Configuring the Data mart explorer template

Before you begin

Create a data mart that provides the time series or category details about the entities and contains numeric values. For more information, see  Creating-a-SQL-based-data-mart-for-a-custom-view-in-the-TrueSight-console.

To configure the template

The following video (9:01) illustrates the process of creating a custom view by using the Data mart explorer template.

https://youtu.be/uKmXVWHkSbo

1. Open the view page with the Data mart explorer template:
   • When creating a new view, click the Add View option, and select Data mart explorer as the template. For detailed steps, see Adding-and-managing-views.
   • When creating a new page in an existing view, click Add a new page option, and select Data mart explorer as the template. For detailed steps, see To add a page to an existing custom view.
2. In the view page, specify the following information:
   1. Title: Type the required title for the page.
   2. In the filter area, click select the required data mart from the list. Options displayed in the list are based on the data marts selected for charts and table. 
   3. Add filter: You can add the filter using one of the following configurations:
      • Basic configuration: Select a column from the drop-down list. The list displays the columns from the data mart that you selected in the previous step (primary data mart).
      • Advanced configuration: Click the Advanced link. You can configure one of the following settings:
      • 
        
        • Data mart: Select this option to add a filter with a column from a different data mart than the primary data mart. By default, the primary data mart is displayed. You can also mark this filter as required to restrict the data to be displayed automatically in the view.
          In the custom view, the required filter is denoted by an asterisk. If you have configured multiple filters and at least one of them is the required filter, the data is not displayed unless you select the values for all required filters.
        • Free text name: Select this option to add a filter with a free text and provide the following values:
          • Name for the free text. It is recommended to use the custom filter macro while creating the primary data mart and use the free text name as the parameter ID. For more information, see Creating-a-SQL-based-data-mart-for-a-custom-view-in-the-TrueSight-console and Using-filter-macros-with-SQL-queries.
          • Label, description, and size of the free text input filed that is displayed for this filter in the view.
            
            
      Consider the following example that shows the use of filters on the view page

      Consider that you have configured three filters and filter 2 (Entid) is a required filter.The output of the custom view page is as follows. No data is displayed because no value is selected in the Entid filter. Select a value in the Entid filter. The custom view page displays data. You can also select a value for the Host ID filter.Because every filter is dependent on the previous filter, when you select a value for the Entname filter, the values in the Entid and Host ID filters get cleared.
      Create quick filter for Filter 1: Select the check box to display Filter 1 as a quick filter on the custom view page. All distinct values of Filter 1 are available as clickable buttons. The following figure shows an example of how the quick filter appears on the custom view page:
      
      Hierarchical filters: When selected, the filters follow the hierarchy on the custom view page. Every filter acts as a parent filter for the filter next to it. The data in the view is filtered based on the value selected in filter 1, then by filter 2, filter 3, and so on. When you clear the values in any filter, the values in the dependent filters get cleared.
      InformationYou can configure a maximum of 20 filters on a page.
      
      
   4. (Optional) To add a custom text, click Add custom text. To update an existing custom text, click Change in the custom text panel. You can add descriptions, instructions, links, or any other textual information for the users of the view page. You can use markdown tags to format the content of custom text and to add images, links, and tables. For example, you can add a description such as “Displays performance metrics for Payroll application”, or a label such as "NY Datacenter - Capacity Metrics". In the Editor panel, specify the following, and click Apply:
      • Title: Type the required title for the custom text.
      • Always expand custom text: Use this option to toggle the display of custom text as expanded or collapsed.
      • Editor: Type the required content and format it by using markdown tags such as * to create an unordered list and # to increase the font size. A preview of the formatted content is displayed in the Preview section.
      • Insert image: Enable you to add an image. The selected image is displayed in the Preview section. 
      Click here to view the examples of markdown tags

      The following image illustrates the preview of the commonly-used standard markdown language tags. For more information about markdown tags, see Showdown's Markdown syntax.

   5. To configure the charts, click in the individual chart.  denotes that the display of the chart is enabled. 

      Configure the following properties for charts:

      1. Template: Select a template from the list, based on which to render the chart. The following templates are available.

         • Category - Bar Chart
         • Category - Horizontal Bar Chart
         • Category - Horizontal Stacked Bar Chart
         • Category - Stacked Bar Chart
         • Summary - Pie Chart
         • Time - Area Chart
         • Time - Bar Chart
         • Time - Line Chart
         • Time - Stacked Area Chart
         • Time - Stacked Bar Chart 
         • <Custom analysis templates that you have created in the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console>
           Only custom templates created using the Enterprise Reporting analysis type are displayed in this list. For information about creating the Enterprise Reporting analysis, see Manually-creating-an-analysis.
           
           For information about the types of charts, see Analysis-chart-types-supported-in-the-TrueSight-console. 

         The following functions from the analysis chart types are not supported in the charts: Trendlines, Right axis on line charts, Calendar charts, and other minor customization options such as Format of ticks, Format of dates, Label rotation, Format of chart grid, Logarithmic axes, Palette, and Dashed lines.

      2. Title: Displays the title according to the selected chart template. You can change the title. You can also change the chart labels by clicking the Change chart labels link. Type a subtitle, X axis title, Left Y axis title, Right Y axis title, and legend for chart.
         
      3. Data mart: Select the data mart from the list that contains the required data to be displayed in the charts. The options in the subsequent fields are displayed according to the data mart selected.
      4. Column for time axis: Select the column that contains the time stamp data in the selected data mart. The selected column is used for identifying the time axis in the chart. For example, if the TS column in the selected data mart contains date or time stamp data for the entities, you can select the TS column for this field.

