Find Out How

Dashboards can be added to test compositions or created independently of a given test composition. The widgets in dashboards can be moved, printed, popped out, maximized, and edited (for example, by having their colors changed, or by data toggled using checkboxes.

Add or Remove Dashboards

Each composition can have one or more dashboards arranged in any of the given layouts. In the example on the right there are two dashboards, Performance and Error Analysis.

• Additional dashboards can be added by clicking the Plus sign (+) to the right of the last added dashboard on the title bar. When you do so, the Dashboard wizard appears.
• To remove a dashboard from a test composition, simply click its Close icon to the right of the dashboard name in Composition Editor > Play tab (or Results tab).

SOASTA CloudTest provides a number of default dashboards, as well as a large selection of widgets categorized by type. To get started, you can click add a default dashboard to your test composition. For example, the Default Functional Dashboard.

See Creating a New Dashboard for step-by-step instructions on dashboard creation.

Move or Remove Widgets

• To move a widget to a new location on a dashboard, select the title bar and hold the mouse down to drag the widget into its new position. When you do so, an icon representing this widget appears on the drag operation. This icon can be placed in the new widget location as desired.

See Combine and Correlate Charts for instructions on using drag-and-drop actions to combine like chart widgets.

• To remove a widget from a custom dashboard, place the mouse cursor over the top right portion of the widget until the widget control appears.

Note: System dashboards are not editable. If you'd like to revise a system dashboard, you must first save it as a copy (or custom) dashboard.

Click the Delete (X) button to remove the widget.

Edit Widget or Dashboard Options

Toggle the Dashboard Edit Mode button to edit layout, color, and other settings for dashboards or for a selected widgets.

When you do so, the Combined Edit Panel for widgets and dashboards appears in the lower portion of the dashboard workspace on the right.

Browse the General, Layout, Properties, and Time Range tabs to view or change settings for the dashboard. Click to Apply any changes.

Viewing or Changing a Dashboard’s Settings

1. Click the Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode button on the toolbar.

If no widgets were selected, the Edit Panel appears below with only the Dashboard node selected and the General tab showing. When dashboard is selected only dashboard-level settings are presented.

General Dashboard Options

• Name - The dashboard name
• Display on dashboard surfece - check to display the name on the dashboard surface
• Save Location - the repository location of this dashboard
• Set as my default dashboard - Click this button to make the current dashboard the default one

Layout Dashboard Options

• Browser Window Fit/Fill WIndow - select a sizing setting for the dashboard using the visual cues
• Layout type - select a column layout for the dashboard using the visual cues

Dashboard Properties

• Background Color - select a color for the dashboard background
• Widget Padding - increase internal and external space around the widget border
• Link Chart Timelines - chart timelines are linked across the dashboard by default, unchecking this will unlink them
• Enable chart animations - turn chart animations associated with real-time deltas on or off
• Hide widgets when not playing - conceal widgets when the test composition is not playing

Time Range

Use the Time Range tab to enable a controller for the entire dashboard. This time controller applies to results data and monitor data, as well as external data, like Wily. CloudTest shows all of the widgets in a dashboard on the same time line and filtered to the same time range. The Time Range tab applies a time range to the dashboard, with the default being the selected test’s full time range. Select any time range to filter the results by that range.

Applying a Time Range to a Dashboard

1. Click Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode on the dashboard toolbar. The Edit Panel opens below with Dashboard selected and the General tab displayed on the right.
2. Click the Time Range tab.

3. Check Enable time rangecontroller.
4. Select a drop-down Time Range.

The drop-down options include both relative and absolute time ranges:

• Last 5 Minutes (relative)
• Last 30 Minutes  (relative)
• Last 1 Hour (relative)
• Last 3 Hours (relative)
• Last 24 Hours (relative)
• Specific Range (absolute)

For a Specific Range, use the Calendar to specify the From: and To: values or enter the time range in a date format (e.g. 04/19/10).

• Dashboard Result Time Range

This selection is the default time range of the selected result. If “No Result Selected” appears, select a result for the dashboard.

5. Click Apply to accept changes and OK to exit the Edit Panel.

Applying a Time Range to a Dashboard with a Result Selected

In cases where a result is selected for a dashboard, time range can still be applied. However, the relative time range applies in such cases to the Default Dashboard Time Range.

1. Select a result from either the Dashboard Data section on the left.
2. Click Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode on the dashboard toolbar. The Edit Panel opens below with Dashboard selected and the General tab displayed on the right.
3. Click the Time Range tab.
4. Check Enable time range controller.
5. Select a relative drop-down Time Range to delimit the Default Dashboard Time Range.
6. Click Apply to accept changes and OK to exit the Edit Panel.

Setting Time Range for Monitors and External Data Sources

For stand-alone dashboards, if no result is selected and a Monitor or External Data widget is added, then a default time range of “Last 5 Minutes” is automatically imposed on that dashboard.

The time range from a result will be applied before the time range controller.  For example, applying "Last 5 minutes" when there is a result selected will show the last 5 minutes of the result time range.

If a result is selected in a dashboard, then that time range is applied to all widgets (unless a widget specifically has a different result associated with it).  This means that it is no longer possible to have, for instance, a monitor widget showing the previous 5 minutes and a result widget showing result data from a different time range.

