Applying filters to change the sampling of data displayed in visualizations

In a dashboard, the visualizations depict information that relates to all the API events that occur for the selected Catalog in the IBM API Connect organization, and which are scoped to a specified time range. You can further filter the API events by using a free text search or a Lucene search query.

To filter the API events, complete the following steps:

1. To perform a free text search, delete the asterisk character (*) if shown, and then enter a text string in the search bar. For example, to filter for an API called accounts, enter accounts in the search bar.
   Then, press Enter or click the Search icon .
   The visualizations are refreshed to show the results of your search query.
2. To use the Lucene query syntax, complete the following steps:
   1. In the search bar, delete the asterisk character (*) if shown, and then enter a search string.
      For basic search queries, use the following guidelines:

      Guideline	Example
      Construct searches on field names and their actual values by using this syntax: field_name:value Field names and their values are case-sensitive.	app_name:legacyquote
      Where required for numeric fields, use comparison operators such as greater than (>), less than (<), or equal to (=).	rateLimit.count:>10
      Use the logic operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine search terms.	app_name:livequote OR app_name:legacyquote

      For detailed information about the Lucene query syntax, see Apache Lucene - Query Parser Syntax. For information about the API event fields that you can specify in search queries, see API event record fields.

      Tip: Two quick ways to check for the field names on certain visualizations are to check the tooltip, or to click the caret icon to display the raw data behind the visualization.
   2. Press Enter or click the Search icon .
      The visualizations are refreshed to show the results of your search query.
3. To revert to your previous view of the dashboard, delete the search query in the search bar and press Enter.

You can change the time period to which your visualization data relates by using the Time Picker. The defined time filter will be applied to all relevant visualizations in the IBM API Connect dashboard.

To apply a time filter and auto-refresh rate, complete the following steps:

1. From the dashboard, click the Time Picker icon .
2. From the Time Picker, use one of these options to set a time filter:

   Quick

   Select this option to choose a predefined value such as Today, Yesterday, This week, or Last n minutes.

   Relative

   Select this option to specify a start time that is relative to now; for example, 20 seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months ago, optionally rounded to the specified unit of time. The date and time that corresponds to your relative selection is displayed before the fields. Click Go.

   Absolute

   Select this option to specify a precise time range. Either use the calendars to select a From and To date, or enter the values directly into the fields by using the date and time format specified underneath the fields. Click Go.

3. If you want to additionally specify a frequency at which the data should automatically be refreshed in your visualizations, click Auto-refresh and then select a predefined refresh interval.
4. If you set an auto-refresh interval as described in the previous step, click the auto-refresh value, which is displayed next to the Time Picker icon , to confirm your settings and close the time selection panels. If you did not set an auto-refresh interval, close the Time Picker panel by clicking within the box where the Time Picker icon is located. The search query is resubmitted as you make your selections and the visualizations in the dashboard are automatically refreshed to show the matching data. The specified quick, relative, or absolute filter setting is shown with the Time Picker icon . If set, the auto-refresh interval is shown with the Time Picker icon, together with a Pause icon that can be used to pause auto-refresh if required.
   Tip: To switch off the auto-refresh capability, click the auto-refresh value next to the Time Picker icon, and click Off. Then, close the Refresh Interval panel by clicking within the Auto-refresh box next to the Time Picker icon.

On time-based visualizations that display histograms, you can zoom in on a specific time range on the chart. This is equivalent to applying a filter for an absolute time period.

To zoom in on your data, complete one of the following steps:

• In the chart, move your cursor to the area that depicts the start time, and hover over the x-axis so that the cursor changes to a plus (+). Click and then drag the mouse to select a boxed area that depicts the time range you want to examine. Release the mouse button to zoom in on the area and view the data in greater detail.
  

  The filter is applied to all time-based visualizations in the current dashboard, and the start and end time range is shown to the right-hand side of the Time Picker icon ().

  Tip: To remove the filter, click the browser Back button. Alternatively, use the Time Picker icon to select the previous, or a different time range.
• Bar charts only: To zoom in on a particular bar, click that bar in the chart, and then in the filter banner that is displayed underneath the search bar, click Apply Now.

For any chart that includes a legend, you can use the legend labels to apply inclusion (or positive) filters to that chart and other relevant charts on the dashboard. When you use the legend in this way to specify inclusion, data is displayed only for the selected item. You can alternatively apply exclusion (or negative) filters to exclude the data for a selected item. You can also apply other filter conditions in addition to inclusion and exclusion filters.

To apply a filter from the legend of a chart such as an area chart, line chart, pie chart, or bar chart, complete the following steps:

1. In the chart, click a legend label to apply a filter for that item.
   The color picker opens as displayed in the following example, which shows the label and color picker for a Product named Clothing. Notice that two icons are also shown above the colored dots.

   

   Tip: You can change the color of the lines, slices, or bars on a chart by clicking the colored dots in the color picker to select a preferred color. To retain these colors, save the dashboard.
2. Apply an inclusion or exclusion filter as follows:
   • To apply an inclusion filter that shows data associated with that item only (for example, the Clothing Product), click the Positive Filter icon . A blue inclusion filter oval and an Actions twistie are displayed beneath the search bar of the dashboard, as shown in the following example. The filter condition (which in this case is product_name:"Clothing") is also shown in the filter oval.
     
   • To apply an exclusion filter that excludes data about that item from the chart, click the Negative Filter icon . A red exclusion filter oval and an Actions twistie are displayed beneath the search bar of the dashboard, as shown in the following example. The filter condition (for example, product_name:"Clothing") is also shown in the filter oval.
     
3. Highlight the filter oval to view the filter icons and use these icons to apply other filter conditions.
   The following image shows an example of the filter icons for an inclusion filter, and also shows the Actions twistie in an expanded state. The Actions twistie provides equivalent options for the icons. For an exclusion filter, similar icons are shown in a red oval.

   

   Icon	Description	Equivalent Actions option
   	Click this icon to temporarily disable the inclusion or exclusion filter that was set in step 2. When you disable an inclusion filter, the filter oval is shown in a blue striped color, and the chart displays all the data again. (For a disabled exclusion filter, the filter oval is shown in a red striped color.) To enable the filter again, click the icon again.	Disable Enable Toggle is an alternative for Enable/Disable.
   	Click this icon to pin the filter. A pin icon is shown to the left-hand side of the filter condition in the blue (or red) oval as an indication. Pinning a filter causes it to be applied to other dashboards that you open. To unpin the filter, highlight the oval and click the pin icon again.	Pin Unpin
   	Click this icon to toggle the filter to instead show excluded items (that is, those items that do not match the filter condition). The toggle action switches between applying an inclusion filter and an exclusion filter to the data in the visualization. When the exclusion filter is applied, the filter oval switches from blue to red .	Invert
   	Click this icon to remove the filter and restore the chart to its original state.	Remove
   	Click this icon to display the JSON representation of the filter. If required, you can directly modify the JSON code to change your filter query and then specify an alias that can be used as the filter name. To see an example of how to use this option, see the Edit Filter section within the Filtering by Field topic in the Kibana documentation.

   Example of how an inclusion filter works when enabled: Suppose the filter condition product_name:"Clothing" is applied to the first visualization, which shows the five most active Products. A second visualization in the same dashboard, which shows the five most active APIs, would automatically be refreshed to display data only for those APIs in the Product named Clothing.