1. Activity Widget

1.1. Purpose

The main purpose of the widget is to compute a source metric each day and to aggregate the result on different period range (week, month and quarter), offering a breakdown by attributes and grouping options.

The widget will record the full history and allow full access of data in the past; However it is not possible to drill-down to sources.

As an example, one can define an Activity widget recording the average boot duration along days, with a breakdown of results by computer model, and a grouping by hierarchies.

1.2. Creating widget

To create an Activity widget, please follow the following steps:

1.2.1. Step 1

1. choose the source metric that you want to compute (boot duration, number of application crashes, number of printed pages ...)
2. define the way you want the result to be aggregated, switch the metric it can be one or many of following modes
   • total will compute the summation of result among periods and groups
   • average will compute the means of result among periods and groups
   • min will keep the minimum value
   • max will keep the maximum value
3. choose which sources will be retained for the computation
   • all sources : will no apply any filtering
   • sources corresponding to investigation : will use the following parts of investigation to process sources filtering
     • Conditions on object
     • Conditions on aggregates
     • Conditions on time (for example between 05:00 and 23:00)
4. choose the type of evolution, it will define the color of delta arrows
   • Neutral
   • More is bad
   • More is good

   
   

1.2.2. Step 2

1. select the attributes for the breakdown of the results; the list of available fields contains
   • a selection of counted object attributes
   • categories of the object to be counted
   • for metrics 'number of printed pages' and 'number of print jobs' the following attributes are also available
     • Color print, (color or black and white)
     • Document type, type of the printed resource (PDF, Excel, ...) if it is a known format
     • Duplex print, indicates whether the pages are printed on both sides of the sheet
     • Print quality (draft, low, medium, high)
   • for metrics 'number of connections' the following attribute is also available
     • Status (established, rejected, no_service, no_host, closed)

   One can select 0 to n attributes. Their order as well as the separator can be changed.

   
   Note that access rights are not applied on the result of these selected fields, even for the category used to create hierarchies. It means that a keyword in the result will be displayed for everybody.

   
   

1.2.3. Step 3

1. optionally select a criterion for grouping results:
   • "group by" - it can be any category on source object, results are classified by keywords
   • "hierarchy" - using a hierarchy permits to structure the result as defined in the hierarchy but also to apply access rights set to users (available only if at least one hierarchy has been defined)
   If one has selected attributes for breaking down the results and a criterion for grouping, one can also chooses which one is displayed as rows or columns.

   
   

1.3. How the calculation is performed

1.3.1. Retrieving the metric value from Engine

The widget will query the engine for the metric value on the computation day. If an investigation have been defined, it will be used to apply conditions on the query.

1.3.2. Computing the value according to breakdown fields and grouping for one day

Each metric value gathered from the engine will be aggregated to preceding values using the defined operation (total, average, min or max). The aggregation will be done at overall level and for each combination of breakdown and grouping entries.

For example if one define an Activity widget to monitor the printing activity, let see the impact of sum by and grouping on the result. The widget is defined as 'compute the number of printed pages and display the total for all sources'

• With no breakdown of result and displaying result globally
  • The computation will aggregate the total of all printed pages in a single overall entry
• With a breakdown of result on 'Color print' and displaying result globally

  • The result will be aggregated for each value of 'Color print', Color and Black & white

  • An overall entry with the total of all printed pages will be computed as well
• With a breakdown of result on 'Color print' and displaying result according to the OS using a category
  • All combination of 'Color print' and OS will be populated by the computation

    • Having an 'XP' OS value, the computation will process the total of printed pages for Color print, Black & white print, and will also update an overall for the 'XP' group

    • Having also a 'Windows 7' OS value, the computation will process the total of printed pages for Color print, Black & white print, and will also update an overall for the 'Windows 7' group

  • An overall entry with the total of all printed pages will be computed as well

1.3.3. Computing the value along the time

The values computed each day for the widget will be aggregated over 4 time periods

• Day
• Week, the starting day of the week being defined by Portal configuration with Monday as a default
• Month
• Quarter, with first quarter beginning at January the 1st

For each of those periods, the operation given by widget configuration will be applied to aggregate the results: Using the preceding example, the total number of printed pages for a week will be the sum of each day value from Monday to Sunday.

The aggregation on time will be done according to breakdown and grouping options, so that the full detail will be accessible in the history.

1.4. How the results are displayed

1.4.1. Overall value

The overall current value is displayed at the top of the widget.

The last change is also displayed with an arrow showing the last trend. The color of the arrow reflect the widget configuration for evolution meaning. Basically, if the defined evolution meaning is 'More is bad', the arrow will be Red is the last change is positive, Gray if 0 and Green if the last change is negative.

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1.4.2. Overall chart

An overall chart of collected data is displayed. The data can be represented by period:

• By day, values for the last 60 days are displayed
• By week, values for the last year are displayed
• By month and quarter, values for the last 2 years are displayed

The chart is interactive so that the dates and values will be displayed by moving the mouse around the chart. By clicking on the chart, the widget will navigate to the selected date and display the result for that date.

When displaying result for week, month or quarter, as the data of the last day may not be complete for the period, a dotted line will symbolize the fact that last plot is an on going value.

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1.4.3. Detail of results

The data will be displayed using different layouts according to the configuration for breaking down and grouping the results.

To illustrate that point, the used example will lead to the following cases

• With no breakdown of result and displaying result globally
  • Only the overall value and chart will be displayed
• With a breakdown of result on 'Color print' and displaying result globally
  • Overall value and chart will be displayed
  • A table with one row by 'Color print' value will be composed, showing the total of pages for each one. An additional row to display the total will be added at the top of the table.
• With a breakdown of result on 'Color print' and displaying result according to the OS using a category
  • Overall value and chart will be displayed
  • If groups are to be displayed as columns
    • The table will have one column for 'Color print' value, one column for overall of each row, and one column for each group
    • The table will have one row by 'Color print' value, showing the total of pages for each one and in each group. An additional row to display the total will be added at the top of the table.
  • If groups are to be displayed as rows
    • The table will have one column for group value, one column for overall of each row, and one column for each 'Color print' value
    • The table will have one row by group value, showing the total of pages for each one and in each 'Color print' value. An additional row to display the total will be added at the top of the table.
• With a breakdown of result on 'Color print' and displaying result group by hierarchies
  • The visualization will be almost the same that when grouping on a category, with hierarchy level taking the role of group value
  • A navigation bar will appears to indicate the position in the hierarchy
  • An icon appears near the name of nodes to drill down into them
  • If multiple hierarchies are defined, then you could switch from a hierarchy to another by clicking the down arrow on the left of the hierarchy name. If only one hierarchy is configured there is a right arrow.

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1.4.4. Displayed time frame

• The widget interface have a select box to choose the period to be displayed (day, week, month or quarter)
  • All displayed information will be consistent with the selected period, with the chart showing the aggregated values for each period end (each Sunday, end of month or end of quarter)
  • The evolution will be computed between the last displayed value and the preceding end of period
• Another select box will permit to choose a specific date. Be aware that the time frame covered by the chart will always end at the last computed date, and so will not vary with date selection.

1.4.5. History dialog

By clicking on a value in the table, a dialog showing the history will be presented.

• A couple of select box will allow to choose the exact time frame to be displayed
• A trend chart will be produced for the selected time frame
• All values of the interval will be detailed in the table.

The history dialog will use the period currently displayed for the widget

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