Administration Guide

Configuring Counter Widgets

A Counter widget displays metrics and trends of numeric data. A Counter widget contains one or more tiles, each of which displays a single metric/trend pair.

To configure a Counter widget, follow the steps below:

  1. Create a new Counter widget or open an existing one for modifying. The Counter Widget Properties dialog box appears.

    INFO: For instructions on adding or modifying dashboard widgets, see Creating and Modifying Dashboard Widgets.

  2. Specify the widget’s name in the Name field.
  3. Specify the widget’s title in the Title field. The title will be displayed in the widget's title bar on dashboards.
  4. If you want to allow technicians to collapse this widget, select the Allow to minimize widget check box.
  5. If you want to hide this widget when there is no data to display, select the Hide widget when data is not available check box.
  6. Under Tiles, specify widget tiles:
    1. Click New to add a new tile, or select an existing tile and click Edit, or select an existing tile and click Copy Tile. The New Tile / Tile Properties dialog box appears.

      NOTE: If you (or other Settings users) previously saved a tile style as default, the new tile's properties are populated with default values.

    2. In the Name field, enter the tile name.
    3. In the Align field, choose the tile position within a row: Left, Right, or Entire Row.

      NOTE: When you want to display two tiles within a row, the first tile must be aligned left, and the second right.

    4. In the Spacing field, specify the vertical spacing for the tile in pixels. The spacing effectively determines the tile’s height.
    5. In the Color field, choose the background color for the tile.
    6. On the Data tab, specify the Label, Metric, and Previous Metric for Trend Calculation properties of the tile:

      Text — specifies static text that will be displayed in the tile.

      SQL Script — specifies a custom SQL script for populating the tile properties.

      If you want to specify a trend, both the Metric and Previous Metric for Trend Calculation properties must contain single numeric values. In this case, you can configure a SQL script as follows:

      SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Tickets

    7. On the Display Properties tab, adjust the format of the tile's content display:
      1. In the Layout field, choose the order in which the label, metric, and trend should be displayed within the tile.
      2. In the Trend calculation radio button group, choose the rule for calculating Trend:

        Previous Metric — displays Trend as is, i.e. as specified on the Data tab.

        % of Previous Metric — displays the ratio between Metric and Trend.

        Increase — displays the increase of Trend relative to Metric.

        % Increase — displays the percentage change between Metric and Trend.

      3. In the Trend Symbol field, choose symbol for displaying Trend direction.
      4. In the Symbol Position field, choose the position of a Trend symbol: left or right to the number.
      5. In the Decimal Digits field, specify the number of decimal digits for displaying numeric values of Metric and Trend.
      6. In the Font field click the Set Font button to specify the font for Label/Metric/Trend.
      7. In the Align field, choose the alignment for Label/Metric/Trend within the tile: Left, Right, or Center.
    8. To save the current tile properties as default values for new tiles, click Save Style as Default.

      NOTE: The default style is saved globally for all users of the Settings.

    9. Click the Refresh Preview button to see how the tile will look like.
    10. Click OK to close the New Tile dialog box and save your changes.
    11. Create other tiles for the widget, if needed.
  7. To see how the widget will look like, click Preview.
  8. Click OK.