This part describes how to use the Apama Dashboard Viewer, which is the runtime viewer for local deployments of Apama dashboards. It provides the ability to view and interact with dashboards that are receiving live data from an Apama dashboard server. Dashboard servers serve dashboards for applications running in Apama correlators.
It is assumed that you have already installed the Dashboard Viewer. Using the Dashboard Viewer describes how to use the various visualization objects that are included in dashboards. Startup options for the Dashboard Viewer provides advanced information on starting the Dashboard Viewer.
About dashboards
Dashboards provide the ability to view and interact with applications running in a correlator. Dashboards contain charts and other objects that allow you to visualize the status, performance, and attributes of Apama applications including any DataViews. Dashboards can also contain control objects for creating, editing, and deleting instances, as well as for sending events to a correlator.
Dashboard displays are stored in .rtv files. A dashboard project includes .rtv, image, and audio files. A dashboard project is deployed in a single directory with one or more subdirectories containing the files of the project. To use a dashboard, the Dashboard Viewer must have access to all the files in the associated dashboard-project directory.
Deployed dashboards connect to a dashboard data server, which in turn connects to one or more correlators. The dashboard data server is the middle-tier between users and the correlator. It provides for both scalability and security. As the DataViews in a correlator run, and their variables or fields change, update events are sent to dashboard data servers, which in turn send the data to all connected dashboards. When a dashboard receives an update event, it updates its display in real time to show the behavior of the application. User interactions with the dashboard, such as creating an instance, result in control events being sent via the data server to the correlator.
The following diagram illustrates the runtime deployment of dashboards:
Starting the Dashboard Viewer
The Dashboard Viewer can be started by running the dashboard_viewer executable, located in the Apama bin directory. The start-up options supported by Dashboard Viewer are detailed in Startup options for the Dashboard Viewer.
When you start the Viewer, the data server login prompt appears.
By default, you can log in with any user name and password, but your user name must match the owner of any DataView items that you want to view. Your dashboard administrator might have implemented a non-default authentication and authorization scheme.
The recommended deployment for the Dashboard Viewer is through a dashboard data server. The Connect directly to correlator check box allows you to connect directly to a correlator without the use of a data server. This is not recommended for live deployments, as it is not secure and not as scalable as connections via the data server.
If all attachments and commands use named data servers, you can check the Only using named data server connections check box and omit specification of a default server.
DataView item ownership
The DataView items in a correlator include an attribute identifying the owner of the instance. When an instance is created through Dashboard Builder, it provides the current user ID as the owner of the instance.
When viewing DataView items in Dashboard Builder, you are by default only allowed to see and operate on those instances or items that you own; that is, by default the current user ID must match the owner attribute of the instance or item. Your dashboard administrator might have implemented a non-default authorization scheme.
