Concepts underlying dashboards introduces the important concepts underlying the Dashboard Viewer, and describes how to start the Viewer. This chapter illustrates how to use the Dashboard Viewer.
By default, no dashboard is displayed. This chapter describes how to open and work with dashboards.
The Dashboard Viewer main window can open and display one dashboard at a time.
To open a dashboard, select File > Open from the Viewer menu and select the .rtv file you want to open.
A dashboard project can consist of more than one dashboard. In many cases, each dashboard is displayed one at a time, in the Dashboard Viewer main window. In other cases, separate windows are created to display additional dashboards.
Displaying dashboards in separate windows is common for dashboards that are used to create or edit instances.
Any dashboard can be designed to display other dashboards in separate windows. The dashboards may even be nested. Window usage is specified when the dashboard project is created in the Dashboard Builder.
There are four menus on the menu bar. Each has a number of nested menu options.
| Menu > Command | Description |
|---|---|
| File | All operations related to opening, printing, and closing dashboards |
| File > Open | Open a dashboard. |
| File > Print | Print the contents of a dashboard. |
| File > Exit | Exit the Dashboard Viewer. |
| View | All operations that manipulate the dashboard view. |
| View > Zoom In | Zoom in on a location in the dashboard. This switches the pointer to zoom mode, as indicated by the pointer changing to a crosshair ( ). In this mode, you can click on an area of the dashboard to zoom in on it and display it in greater detail. Right click to exit zoom mode. |
| View > Zoom Out | Zoom out on a location in the dashboard. This switches the pointer to zoom mode, as indicated by the pointer changing to a crosshair (). In this mode you can click on an area of the dashboard to zoom out on it and display it in less detail. Right click to exit zoom mode. |
| View > Zoom Rect | Zoom in on an area of the dashboard. This switches the pointer to zoom mode, as indicated by the pointer changing to a crosshair (). In this mode you can click and drag to select an area of the dashboard to zoom in on. Right click to exit zoom mode. |
| View > Pan | Pan the dashboard to show areas not currently displayed. This switches the pointer to pan mode, as indicated by the pointer changing to the pan pointer ( ). In this mode you can click and drag the dashboard to reveal areas not displayed. Right click to exit pan mode. It is not possible to pan if 100% of the dashboard view is visible. |
| View > 100% | Make the entire dashboard visible. |
| Tools | Change preferences |
| Tools> Pause Display | Pause the automatic updating of the dashboard. When not paused the dashboard automatically updates as data changes; when paused, updating does not occur. When paused, clicking on the dashboard will cause it to update. |
| Help > Help Contents | Displays the Apama documentation for your installation. |
| Help > Command Line Options | Displays a list of the Viewer options that you can supply at the command line. |
| Help > About | Displays information about this version of the Dashboard Viewer. |
When a dashboard is created in the Dashboard Builder, the Builder specifies a width and height for the dashboard. You can resize Dashboard Viewer windows, but the aspect ratio of width to height cannot be altered. If you resize a window to a different aspect ratio, the window size will automatically be adjusted in order to maintain the aspect ratio specified in the Builder.
When you resize a Dashboard Viewer window, the objects within it are scaled in order to maintain their size relative to the size of the window. Scaling allows dashboards to be enlarged in order to allow greater detail to be displayed, or reduced so that the dashboard occupies a smaller area of the screen.
When a dashboard Window is reduced in size, objects such as charts will scale all their visual elements in order to maintain proper appearance at the new size. Other objects, such as tables and input controls, adjust their width and height but may not scale all their visual elements, such as fonts in table column headers.
Many of the objects displayed in a dashboard are familiar user interface controls. Their operations will not be covered in this guide. The topics below briefly introduce some of the objects that may not be familiar and that are used for the visualization of complex data.
Trend charts provide the ability to view the performance of one or more DataViews items over time.
If enabled in the Dashboard Builder, trend charts support the ability to zoom in on an area of the chart. To zoom in on an area of a trend chart, click on the chart and drag the pointer to draw a box around the area to be zoomed.
To zoom out of a chart, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the chart.
If enabled in the Dashboard Builder, trend charts support scrolling to view historical values outside the scope of what fits in the trend chart window. Use the horizontal scroll bar to view older values.
The number of values stored in historical data is limited. The limit is defined in the OPTIONS.ini file and can be overridden at startup by specifying options as detailed in Startup options for the Dashboard Viewer.
When the maximum number of values is reached, the Dashboard Viewer begins to remove the oldest values in order to make room for the newest values. When the maximum number of values is reached, you see the oldest values being removed from the end of the trend chart.
Stock charts provide the ability to view open, high, low, and close values, at a specified time interval, for a field of a DataView item. Stock charts support the same zooming, scrolling, and maximum-number-of-values behavior as trend charts.
Tables provide the ability to view variable or field values for multiple DataView items. They are often used for summary displays of DataView items.
Dashboard tables support many common table operations, such as sorting, column resizing, and column ordering. If enabled in the Builder, a table may also support drilldown to display detailed information about a DataView item. To drilldown on an instance or item that is displayed in a table, click on it.
Pie and bar charts are typically used to display summary information about one or more instances.
If enabled in the Builder, a pie or bar chart may also support drilldown to display detailed information about an instance. To drill down on an instance or item that is displayed in a pie or bar chart, click on it.