Creating widgets from an AQL data source

You can use Ariel Query Language (AQL) statements to create widgets. AQL is a structured query language that you use to extract, filter, and manipulate event and flow data from the Ariel database in IBM® QRadar®.

1. Click Configure dashboard.

   The Configure dashboard screen displays a library of available widgets, with details about each widget.

2. Click Create new widget.
3. On the New Dashboard Item page, enter a name and a description for the widget.
4. Select AQL from the data source list in the Query section, and enter an AQL statement. For more information, see Tips for creating AQL queries for dashboard charts.
   1. Insert existing parameters in the statement. Click the Insert Parameter icon, and then click Insert for each relevant parameter.
   2. To change the default value of the parameter, click the View Parameters icon, and click Save after you set the default value.
      When you change the default value for a parameter, you're changing the value everywhere the parameter is used in your workspace, except in expanded or pinned dashboards and widgets. If you don't set the value as the default value, the updated change applies only to the current session. However, if you set the value as the default, the current session value also uses that value.

      Note: The predefined SYSTEM:username parameter returns the username of the user who is logged in. System parameters are read only and you cannot change the default value.
   3. To add a parameter to your workspace, click Add, give the parameter a name and default value, if needed, and then click Save.
      Note: After you add parameters to a widget on a dashboard for the first time, the Parameters card appears on the dashboard. If you remove parameters from the widget, and no other widget in that dashboard uses the parameter, the Parameters card disappears.
5. Pick a refresh time for how often you poll the data source. Choose a refresh rate that is greater than the selected query time. The default refresh rate is every 5 minutes. The shorter the refresh time, the greater the performance impact on IBM QRadar. The timer for the refresh rate begins after the query is completed.
   For example, if the refresh rate is every minute, and the query takes 3 minutes to complete, the refresh rate starts only after the 3-minute run ends.
6. Click Run Query.
   When you first create the widget, you can't configure the charts when no data results are returned. Try making the criteria in the fields less strict and run the query again.

   If your AQL query contains parameters without any values, enter them on the Parameters page. You must enter a value for each parameter so that the query runs successfully. If the query is successful, the results are displayed next to the statement.

7. Create a view in the Views section.
   Because you can create multiple views and charts from the same query, give the view a unique name. By default, the chart's title and status on the title bar are displayed; to hide them, click the More options icon and switch the settings to Off.
8. Select a chart type and configure the relevant properties. For use cases to help you decide which chart type to use, see Widget chart types.

   Chart type	Instructions
   Bar	Creating a bar chart
   Big Number	Creating a big number chart
   Geographic	Creating a geographic chart
   Pie	Creating a pie chart
   Scatter	Creating a scatter chart
   Tabular	Creating a tabular chart
   Time Series	Creating a time series chart

9. Preview how the chart looks and then click Save.
   Tip: The labels for the chart come from the queries that are used. If they are unintelligible in the preview, edit the labels in the View section.