How We Build Fully Custom Dashboards in Drupal 10: Role-Based UI, Reports & Admin UX

At Arudhra IT Techs, we specialize in building custom dashboards in Drupal 10 that are more than just a bunch of blocks. Our dashboards are role-based, permission-controlled, report-driven, and optimized for productivity — built using custom modules, Views, AJAX, and secure layouts.

🔐 Step 1: Role-Based Routing for Your Dashboard

We always start by registering a route that only a specific role can access:

# my_module.routing.yml
my_module.admin_dashboard:
  path: '/admin/dashboard'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\my_module\Controller\AdminDashboardController::dashboard'
    _title: 'Admin Dashboard'
  requirements:
    _permission: 'access admin dashboard'
  options:
    _admin_route: TRUE

🔑 Keyword: Drupal 10 route access is permission-controlled. You can also use _role if needed for role-specific dashboards.

🧠 Step 2: Create the Controller and Layout

In the controller, we load dynamic content blocks, charts, or View render arrays based on user role.

// src/Controller/AdminDashboardController.php
namespace Drupal\my_module\Controller;
use Drupal\Core\Controller\ControllerBase;
class AdminDashboardController extends ControllerBase {
  public function dashboard() {
    return [
      '#theme' => 'admin_dashboard',
      '#data' => [
        'user_count' => $this->getUserCount(),
        'latest_orders' => $this->getLatestOrders(),
      ],
    ];
  }
  private function getUserCount() {
    $query = \Drupal::entityQuery('user')->count()->execute();
    return $query;
  }
  private function getLatestOrders() {
    // Load data from a custom entity, orders, or commerce.
    $storage = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('commerce_order');
    return $storage->loadMultiple(5);
  }
}

🔑 Keyword: This is a basic custom Drupal 10 dashboard controller — you can output render arrays, render Views, or theme custom templates.

🧩 Step 3: Custom Twig Template for Dashboard

Your template file (e.g., admin-dashboard.html.twig) can contain cards, charts, or table components:

     Total Users
        {{ data.user_count }}
      Recent Orders
        
          {% for order in data.latest_orders %}
            {{ order.label }}
          {% endfor %}

📊 Step 4: Inject Drupal Views into Your Dashboard

You can render Views directly into your controller using the following method:

$view = \Drupal\views\Views::getView('user_report');
$view->setDisplay('block_1');
$view->preExecute();
$view->execute();
$build = $view->render();

🔑 Keyword: Injecting Views into Drupal 10 dashboard is a powerful way to build visual reports and filters.

📋 Step 5: Secure Admin UX with Permissions

In your my_module.permissions.yml file, define permissions like:

access admin dashboard:
  title: 'Access custom admin dashboard'
  description: 'Allows access to the Drupal 10 dashboard.'

Assign it per role, and create unique dashboards for:

• 🧑‍💼 Admin
• 📦 Vendor
• 💬 Manager

⚡ Step 6: Add AJAX and Dynamic Filters

Want live stats, toggle widgets, or filters? Use AJAX in your form:

$form['filter'] = [
  '#type' => 'select',
  '#options' => [1 => 'Today', 7 => 'This Week', 30 => 'This Month'],
  '#ajax' => [
    'callback' => '::updateDashboardContent',
    'wrapper' => 'dashboard-content',
  ],
];
$form['dashboard_content'] = [
  '#type' => 'container',
  '#attributes' => ['id' => 'dashboard-content'],
];

🔑 Keyword: AJAX-based Drupal dashboard keeps things reactive and smooth.

📂 Step 7: Custom Block Plugins for Dashboard Widgets

For reusable widgets across admin pages, create a custom block:

// src/Plugin/Block/UserStatsBlock.php
namespace Drupal\my_module\Plugin\Block;
use Drupal\Core\Block\BlockBase;
/**
 * @Block(
 *   id = "user_stats_block",
 *   admin_label = @Translation("User Stats Block")
 * )
 */
class UserStatsBlock extends BlockBase {
  public function build() {
    $count = \Drupal::entityQuery('user')->count()->execute();
    return [
      '#markup' => "$count users",
    ];
  }
}

🔑 Keyword: Drupal 10 dashboard widgets should be built as custom block plugins for reusability and performance.

🧪 Bonus: Export Reports as PDF or CSV

Use dompdf or Mpdf libraries to generate reports from Views or tables:

$html = 'User Report...';
$dompdf = new \Dompdf\Dompdf();
$dompdf->loadHtml($html);
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream("user-report.pdf");

🔑 Keyword: Add PDF export to Drupal dashboard for admin report generation.