Canvas Dashboards: Support dashboard filters for embedded Classic Reports and enable cross-object reporting datasets

Product area / feature area

Adobe Workfront > Reporting > Canvas Dashboards

Sub-areas: dashboard-level filters/prompts, Classic Report interoperability, cross-object reporting

Current behavior

Canvas Dashboards can include existing Classic Reports, but dashboard-level filters/prompts do not apply to those embedded reports. Filtering only works consistently for Canvas-native reports.

Canvas also has limited support for combining related-object data, making it difficult to build reports that bring together fields like Project + Task in one view.

Desired behavior

Dashboard-level filters/prompts should apply to eligible embedded Classic Reports so users can filter all dashboard blocks consistently.

Canvas should also support stronger cross-object reporting so users can combine related data in a single dataset or visualization without duplicating logic or relying on external workarounds.

At minimum, this could include:

• Full support for related-object fields,
• Supported join model for related objects,
• Another built-in option that delivers the same outcome.

Clear messaging should also explain when a filter cannot apply to a report block.

Business use case

Our customer needs Canvas Dashboards for operational and management reporting while still reusing existing reports and combining related work data.

More broadly, this would help customers who are:

• Migrating from Classic Reporting to Canvas
• Standardizing executive or PMO dashboards
• Mixing Classic and Canvas reports during transition
• Needing one dashboard to show both parent- and child-level data.

Business impact

Without this enhancement:

• Teams must rebuild report logic manually
• Dashboards behave inconsistently
• Adoption of Canvas slows
• Reporting views remain incomplete
• Users spend more time reconciling data manually
• Migration from Classic Reporting becomes harder

Customer impact / scale

For our customer, this is already limiting reporting capability and Canvas adoption.

More broadly, it affects enterprises adopting Canvas Dashboards, especially those with a large investment in Classic Reports and shared dashboards used by PMO, operations, and leadership teams.

Priority / urgency

High.

This is important now because customers are actively evaluating Canvas Dashboards as the future reporting experience. If key reporting use cases are not supported, adoption and migration are delayed.

Workaround

Current workarounds include:

• Rebuilding reports as Canvas-native,
• Continuing to use Classic Dashboards,
• Splitting reporting across multiple dashboards,
• Recreating logic manually outside Canvas.

These options are inefficient and do not fully solve the problem.

Examples or scenarios

Scenario 1: operational dashboard

A Classic Report is embedded in a Canvas Dashboard alongside Canvas-native widgets. A month filter updates the Canvas widgets, but not the Classic Report, creating inconsistent results.

Scenario 2: Cross-object governance reporting

A customer wants one dashboard showing project-level data together with task-level execution details. Canvas cannot fully support this, so the reporting experience becomes fragmented.

Scenario 3: Phased migration from Classic to Canvas

A customer wants to move to Canvas gradually by reusing trusted Classic Reports. Since embedded Classic Reports do not respond to dashboard filters, the transition becomes harder and less scalable.