      5. Column to identify the series: Select the column that can be used for identifying the data in a row in the selected data mart.
         For example, consider an e-commerce company uses data mart as follows to store details of orders and transactions performed using either online stores or web portals:

         TS	Entname	Orders	Transactions
         2017-02-27 00:00:00	Online store	1302	1189
         2017-02-27 00:00:00	Web portal	1506	1190
         2017-02-28 00:00:00	Online store	1003	940
         2017-02-28 00:00:00	Web portal	930	1096

         In this case, select Entname for this field as it identifies the medium used for orders and transactions, and can be used to plot series in the chart.

      6. (Only for Category charts) Column for category axis: Select the column that can be used for identifying the category in the selected data mart. 
      7. (Only for Category charts) Aggregation statistic: Select the type of aggregation function to be applied on the selected metric values. The types of aggregation function to use are: Average, Count, Max, Min, and Sum. The length of the bars in the chart is calculated based on the values that they represent and the aggregation statistic used.
      8. (Only for Category charts) Column for timestamp: Select the column that contains the time stamp data in the selected data mart. When the date column is selected, the data displayed in the chart can be filtered based on time. This column is optional. 

      9. Select the required metric from the Metric 1 value list. To add a metric, click + Add metric. 
         You can add multiple metrics. 

         To customize the metric parameters, click the corresponding Customize link.

         In the Edit Metric <metricName> parameters screen that opens, specify the following options:

         • (Only for Category charts) If you do not want the metric name as appears in the data mart to be displayed as the chart legend, type a new legend in the Metric legend field. In the Metric color field, you can either specify a color using a color picker or specify a code that will trigger the corresponding color.
         • (Not applicable for Category Horizontal Bar and Horizontal Stacked Bar charts) 
           • You can choose to select a different chart template for this metric. Selecting the default value retains the parent template type. 
           • Select Show Value to show the metric values on the chart. 
           • Select Show on Right Y Axis to show this metric value on the right Y axis. Selecting this option for any of the metrics in the chart displays two Y axes, one on the left and other on the right side of the chart. This feature can be useful for viewing a chart configured with metrics of different units. 

         
         
         Customizing the metric option is not available for the Summary Pie chart. 
         
         

      10. Click Apply. The changes are updated dynamically in the view, and you continue to be in the edit mode. 

          When you click Apply, a live preview of your configuration is displayed, without saving the changes. This live update helps you to review your changes, and if required, quickly make further changes as you continue to be in the edit mode.

   6. To configure the first table, click in the table section. In the edit box at the bottom,  denotes that the display of the table is enabled. The following properties are available to edit:  .
      1. Data mart: Select a data mart from the list. You must select a data mart to be able to show data in the page.
      2. Title: Type the required title for the page.
      3. Columns: Add columns to the table and select the corresponding metric for each column. By default, four columns are displayed.
         You can add more columns, and edit or delete the available columns.
      4. To modify the default column header label, renderer, and column visibility option, select a column, and click the corresponding Edit parameters link to configure it further:In the Edit <columnName> parameters screen that opens, specify the following options:
         1. If you do not want the column name as appears in the data mart to be displayed as the column header, type a new label in the Column header label field.
         2. Select the Renderer and configure it. The default renderer is automatically selected based on the data mart column that you select in the previous step. For example, if you select data center (dc_name) as one of the columns, the corresponding default renderer for that column is Text. Depending on the selected renderer, the parameters to configure differ. For more information about the available renderers, see Renderer-options-in-custom-views. 
         3. In the Column visibility section, specify whether the column must be shown or hidden on the view page:
            • Column is always shown: The column is permanently shown. User of the view cannot hide the column.
            • Column is displayed and user can hide it: The column is shown by default. The user can hide or show it from the Show/Hide columns window.
            • Column is hidden and the user can show it: The column is hidden by default. The user can choose to show or hide it from the Show/Hide columns window.

              Consider the following example

              As per the following column configuration, the Name column is displayed by default and the capacity view user can hide it.When the capacity view user opens the configured view page, the Name column is displayed.
              The capacity view user can choose to hide the column by selecting the Show/Hide Columns option from the table action menu.In the Show/Hide Columns window, the Name column is displayed, by default. To hide the column, clear the check box and click Save.
              The column is not displayed in the table.
         4. After you complete editing parameters for one column, click Done to return to the previous edit screen. You can continue to edit parameters for other columns.
      5. To reorder the columns, click Reorder columns. Type the required order or position number in the Order field for the required column. The columns rearrange automatically.
         InformationYou can only enter a number between 1 and the total number of columns in the Order field. For example, if four columns are displayed, then you cannot add an order number greater than 4.

      6. After you complete editing parameters for that column, click Done to return to the previous edit screen.

         You can continue to edit parameters for other columns.

      7. Click Apply. The changes are updated dynamically in the view, and you continue to be in the edit mode.
         

         To configure multiple tables, clickin the next table section. You can configure a maximum of 9 tables in the view.

3. Click Save.The custom view page is created with the defined configuration. You can filter the charts in the view page by applying the appropriate filter.

Examples of a view page with the Data mart explorer template

Example 1: Plotting the aggregated data for each series (by using Line chart)

Example 2: Plotting each value of series in the data mart (by using Bar chart)

Example 3: Plotting the metric values on dual Y-axis

Example 4: Configuring combination chart templates

Use case

Consider the following use case scenario related to category charts that display information based on a custom dimension instead of being based on time.