Knowledge Base

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The Widget Selection Panel permits easy drag-and-drop of widgets from a tree on the left into the dashboard workspace. Visible layout targets remind the user of the original layout chosen via the dashboard wizard. Result selection is supported at both the dashboard- and widget-level and persists between sessions at both levels. Dashboards can mix charts and data from tests, monitors and external data sources.
System dashboards group similar widgets and provide a variety of data sets useful for most tests. System dashboards can be saved with alternate names in order to create custom dashboards ar new dashboards can be quickly built for the needs of a given test.
New dashboards open with the Toggle Widget Selection Panel on the left and the selected layout in the workspace on the right. The Widget Selection Panel permits easy drag-and-drop of widgets from a tree on the left into the dashboard workspace, where visible layout targets remind the user of the original layout chosen via the dashboard wizard. Building a dashboard is similar to the way a personal home page is built on portal web sites. A dashboard can have many widgets—each of which presents test information in a different way.
A guideline appears to indicate where a widget will be placed if it is dropped above between widgets already in the dashboard. Open areas of a dashboard that already has one or more widgets show a gray background whenever a widget drag event occurs. Combine like information on a dashboard to manage your results by tab—one dashboard for each unit of a test. For additional complexity, combine and correlate two or more like widgets by dropping one widget onto another.
Click the Toolbar Widget Selection Panel button to toggle the Widget Selection Panel on or off. For new dashboards, the Widget Selection Panel appears automatically toggled on. In the Composition Editor, the dashboard buttons appear only in the Play and Results tabs (shown right).
Toggle the Dashboard Edit Mode button to edit layout, color, and other settings for dashboards or for a selected widgets. The toolbar on the right is in a dashboard opened from or created while Central > Dashboards was selected).
Select the panel’s right vertical edge to resize it left or right.
Widget Selection Panel Sections The Widget Selection tree contains the following sections: TIP: Expand or collapse the sections in the tree to increase visual space for the section that you want to view. Dashboard Data Apply result items to the full dashboard. Results can additionally filtered via the use of relative time ranges that filter the result’s time range. Choose from among Basic, Charts, Containers, Custom, Logging, Maps, Monitor, and Utilities (formerly Monitoring Utilities) widgets. Any external data sources configured also appear here. Use “Most recent from this composition” to display the last test result from a composition’s dashboard (e.g. Composition Editor > Play or Results tabs). Use Other Compositions to select from results for compositions. Click the arrow to expand a composition’s node in this list.
Widget Data Apply result items to a selected widget. Use the Dashboard Data selection to select or restore the result selection from the Dashboard Data section above. Use Other Compositions to select from results for the selected widget. Click the arrow to expand a composition’s node in this list.
Monitors Apply a monitor selection, as well as an Aggregation Level, in order to display widgets for those selections in the Widget Type list below. “Use Monitors from Composition” is used to apply monitors set for a test composition via the Composition Editor > Properties > Monitoring tab. Use Other Monitors to select from configured monitors.
Aggregation Level Apply aggregate data from configured monitors or monitor server groups.
Widget Type Add widgets to the dashboard, combine or correlate widgets by dropping them onto other widgets. Selected widgets in the dashboard automatically scroll this list to that selection. Select a widget category from the list. Locate configured external data sources, if any, at the bottom of the Widget Type list. Description For any selected widget in the Widget Type list, a brief description appears.