Manage inputs

Sometimes, inside activeboards, the widgets could have performance issues because they are not optimized for proper operation. The idea is to develop a suggestion package that identifies these common ways of improvement in the configuration of widgets and queries. To do this, certain rules could be defined that allow suggesting and applying optimizations.

The proposal is to develop a module that contains the definition of all the rules, the implementation of each one of them and that allows offering a response with all the suggestions that can be applied for the input parameters offered.

This module will appear as a bell in the top left corner in the widget. Suggestions could be different depending on the widget configuration, data flow or query design.

This is the list of possible suggestions:

• Unused Columns → Inform when a column from a query is not used in the chart configuration. This is check the query metadata and check the configurations for the widget and compare the columns used.

Open

• Unnecessary Time Grouping → Inform when a query have a grouping time but the charts doesn’t need it.

• Duplicated Column → Inform when there are two columns with the same name. Normally, this happens when user have grouped by a column and then add a select statement for the same column without the as statementon inputs whose source query is not optimized, that is to say, an aggregation task has not been defined from the source query of the input.

• Optimize widget → Inform that creating an aggregation task could be goog to improve the widget perfomance. Message also indicates how to create it.

  • Visit Create a new aggregation task for more information.

  • You can also create an aggregation task using the option in the ellipsis menu as explained in the table below or the option in the Network manager as explained in this article.

  • The aggregation task will be automatically used in the inputs that are fed with that query. Even though your query is optimized with an aggregation task, you may still see the icon in your inputs. This happens when the date range set for the Activeboard is not within the aggregation task time range. For example, if your aggregation task start date is February 15, 2019 and you set your Activeboard time range to 01/01/2019 - 01/30/2019, your inputs will show the icon. Note that the icon will never appear when you select a period of time of less than one hour for your Activeboard or input, even though your input query is not optimized.

    In case of any problem, visit the support site for further information.

This icon indicates that the input has a custom time range. Clicking the icon will open a helper with this information. To learn more about custom time ranges, go to Setting a time range in Activeboards.

When receiving real-time data, data retrieval will be a transparent process you barely notice. However, it might be slightly affected by a number of factors. When this happens, a spinner icon will appear to let you know the process is currently ongoing, together with a percentage to indicate the amount of data already retrieved.

This animation will also appear whenever you apply changes to your widgets, while they load the corresponding new data.

This icon appears when the widget query has been aborted. This occurs whenever the widget loading process is interrupted for whatever reason. Clicking the icon will open a helper with this information.

The most common reasons are user interactions such as changing the time range, data source, or visual settings while the widget is still loading but it might also appear as a result of an error.

If the loading animation appears next to it, it will most likely disappear right after but if it doesn’t, try using the refresh button at the top right of the widget (see header buttons section below).

This button shows only with select inputs that have a query as a data source.

You can use this button to enable the real-time data retrieval. This will enable the custom time range for the input and will change the aspect of the button. Visit this article to learn more about the implications of real-time data.

This button shows only with select inputs that have a query as a data source.

You can use this button to relaunch the input’s query and restart the real-time feed, if enabled. Visit this article to know more about the implications of refreshing queries.

This button shows only with select inputs that have a query as a data source.

This button appears instead of the refresh button when the input’s query is being loaded for whatever reason. You can use it to abort the query and interrupt data retrieval.

Click the ellipsis button and, depending on whether you have activated editing mode or not, you will see the options explained in the table below:

If your input’s data source is a query, this option opens a new browser tab to take you to the search window and show you the related data table.

If your input’s data source is a query, this option opens a window where you can introduce the settings for a new aggregation task. Visit Create a new aggregation task for more information about each setting as well as the process in general.

This option will be grayed-out if the input does not need to be optimized, in other words, if the rocket icon does not appear.

If your input’s data source is a query, this option accesses the input data source to view it.

If your input’s data source is a query, this option accesses the input data source to change it. You need to click Save Changes to apply them (the saving button will be disabled if the syntax is not valid).

Access the input configuration options. You can also access these options by clicking the title bar. Visit input types to know the intrinsic characteristics of each input type imply some specificities.

Copy the input in the Activeboard with the exact same settings (data source, custom date range, etc.) but with cloned automatically added to the name.

Copy to clipboard the input with the exact same settings (data source, custom date range, etc.) so you can paste it in an Activeboard. You will receive a notification after using this option to let you know it was successfully copied to clipboard.

To paste it, you just need to go to the Activeboard in question and use the Paste widget option from the Activeboard ellipsis menu. See this article for more information.

The list of input types appears so you can easily switch between them.

Alternatively, you can drag the input type from the input gallery directly onto your widget in the Activeboard to change its type.

Remove the input from the Activeboard.