Creating dashboards for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

Use BMC Helix Dashboards to create custom dashboards that collect and visualize data from BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. BMC Helix Dashboards provides unified reporting and a consolidated view of data from various BMC applications within your environment. By creating custom dashboards for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, you can centralize all reports in one location and use them consistently.

Custom dashboards for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround retrieve data from Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric) data sets, where your data and content are stored. You build a DAX query to extract data from any table in Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric), specifying which table to access and which fields to display. As a result, you have complete control over the output, and any data can be returned. Data retrieval is fully secure, occurring solely for your organization based on your Microsoft Entra ID. You can visualize the retrieved data by using the visualization plug-ins supported by BMC Helix Dashboards.

Before you begin

Make sure that you use the following product versions:

• BMC Helix Innovation Studio version 25.3.00 or later
• BMC Helix Dashboards version 25.3.00 or later

Make sure that you have the following licenses and permissions: 

• Administrator permissions in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
  Learn how to grant administrator permissions to a user in Creating and modifying users. Refer to Step 4 in the procedure To create users, specifically the Group List field. 

• Reporting administrator or editor roles in BMC Helix Dashboards.
  For more information about granting roles in BMC Helix Dashboards, see Managing role-based access control in BMC Helix Dashboards.

Workflow for creating custom dashboards for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

The following overview shows the workflow to create a custom dashboard for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround in BMC Helix Dashboards:

Task 1: To reset the password for a user in Microsoft entra ID

1. Navigate to http://powerbi.com/.
   
2. Log in by using the user name and password provided by BMC Helix, Inc. Support for your Microsoft Entra ID user.
3. Update your password.
   
4. When prompted to provide additional security information, click Next.
   
5. Follow the onscreen instructions to set up the Microsoft Authenticator app as a primary authentication method.
   For detailed instructions about how to set up the Microsoft Authenticator app, refer to Set up Security info from a sign-in page. Learn more about this authenticator app in About Microsoft Authenticator
   1. Download and install the Microsoft Authenticator app on your mobile device.
   2. Set up your account.
   3. Connect the Microsoft Authenticator app with your account by scanning the QR code.
   4. Send a test notification to the application and approve it. 
   5. Finish the setup.
      
6. When prompted, click Yes to stay signed in. 

Task 2: To create a Microsoft Fabric (Free) license

To assign a Microsoft Fabric (Free) license for your Microsoft Entra ID user, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to http://powerbi.com/.
2. Follow the onscreen instructions to create your account.
   The following image illustrates the steps that you need to complete: 

After your account is created, you will see a notification stating that a Microsoft Fabric (Free) license was assigned for your personal use. You account is ready to be connected to BMC Helix Dashboards.

Task 3: To configure the HKM Dashboards Config record definition

1. Log in to the BMC Helix Innovation Studio environment that you shared with the BMC Helix, Inc. Support team. 
2. On the Workspace tab, select BMC Chatbot > Records.
3. On the Records tab, select HKM Dashboards Config and click Edit data.
4. On the Data Editor (HKM Dashboards Config) page, open the record. 
5. On The Edit Record page, complete the following fields:
   • UserName—Enter the user name of your Microsoft Entra ID user.
   • UserPassword—Enter the password of your Microsoft Entra ID user.
     This password must be the new password that you manually reset earlier. Other properties in this record definition are configured by the BMC Helix, Inc. Support team. 
     
6. Click Save.

Task 4: To create the data source

To add and configure the data source of the BMC Helix JSON API plug-in type, complete the following steps:

1. As an administrator, log in to BMC Helix Dashboards.
2. From the navigation menu, select Connections > Your connections. 
3. On the Data sources page, click Add new data source. 
4. On the Add data source page, search for and select the BMC Helix JSON API plug-in type.
   
5. To configure the created BMC Helix JSON API data source, complete the following fields:
   1. Name—Enter the name for the data source.
   2. URL—Enter the URL of the BMC Helix Innovation Studio environment you want to use as the data source that will connect to Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric).

      Communication between BMC Helix Dashboards and Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric) occurs through the BMC Helix Innovation Studio. Therefore, you must select one specific BMC Helix Innovation Studio environment for this purpose. If you have multiple environments, you can choose only one environment to dedicate to this communication.
      

6. Click Save & test. 

Task 5: To create a custom dashboard for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

1. As a reporting administrator or editor, log in to BMC Helix Dashboards.
2. From the navigation menu, click Dashboards, and then select New > New Dashboard.
   
3. On the New dashboard page, click + Add visualization.
   
4. In the Query section, select the BMC Helix Knowledge Management data source for the query.
5. In the query editor of the BMC Helix Knowledge Management data source, configure the following options to call the HKM Dashboards API to retrieve any data that you want from Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric) data sets: 

   Option	Action
   Fields	Extract the data from the JSON response returned from the URL that is configured in the data source. On the Fields tab, configure the following options:  Field—Enter the JSONPath queries to collect the data from specific fields: .results[*].tables[*].rows[*].field name Type—Select the Auto type of data to be returned by the URL.  Alias—Do not select this option.
   Path	Configure the HTTP method of the request sent to the URL. Set this option to POST. Then, specify the following path: /api/com.bmc.dsm.chatbot/comaround/api/powerbi/query
   Headers	In the Key and the Value fields, add the following parameters that you want to send as HTTP headers: X-Requested-By: XmlHttpRequest Content-Type: application/json
   Body	Enter the following text that is sent as a request: {     "query": "<DAX Query>" } You must build and enter a DAX query that will extract data from the specified table in Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric). For example, the following DAX query extracts CustomerId, ContentId, Title, and URL data from the DimArticleTranslation table: {     "query": "EVALUATE TOPN(5, SELECTCOLUMNS(DimArticleTranslation, \"CustomerId\", DimArticleTranslation[CustomerId], \"ContentId\", DimArticleTranslation[ContentId], \"Title\", DimArticleTranslation[Title], \"URL\", DimArticleTranslation[URL]))" } Learn more about DAX queries in Query reference.

6. In Panel title section, select the Switch to table option. 
   
7. If necessary, in the Panel tab, expand Visualization to select any other visualization type.
   For more information about configuring visualization, see Out-of-the-box visualization plugins.
8. Save your changes. 
9. As a reporting administrator, configure role-based access to this dashboard for BMC Helix Dashboards users.
   For more information, see Managing role-based access control in BMC Helix Dashboards.

You have created a custom dashboard for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. You can create as many custom dashboards as necessary. Learn more about the overall process to create and customize dashboards in Creating and customizing dashboards.

Query reference

To create an accurate and functional DAX query, you need to understand how to construct DAX queries and which tables and fields in Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric) to use for data retrieval. You can learn how to build DAX queries in DAX overview. When you execute DAX queries, consider their limitations. 

To help you build DAX queries for data retrieval, use the following reference documentation for the Microsoft Power BI (part of Microsoft Fabric) model that BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround utilizes. This documentation oulines data sets' tables, columns, measures, and relationships, ensuring accurate and efficient data extraction. Download this reference documentation as a PDF file here and save the file to your device. 

Results

After you create the custom dashboard and configure role-based access to it, users with the Viewer, Editor, or Admin roles can use it if they have access to this particular dashboard or to a folder where this dashboard is available. 

Here's an example of a custom dashboard created for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround: