Creating custom widgets

You can create custom widgets where you select a chart, set data definition to add one or more data sources, select monitoring parameters, and set widget-level filters. You can create such custom widgets and use them in different dashboards according to your requirement. You can also save the widgets that you create as custom widget templates. You can also create specialized widgets such as web widgets, multi-chart widgets, and a widget to list all the instances for a selected source and resource type.

Complete the following steps to create a custom widget:

1. In the left navigation pane of Dashboard Designer, click Custom Widgets > Create New Widget.

   The New Widget page opens.

2. Click the Edit icon that is displayed next to the New Widget, Widget Description, and Widget Title fields, and enter a name, title, and description for your widget.
   Note: Only alphanumeric characters, spaces, and underscore are supported.
3. The Show Gridlines checkbox is selected by default.
   If you do not want the gridlines view, clear the checkbox.
4. In the left navigation pane, click Charts and expand a chart category.
   For example, expand Bar.
   The chart types for that category are displayed.
5. From the left navigation pane to the widget, drag a chart that you want to use.
   For example, if you want to add Stacked Bars to a widget, then you must drag the Stacked Bars chart from the left navigation pane to the widget.

   For more information about the various chart types, see Charts.

   Instead of dragging a chart to the widget area, you can drag any one of the following widgets:

   • Drag a template widget to the widget and click Use this Template.
   • Drag an existing custom widget and modify it. For more information about modifying a custom widget, see Modifying widgets

   Note: If you want to use a Real Time Connector, select a Line chart.
6. Optional: Click the icon to select the default filters and custom widget-level filters.
   Note:

   • For the widget-level filters to work properly, you must map metrics to filters when you set data definitions or in custom data definitions.
     For more information about mapping metrics to filters or setting and adding cases for the queries or REST API methods, see the following topics:

     • Setting data definitions by using connectors
     • Creating a custom data definition
   • You can select maximum five filters. This number includes the default and custom filters, including conditional or dependent filters.
   • When you select a child filter, its parent filter is selected automatically.
   • You can also rearrange the widget-level filters. However, parent-child filters cannot be switched. A parent filter always precedes its child filter.
   • To change values in the child filters, you must first change values in the parent filter. For example, the PM filters, Summarization and Aggregation are child filters and dependent on the parent filter, Interval. If you directly change the filter value in Summarization without first changing its parent filter value, then the Summarization filter displays a None value.
   • You can add Default filters to widgets that contain Cloud APM, ITM, and IBM® Cloud App Management data sources only.
   • You cannot add filters to a widget that streams real-time data.

   For more information about default and custom filters, and creating custom filters, see Filters.

   If widget-level filters are set, then the widget displays a check mark on Set Filters icon. Else, Set Filters icon does not display any check mark.
7. Click icon to select a data source and its monitoring elements.
   For more information about setting data definitions, see the following topics:

   • Setting data definitions by using connectors
   • Setting data definitions by using custom data definitions
8. Click icon to set the widget and chart properties.
   For more information about setting widget and chart properties, see the following topics:

   • Setting widget properties for all the chart types
   • Setting chart properties
9. Optional: To add a background image to a widget, complete the following steps:
   1. Click icon that is displayed on the upper-right of the widget.
   2. In the Background Image pop-up window, click Add Background Image, and then click Select from File.
   3. Browse to the image file location on your computer, select the file, and then click Open.
      Note: You can add PNG, JPEG, JPG, or GIF image files of size less than or equal to 2 MB.

      The selected image is added as a background image to the widget. To replace the image, repeat the steps, and select another image. To delete the image, click No Background Image.

10. To save the widget as a custom widget, click Save, and complete the following steps in the Save Widget window:
    1. In the SAVE AS pane, click Widget.
       Note: The SAVE AS pane is displayed only when you use APM, ICAM, or ITM Connectors in the widget.

       To save the custom widget as a custom template, see Saving custom widgets as templates.

    2. In the Name field, enter a name for the widget.
    3. To save the widget to an existing category, click Existing category, select a category name from the drop-down list, and then click Save.
    4. To save the widget to a new category, click New Category, enter a category name, and then click Save.
11. To save the widget with another name, click the Save As option, and in the Save As Widget window, enter the required details.
12. Optional: For Bar, Time Series, and Pie chart categories, you can replace the selected chart with another chart that belongs to the same category. Click the Change Chart Type icon and select the required chart type from the available options.
    You can change a chart type at any step of widget creation.

    The existing chart is replaced with the selected chart type without any changes to the data definitions or chart properties.

13. After you save a widget, to preview it, click the Preview icon.

Results

The newly created custom widgets and widget templates are listed under Most Recently Created Widgets in the navigation pane. Each widget displays an icon next to it. The icon indicates the chart type that is used in the widget. If you use a Real Time Connector, then the widget displays icon.