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Developing BPM Applications with Developer Studio
Configuring dashboard widgets : Using the Widgets Configuration tool
 

Using the Widgets Configuration tool

To configure a dashboard widget:
Note: Save the open application before using the Widgets Configuration Tool.
1. Select the Business Process (or Common Resource project) in the Project Explorer view.
2. From the Tools menu, click Widgets Configuration Tool, opening the Widgets Configuration Tool dialog box, which displays any existing widgets that have been configured for the specific process.
3. To configure a new widget, click Add to open the Widget Properties dialog box.
4. From the General tab, you can enter the following general information about the widget:
a. Enter a name for the widget in the Name box. The name can contain only alphanumeric characters, and must not contain any blank spaces and no special characters except underscore (“_”) and dollar (“$”). Do not start the widget name with a numeric character.
b. Type a category in the Category list in order to group widgets. The category name is case insensitive, for example, “MyCategory” and “mycategory” is grouped in the same category.
c. Select any of the available widget types from the Type drop-down list.
Table 83 lists the available widget types.
Table 83. Widget Types
Type
Description
Graphical
Represent widget information in the form of a chart.
Tabular
Represents widget information in tabular format.
Infopad
Displays infopad information of the selected application.
Scorecard
Displays scorecard information.
Global Dataslot
Displays the selected global dataslots of the current project. For information regarding creating a global dataslot, see Setting the dataslot access.
Other
Used for creating your own widget type. For details, see the example provided in Enabling Google gadgets.
Composite UI
Used to define a widget for external applications. Select this option to render custom JSP files.
If you select the Graphical type, make sure that the data used in the SQL Query (see Table 84) is in the proper format — it must have a String field that acts as a label for each element (for example, a bar in a bar chart or a section in a pie chart) followed by a numerical field that provides the size of each element (for example, the height of a bar in a bar chart).
d. Enter the Description and Title of the widget in the appropriate boxes.
e. Enter the width and height of the widget (in terms of pixels) in the Width and Height boxes. The maximum permissible value for both parameters is 2048.
The fields in the Properties tab vary, depending on the widget type you have selected in the General tab.
Table 84 describes the common property fields and the widget type-specific property fields, where you need to enter information.
Table 84. Property Fields
Field Name
Description
Common Fields
SQL query
Available for Graphical and Tabular types. Enter (or copy-paste) an SQL query in this box.
Note: For an SQL query on multiple tables with identical column names in the same select clause, the resultset may be inconsistent. For consistent results, use an alias name for each of the duplicate columns.
Drilldown URL
Available for Graphical and Tabular types. If you want the widget to support a drill-down function, enter a URL in this box or click Add (in case of Tabular) to add multiple URLs. You can also use the following keywords to specify a parameterized URL:
*#PARAM# to replace with the label of the chart section that the user clicks on.
*#CATEGORY# (applicable only for Bar charts) to replace the drill-down URL parameter with the SQL query value (first column of the database query) of the clicked bar chart section.
*#SERIES# (applicable only for Bar charts) to replace with the value (second column of the database query) of the clicked chart section.
Open Drilldown In / Open In
Available for Graphical and Tabular types. Used to specify where to display the target URL for a drill-down operation. Available options are Inline (to display in the same window), Browser (to display in a separate browser window), and Popup (to display in popup dialog box).
Custom Presentation JSP file
Available for all widget types. Used to add a customized JSP file for rendering the widget. To add your customized JSP file, click Add to open the Add box where you can define the name and value of any parameters that must be passed at runtime.
Application name
Available for Infopad and Global dataslot types. Used to select the application whose infopad information or global dataslots is to be represented in the widget.
Target URL
Available for Other and Composite UI types. Enter the target URL in the URL box as any of the following values:
*Absolute value, for example, http://www.progress.com or an entire URL with the protocol, host, and port number.
*Using Server alias: to specify the URL with the server alias, as specified in the server-config.xml file. This value is only available for Composite UI type.
*Relative value, where you can specify the URL without the server alias. The server alias value is provided at runtime. This value is only available for Composite UI type.
Click Add to define parameters to the target URL.
Widget-specific fields
Graphical widget
Select the chart type from the Chart type drop-down list. Options are: Area, Line (2D and 3D), Meter, Vertical Bar (2D and 3D), Horizontal Bar (2D and 3D), Pie (2D and 3D), Doughnut (2D and 3D), Funnel, Pyramid, and Bar 3D Line.
Infopad widget
For the specified application, select any of the module and infopad option from the Module name and Infopad name lists. You can specify how to slice the infopad information (row or column) and the slice parameter in the Slice on value box. You can point to the adjoining Help ( ) icon for details regarding each component.
Scorecard widget
Select the scorecard type (Scorecard, Perspective, or KPI). Depending on your choice, you can select the scorecard, perspective, and KPI from the respective lists. To populate these lists, you need to create the scorecard components for the current application in Business Process Portal. Additionally, you need to access the same application workspace on your Business Process Server installation from Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge or import the application project (containing the scorecard files) to your workspace.
Global dataslot widget
If the current project contains global dataslots, you can select the project name from the Application name drop-down list. From the Global dataslots box, select the global dataslot to be displayed in the widget. You can use the SHIFT key to select a range of global dataslots or use the CTRL key to select particular global dataslots.
5. Click Save to return to the Widgets Configuration Tool dialog box, where the widget you just defined is added to the list of available widgets.
Note: To edit an existing widget, select the widget, then click Modify to open the Widget Properties dialog box, where you can modify the widget properties. You can also click Copy to copy a selected widget, which you can then open and modify if required. To remove a widget, select it and click Remove. You can also change the position of a selected widget by using the Move Up or Move Down buttons.
6. Click Save to save the configurations you made to the widget. The widgets.xml file appears in the Project Explorer view under the BPM or Common Resource project.
7. To edit the existing widget configuration file, double-click the widgets.xml file (in the Project Explorer view) to open the file in an XML editor.
Note: If you have added a graphical meter widget, you need to add the following property in the widgets.xml file to configure the range and intervals. For example,
<properties>
<property name="range" value="0,100" />
<property name="intervals" value="normal:0,40:#79E879|warning:40,60:#FFEA00|critical:60,100:#FF5219" />
</properties>
Note: where the "range" property is used to specify the meter range and the "intervals" property is used to specify the name, range, and color (in hexadecimal value) of the individual intervals.
Alternatively, you can start the Widgets Configuration Tool dialog box, where you can select one of the available widgets and make the desired changes.
8. Publish the changes to the existing file to the server, and you can use the Refresh option in the Publish wizard to refresh the existing widgets with the changes (for more information, see Publishing an application .