, you will learn how to access Dashboards.
Access
If you’re using Neo4j Aura, you’ll learn how to create an account and navigate the interface. If you’re using Self-Managed Neo4j, you’ll learn how to access the Dashboards feature.