Working with Activeboard widgets

After creating your Activeboard, you can start adding widgets and feeding them with the required data sources. Everything you need to know about working with widgets is explained in the following articles, but you can start watching the following video to see the first steps you need to follow to build an Activeboard—from the creation of the source query for a widget, to the customization of the data retrieved.

Create a widget

To create a widget from scratch:

1. Click the Widgets button at the top of the Activeboard, then click and drag your selected graph style to the Activeboard workspace.

2. Now select the data that will feed your widget. Click the Data button at the top of the Activeboard. You can choose from several methods of identifying the data source for your widget:
   
   

   Free text query	Select this option if you prefer to enter the query script manually. Enter the LINQ query script in the text box, then click and drag the custom query box to the widget on the Activeboard. Learn how to build your widgets' source queries in the section below.
   Last queries	Select from a list of queries you have recently run in the domain and drag it to the widget on the Activeboard. Learn more about recent queries here.
   Favorite queries	Select from a list of the queries that you have marked as favorites and drag it to the widget on the Activeboard. Learn more about favorite queries here.

3. If the data in the query meets the data requirements of the graphic you selected, the new graphic will appear right away. However, you may need to specify which fields of data in the query you want to use to draw the widget. To do so, select the widget title bar to display the settings pane which will appear to the right. Review and edit the settings in the Data tab as needed.

   ID	This is a unique name for the widget used for internal calls, such as referring to data in the widget from another widget's script. It is auto-generated and cannot be modified.
   Name	The name of the widget. This is the friendly name that appears in the widget title bar in the Activeboard.
   Description	Enter a meaningful description of the widget.
   Data Source	This is the query that feeds data to the widget. Click the Edit button to open the Query Editor, where you can edit and update the widget's query script. Learn how to build your widgets source queries in the section below.
   Custom Date Range	(Optional) Toggle on this option to set a date range to apply to the widget and its dependencies, overriding the date range set for the Activeboard. Widgets with a custom date range show the calendar icon in their top right corner. Learn more about setting time ranges here.

   The settings available in the Visual tab will depend upon the type of graphic chosen for the widget. Learn more about each type of widget and its settings in the following articles.

Building your widget's source query

The free text query editor in Activeboards uses the standard LINQ query language used for searching data in Devo. However, it is necessary to encapsulate the script within parentheses preceded by the word query. For example: query(from demo.ecommerce.data select *). Devo automatically encapsulates your LINQ query if you don't do it, but you can also add it manually. 

Other cases that need the addition of specific operators to the widget query are the following:

Limit the events of a widget query

You can limit the query events represented in a widget using the offset and limit operators.

You can use both operators at the same time to get a specific window of events within a time range. For example, the following query will discard the five oldest events and will only show the 10 oldest ones from the remaining set.

query (from demo.ecommerce.data group every 0 by statusCode offset 5 limit 10)

When you use both operators, note that the order matters; if you use limit before offset, events will be discarded from the set of events specified in the limit parameter. So, if we switch the order of the operators in the previous example, query events will be first limited to the 10 oldest ones, and then the five oldest ones from that set will be discarded.

query (from demo.ecommerce.data group every 0 by statusCode limit 10 offset 5)

For a more visual approach, you can see all this explained in the following video:

Connect a widget to an input

When you add inputs to your Activeboard, the widgets linked to them must reference the input name in their queries to work properly. Depending on the type of data, you need to add a different expression. Learn more here.

By default, widgets connected to an input don't show any data before you enter or select a specific value in the corresponding input. However, you can make them show data (either a query data or a specific value) before using the input. This is made adding a specific operator to the widget query. Learn more here. 

Manage widgets

Click the ellipsis button of a widget to access the following options:

The following articles describe each of the available widgets you can create in an Activeboard:

• Area chart widgets
• Column chart widgets
• Donut chart widgets
• Heatmap widgets
• Line chart widgets
• Pie chart widgets
• Simple value widgets
• Table widgets
• Voronoi diagram widgets