Selector S2AP Operations Guide - Widgets
Selector Software Operations Guide - Part 2
This part of the S2AP Operations Guide describes the fundamentals of widget operation for the S2AP platform from Selector AI Software. This part of the guide is divided into several major parts:
Some related features, such as dashboards and maintenance windows, are covered in other documentation. Links to these documents are provided where appropriate.
Widgets, Dashboards, and Query Builder
Widgets provide the representation and abstraction of data ingested by the S2 platform. By default, unless the dashboard was imported from a JSON configuration file, a new dashboard contains no widgets.
Widget Creation
To create a widget, navigate to the empty dashboard and click the Add Widget button:
After clicking Add Widget, the Query Builder interface appears.
Note: Custom documentation on how to use the query builder is created and shared on a per-customer basis. Please see your Customer Success Engineer for this documentation.
Widgets and the Query Builder
You use the Query Builder to define and preview the desired widget. However, the detailed usage of the Query Builder has its own detailed instruction document. Only the basic process is covered here. For more information, please see:
Selector Software Query Language (S2QL) User Guide
Generally, you use the Query Builder to define the following components:
- The queryable metric/KPI/log file: uc1_cpu_utilization
- A visualization type: Line Plot
- Any filters: device_name =~ .*NF.*
As the values are selected, the query is generated in the Query Builder. In this case, the following S2QL query is generated:
wc1_cpu_utilization as line-plot where device_name=~.*NF.*
The timeframe of the widget is defined in the Query Builder. In this case, the default value of 30 minutes is used.
Once the query is defined, click the Run Query icon in the Query Builder This generates the line plot widget as shown below:
Note that it is possible to create multiple tabs in a widget. In this example, only one tab is used.
Adding the Widgets to the Dashboard
Once the user is satisfied with the widget’s output, click the Add to dashboard icon of the Query Builder:
A dialog box appears, and a selection is presented to allow the user to choose the query or widget for the dashboard. If multiple tabs are created in the Query Builder, they re all displayed and selectable here:
Next, scroll down and locate the desired target dashboard. In this case, the Example dashboard is selected:
Once everything looks good, click Add to dashboard in the dialog box:
A message appears stating that the operation was a success. At the same time, the user is taken to the updated dashboard where the added widget is visible at its default size:
You can resize the widget by clicking the bottom right corner of the widget and dragging the size to the desired scale.
The user can also click and drag the top of the widget to move it to the desired location in the dashboard. The widget has been resized below to fill the visible screen:
Working with Widgets
Widgets have several operations associated with them. Hovering over the name of a widget produces a slide-out menu containing the following optional operations:
- Query the widget with a natural language phrase using S2 Query Language (S2QL)
- Editing a Widget
- Maximizing a Widget
- Copying a Widget
- Deleting a Widget
- Sharing or Exporting a Widget
- Searching a Widget
The above options are detailed below.
Querying a Widget Using S2 Query Language (S2QL)
You can use a natural language phrase for a Widget’s S2QL query. This allows a user to more quickly formulate a widget’s S2QL query.
When you click on the natural language phrase option on the dashboard widget, a dialog box appears prompting the user to enter a natural language phrase for the widget’s S2QL query.
This example uses the following natural language phrase for the widget’s S2QL query: “CPU Utilization for NF* Devices”
Once formulated, this natural language phrase (NL phrase) can be used anywhere in the S2 platform web GUI as well as from Slack or Teams (assuming that Slack or Teams have been integrated with the S2 platform):
For more information on Selector Integrations, see Selector Software Integrations
Editing a Widget
Clicking on Edit takes the user to the Query Builder where the widget can be modified:
Additionally, the widget query can be modified by clicking on the Edit button top left in the maximized widget.
Clicking Edit triggers the Query Builder to allow the modification of the widget:
There are several things to remember when modifying a widget with the Query Builder. Here is the full process using an example.
In this example, the user wants to change the widget’s visualization type from Line Plot to Timeline Heatmap (green, yellow, and red show object status).
To do this, in the Query Builder, click the Visualization type dropdown and select the Timeline Heatmap visualization option:
Next, click the Run Query button at the bottom of the Query Builder interface. The widget does not change and update unless Run Query is clicked, and it is not possible to save the widget with the new visualization type unless the query has been run first:
After the update query has been executed, the updated output is displayed. Verify that this information is the expected output and click Save on the Query Builder interface. Note the change in the format of the widget:
A message window appears confirming that the updated widget has been successfully saved:
The updated widget now appears in the dashboard and can be moved or resized normally:
More widget basics are presented in the Widgets and the Query Builder section of this document.
Maximizing a Widget
You can maximize the widget to fill the entire interface. To do so, click on the Expand icon of the widget.
When the Expand option is clicked, the widget expands to fill the entire interface. Note that the time range controls are still displayed when the widget is maximized:
Copying a Widget
You can copy a widget to a different dashboard. To do so, click the Copy to dashboard icon of the widget:
When the Copy to dashboard icon is clicked, a dialog box appears asking the user to select the destination dashboard. Select the desired dashboard from the dropdown menu and click Copy:
The copy should complete nearly instantaneously, and the user is taken to the destination dashboard for the widget copy. A success message appears indicating that the copy was successful:
Deleting a Widget
You can delete a widget from a dashboard. To do so, click the Delete icon of the widget:
When you click Delete, a dialog box appears which displays the S2QL query of the widget being deleted. A message also warns that this action cannot be undone. Verify that the correct widget is being deleted and click Delete:
Sharing or Exporting a Widget
You can share the widget’s URL or export a widget to a PDF file from a dashboard. To do so, click the Share icon of the widget:
A dialog box appears, providing two options. First, there is an option to export the widget as a PDF. This ability can be very useful for collaborative needs such as reporting, ticket updates, and documentation:
The second option, Share, allows the widget’s URL to be exported and shared:
The widget’s URL is copied to the clipboard and a copied success message appears:
Searching a Widget
You can search a widget for specific information. To do so, click the Search input prompt of the widget:
In this search example, the term Value is entered. This causes to widget to only display the search result. Other information, such as the gray auto-threshold indicator is obscured.
When the user clicks away from the widget, the searched value remains prominent, and the widget’s output remains filtered to the search term.
NOTE: The search icon now displays a blue dot indicating that it is displaying search results.