Creating Charts with the opCharts Chart Editor
- Keith Sinclair (Deactivated)
- Mark Dueck
- Chris Gatlin (Unlicensed)
Introduction
opCharts has the capability to create custom charts that may present any combination of data sets to the user in a single easy to read medium.
Creating a New Custom Chart
From the opCharts home page navigate to the charts view.
The resulting Charts page will look something like the following. From here via the administrative action palette we can add, edit, delete, and set permissions to charts.
Click the blue '+' button to create a new chart and we will be presented with a page such as the following. The only mandatory field is the chart name. All other fields and be left blank and edited at a latter time.
Field Descriptions
| Field Name | Function |
|---|---|
Name | This name is primarily administrative and will be used to identify the chart on the Views->Home->Charts page. |
| Desc. | A description field that will appear on the Views->Home->Charts page. |
| Title | This title will appear at the top of the chart. |
| Time Period | The default time period of the chart when it is initially displayed. Once you start typing the format and options will display. A user may change this once the chart is selected in order to access the time period they are interested in. |
| Left Y-Axis Title | This description will appear on the left side of the chart representing the scale of 'axis 0'. When selecting the data set we well be presented with the axis option. |
| Right Y-Axis Title | This description will appear on the right side of the chart represting the scale of 'axis 1' . When selecting the data set we well be presented with the axis option. |
| Only Stacks in Legend | When true only the unique stack entries found in the datasets added are shown in the legend along with each stacks last value. |
| Save | Select this to save the chart. |
| Add Dataset | Select this to add data sets to the chart. |
Click 'Add Dataset' in order to add data sets to the chart. A window such as the following will be presented.
It is important to first select the 'Data Type'. Clicking on this field the user will be presented with two choices; 'NMIS Graph' or 'NMIS Dataset'. For this example choose 'NMIS Dataset'.
The NMIS Graph option allows embedding a predefined graph from NMIS into an opCharts chart.
The NMIS Dataset option allows selecting individual datasets from data collected by NMIS.
A chart can only have one NMIS graph embedded in it and as many NMIS Dataset's as desired (the two can be mixed).
After selecting the Data Type 'NMIS Dataset', the form will change slightly as below.
| Field | Function |
|---|---|
Data Type | Drop down menu that offers two choices, 'NMIS Dataset' or 'NMIS Graph'. |
| Node | A configured node. As the user starts typing options are presented. |
| Resource | A drop down menu that will present available choices. |
| Index | A drop down menu that will present available choices. |
| Class | A drop down menu that will present available choices. |
| Field | A drop down menu that will present available choices. |
| Dataset Title | The name that will appear in the legend for this resource. |
| Line Type | A drop down menu that will present available choices. |
| Axis | A drop down menu that presents 0 or 1. If 0 is selected the scale for the resource will be on the left side. If 1 is selected the scale for the resource will be on the right side. |
| Color | If left blank a color will automatically be selected. If you wish to specify the color it must be represented with the appropriate hexadecimal number preceded with a '#' sign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors can assist in finding the code for the color you would like to use. |
| Legend Min | When true the minimum value (in the current period) of the dataset will be displayed in the legend below the dataset key |
| Legend Max | When true the maximum value (in the current period) of the dataset will be displayed in the legend below the dataset key |
| Legend Avg | When true the average value (in the current period) of the dataset will be displayed in the legend below the dataset key |
| Reverse Axis | When true the dataset values will be multiplied by -1 before being displayed so they will appear below the X axis, this is useful when displaying input/output data on the same graph. |
| Stack | Used to group datasets together and display them on top of each other so their values appear to add in the graph. This can be any string, all datasets with the same string will be stacked together. Only works when the line type is area. |
| Suffix | Text to display after the value in the tooltip, eg " bytes" |
| Decimals | The number of decimal places to display the value with in the tooltip |
| Dataset Multiplier | Each value in the data will be multiplied by this value before being displayed. This is useful for changing the unit or base of the value. Eg, if the value is in bytes and you would like to display bits set this to 8. If the value is in bytes and you would like to display in megabytes then set this to 1/(1024*1024) or 0.000000953674316 |
After completing the appropriate entires click 'Add' to add and save the data set, this action will return you to the 'New Chart' edit page. At this point you may add more datasets or save the chart. Once the chart is saved you may add it to a dashboard, export the data to a CSV file, or further edit the chart properties.