Configuring the Data Store Widget

The Data Store widget is the most configurable widget in Workspaces. You configure it in the Configure Data Store Widget dialog, a multistep wizard that controls what data the widget queries, how it filters and displays that data, and how it interacts with other widgets. This topic covers each step in the dialog. For an overview of the widget and when to use it, see Data Store Widget.

Opening the configuration dialog

To open the dialog:

Enter edit mode on the workspace.
Open the widget menu (ellipsis on the widget header).
Click Configure.

The dialog opens on the first step. Move through the steps with Next and Back, then apply your changes when you finish. The always-available steps are Query, Filters, Visualization, and Interactions.

Note: When advanced workspace features are enabled in your environment, additional steps appear: Transformations, Calculated Fields, and Aggregates between Filters and Visualization, and Links after Interactions. See Advanced configuration steps.

Query step

The Query step defines which data the widget retrieves. The available options depend on the data type you choose. Common settings include:

Analysis Workspace: The analysis area that narrows which data types are available for the query.
Data Type: The object type to query (for example, NPM+ Traffic or another available type). Available data types depend on your connected data sources A product in your network that forwards data to the system. This data can be streaming data used to detect anomalies and generate incidents, or data that can be fetched on demand when runbooks are executed., permissions, and feature flags.
Group by In Workspaces Data Forensics, a dimension (e.g. application, host, service, client IP) that you choose from the sidebar to load data into the main table. Data is aggregated or broken down by that dimension. The sidebar lists available group bys for the selected analysis workspace.: One or more dimensions to group results by, such as application, client IP, or location. Most queries require at least one group by.
Metrics: The metrics A measurement or data point that is monitored and analyzed to detect anomalies and generate incidents. to include, such as throughput or round trip time.
Output format: Summarized for tables, bar charts, pie charts, and similar views, or Time series for time charts and sparklines. This choice controls which visualization types are available on the Visualization step.
Top by and Limit: The metric that results are sorted by and the number of rows or series to return. For time series queries, the limit is capped so charts stay readable.
Sort direction: For data types that support sorting in both directions, a direction control (ascending or descending) appears next to the top-by metric. For other data types, the direction is set automatically by the selected metric.
Vantage point: The data source that supplies the query, when vantage points are available for the selected data type.
Comparison data: An optional comparison to a previous period, when the data type supports it. Comparison data is useful for trend and change views.

For which visualization types each query shape unlocks, see Data Store Visualization Types.

Example query for NPM+ Traffic

The following example builds a summarized table of top applications by throughput. Use it as a starting point, then change the group by, metrics, or output format for other views.

Set Data Type to NPM+ Traffic. Select an analysis workspace first if your environment requires it.
Set Group by to Application.
Set the output format to Summarized.
Add metrics such as Throughput, Traffic, and Packet Traffic.
Set Top by to Throughput and set a Limit such as 100.
Click Next to continue to the Filters step.

Filters step

The Filters step applies optional static filters that always restrict the data shown in this widget. Static filters are separate from the Group, Metric, and Time interactions that other widgets send at runtime. You can use static filters on a widget that also sends or receives Group interactions.

To add a static filter:

Turn on Use Filters.
Select a property or metric field.
Choose values from the value list, or switch to a formula and set an operator (for example, contains, equals, or greater than) and a value.
Apply the filter. Applied filters appear as chips that you can remove individually or clear all at once.

When you do not need static filters, leave Use Filters off and click Next.

Visualization step

The Visualization step controls how the data is displayed. On this step you:

Set the widget name, which can include interaction tokens (for example, the selected group or metric) so the title reflects the current selection.
Choose whether to show the title.
Choose the visualization A runbook node category that shows data in a chart, graph, table, or note, providing visual representation of analysis results in runbook output. type. The list depends on your query: summarized queries offer table, bar chart, pie chart, bubble chart, and similar types, while time series queries offer time chart and sparkline. Some types, such as gauges and summary, appear only when the query has no group by or a limit of one.
Set the options for the chosen type, such as columns, metrics, chart style, legend, and orientation.

For details on each type and its options, see Data Store Visualization Types. For bar and time series charts, you can also configure color options for Data Store widgets.

Interactions step

In the Workspaces Library, widgets do not filter each other automatically. On the Interactions step of a source widget, you choose which target widgets receive data when a user selects values in the source. You can configure:

Group: Pass a selected entity (for example, an application or client IP) so target widgets filter their queries by it.
Metric: Pass a selected metric so target widgets display that metric.
Top Metric: Pass a metric that target widgets use as their top-by or sort metric.
Time: Pass a time range (for example, from a drag selection on a time chart) so target widgets use that range for their queries.
Only show interaction data: Enable on a target widget when you want it to stay empty until a Group interaction arrives from another widget.
Apply widget filters to interaction: When enabled, the widget's own filters are included when it builds interaction data for its targets.

For interaction concepts, see Library Widget Interactivity. For patterns that scale to large canvases, see Designing Interactive Workspaces in the Library. To drive metrics or other controls from a toolbar-style widget, see Configuring the Inputs Selector Widget.

Advanced configuration steps

These steps appear only when advanced workspace features are enabled in your environment. Most workspaces do not need them.

Transformations: Apply a regular expression to a column so that a captured portion of each value replaces the original value before it is displayed. Use transformations to extract a substring, such as pulling an application name out of a longer label.
Calculated Fields: Define a field whose value is computed by the platform from a formula and returned alongside the standard metrics. A calculated field has a label, a data type, a unit, and a formula, and it becomes selectable as a column or metric on the Visualization step. Use calculated fields for derived values, such as a percentage of one metric over another.
Aggregates: Roll the query up into a summary using a function such as sum, average, minimum, maximum, count, or count distinct. Aggregates change the shape of the results, so they cannot be combined with standard metrics, time series output, or comparison data. Use aggregates for totals and counts rather than per-row detail.
Links: Add right-click menu entries that open another workspace or the observations page, passing the selected entity as a filter. Use links to send users from this widget to a related view with the selection carried over.