Widget Interactivity

Creating Effective Interactive Workflows

Interactive workspaces work best when designed as guided analysis workflows. There are no requirements, but it can be helpful to follow a top-down-left-right structure. In that layout, the interactivity begins in the top left widget and cascades data from left to right, then from top to down.

Interactivity works by passing information, such as a group, metric, or time frame from one widget to another. The following are the primary types of information can be passed from one widget to another:

  • Group: a group or entityClosed Things deployed in the customer environment that are needed to run the business, such as applications, devices, interfaces, and locations. that appears in a table or chart, such as an Application, Client IP, Client Location, Interface or Device among others. When you pass a group/entity from a source widget to a target widget, the target widget will use the group/entity as a filter when it runs its query. For example if you pass the Client IP of "1.1.1.1" to a target widget, the target widget will use that IP in its filter and will say "where Client IP is 1.1.1.1".

  • Metric: a metricClosed A measurement or data point that is monitored and analyzed to detect anomalies and generate incidents. that appears in a table or chart, such as Throughput or Round Trip Time. When you pass a metric from a source widget to a target widget, the target widget can either display that metric or can use that metric as the metric to use as the top by in the query.

  • Time: a time frame that you select by dragging over a region in a time chart. When you pass that time frame to a target widget, that target widget will then use that time frame as the time frame for its query. For example, if you have a time chart that is the source widget and you highlight a spike in the time chart and pass that as a time frame to a target widget, the target widget can then query for average data just over the time frame of the spike giving you more insight into what caused the spike.

Recommended Workflow Structure

  1. Entry Point: Start with a table or chart showing an overview (e.g., Top Applications, Top Client Locations, etc.).
  2. Selection Layer: Select specific items for detailed analysis.
  3. Detail Views: Configure downstream widgets to show filtered details.
  4. Drill-down Options: Provide additional analysis paths for deeper investigation.

Setting Up Basic Widget Interactions

To create an interactive workspace, you need to configure both the source widget (that passes data) and the target widget (that receives filtered data).

Note: You can configure either the Source Widget or Target Widget first.

Configure Widget Interactions

  1. Click the ellipses menu (...) of the widget you want to configure.

  2. Select Configure.

  3. In the widget properties, navigate to the Interactions menu.

  4. There are three configuration options: Group, Metric, and Time. In the configuration that you wish to create interactions for, click the text box. A list of available widgets to select appears.

  5. Select the widgets that you wish to pass data to. You must select at least one widget for the interactivity to function, but you can select as many widgets as desired.

  6. If the widget is a target widget and you do not want it to show data until you click a row in the source widget is clicked, select Enable Only show interaction data.

  7. Click Submit.

Setting Up Multiple Widget Interactions

While basic interactions involve two widgets exchanging data, you can create more complex workflows with multiple widgets. These interactions follow a hierarchical structure where data flows from one widget to the next in a chain.

For example, you might configure Widget 1 to send group data to Widget 2, which then sends time data to Widget 3. In that scenario, Widget 1 and Widget 3 do not directly communicate, but Widget 3 receives filtered data that originated from Widget 1's selections, creating a multi-step analysis workflow.

Advanced Interaction Features

Beyond basic filtering, Library supports advanced interaction patterns:

Multi-level Interactions

  • Chain multiple widgets in sequence for complex analysis paths.
  • Use composition widgets to show breakdowns of selected data.
  • Configure correlation widgets to show relationships between selected entities.

Time-based Interactions

  • Drag across time series charts to select time ranges.
  • All widgets sharing the same time context update automatically.
  • Use time selections to focus analysis on specific periods.

For example, if you see a spike in a time chart and you want other widgets to calculate their metrics only for that spike then pass a time interaction from the time widget to any widgets where you want the metrics only calculated for the spike time region.