Note: To mix time ranges in a dashboard that contains monitor widgets alongside other widgets, use the Monitor Container widget for monitors in order to distinguish time range. This widget can be found in the Widget Selection Panel, Widget Type, Containers list. Alternately, add a dashboard container to have different (non-monitor) widgets with a unique time range specified.

1. Open the dashboard either from Central > Dashboards, or, from the Composition Editor > Play tab.
2. Click the Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode button on the dashboard toolbar. The Edit Panel opens below.
3. Click the Time Range tab.

4. Check Enable time range controller.
5. Select a time range from the drop-down. Refer to Time Range Settings for an item-by-item description of Time Range options.

6. Check “Display time range controller on dashboard surface” to keep the time range controller at the top of this dashboard. 
7. Click Apply to keep any changes and OK to exit, or, click Cancel to abandon changes.

Once apply is clicked the time range is applied to the dashboard.

In the screenshot below, a stand-alone dashboard has a time range controller of “Last 3 Hours” and “Display time range controller on dashboard surface” has been checked.

Viewing or Changing a Widget’s Settings

1. Toggle on the Widget Selection Panel.
2. Click the widget whose settings you’d like to view or edit. The widget appears selected as indicated by the blue selection border and the Widget Type list scrolls to the selected widget.

3. Toggle the Dashboard Edit Mode button to edit layout, color, and other settings for dashboards or for a selected widgets.

The Edit Panel appears below with the Widget selected on the left and its properties showing on the right. The Title field in the right panel and the blue border above agree.

All charts have the following fields:

• Title—An editable text title
• Show Title bar checkbox—Uncheck this box to hide display of the chart's title bar
• Color—Select from among basic colors by clicking one to apply it to the widget's title bar
• Custom color field—Enter a hexadecimal code for a custom color in the text field below Color
• Height—Pick among radio buttons for Default, Custom (specified in pixels, and Use Remaining Space (stretches the widget to available space in the dashboard) options

Widgets with special settings display them in the Widget(s) tree. For example, the non-chart Fundamentals Widget’s Include settings appear at Widget(s), Fundamentals. If a chart has custom settings they are displayed as a child of the widget in the tree.

The Save As option allows the combined (or any) widget to be saved and used in other dashboards. Clicking Save As… launches the Create a New Widget Type dialog box. The saved widget will be shown in the same category as the "saved" widget.

General Widget Options

When Edit Widget is clicked for a given widget, its General options are displayed. Widget specific options are listed separately in the Widget(s) tree view. Tree view is shown for all widget types.

For charts, General options include the selection of a Theme for a widget. Selecting a theme selects the colors that will be used in the chart series. Selecting a radio button for a given theme makes the first color in that row the first color in the series. Click a color tile in any theme row to begin the series (of charts) with that color instead. The series will cycle through the remaining colors.

The selected color (e.g. yellow tile from the Spectrum) is assigned to the top-most subordinate chart that was listed first in the Widget(s) tree view and the Widget Order list (in the Edit Widget panel). The selection is the one that's "closest" to the user on the chart. Clicking the third tile in the Spectrum row will result in the chart colors shown on the right.

The default is for no vertical lines to display.

Checking the Show X axis grid lines checkbox turns on vertical grid lines for the widget.

Viewing or Changing Contained Widget Settings

If the widget is a combined or correlated widget the contained nodes are also shown. For example, the Bytes Sent and Received and Average Response Time are Contained widgets with grouped properties to set that include Chart Type and Show data point markers (off by default).

The Widget Order is shown on the right. For combined widgets, multiple subordinate widgets will be shown. Use the Detach the subordinate widget button (to the right of the widget’s name) to detach it from the combined chart and add it independently to the dashboard. Combined widgets use transparency. The topmost widget in order is closest to the user—while the bottom most gets the background color.

1. With the Edit Widget Panel in view, select the Contained Widget(s) node to view settings at that level such as the order of widgets.

2. To change widget order, select a widget and use the up or down arrows to move it.

3. To remove a widget from a combined or correlated widget and return it to the dashboard as a separate widget, click the Detach contained widget butto

4. To remove a widget from a combined or correlated widget and delete it from the dashboard use the delete button.




5. To change which contained widget gets the left- or right-x-axis, use the Axis drop-down list.
6. Click Apply to save any changes made here.
7. Click Toggle Dashboard Edit Mode a second time to exit the panel.

Chart Axis: Primary/Secondary

The Axis and Primary/Secondary setting allows the Left y-axis and Right y-axis to be switched per subordinate chart.

The Show data point markers checkbox to show dots on line chart as a user preference.

The Show data point markers checkbox to show dots on line chart as a user preference.

Changing Chart Types

Select a widget name under the Contained Widget(s) node to set the following additional options:

Chart Type

The Chart Type drop-down offers: Line, Bar, Area, and Scatter options for each chart. Changing the type will change the presentation of its data to the given type. An Area chart is shown below.

The same information can be presented as a Bar chart.

Maximize, Restore, and Pop-Out a Widget

You can maximize and restore a widget to increase and restore its visual space on the dashboard. Click Maximize to use the full dashboard space, click Restore to return the widget to its default size on the dashboard.

You can pop-out a widget to view it in a separate window. To do so, place the mouse in the widget's upper right corner and press the Pop-Out button.