Geneos - Can I make the URL on a dashboard object dynamic?

It is possible to make the URL on a dashboard dynamic based on the changes that are occurring in the underlying gateway. By dynamic it means that when you invoke the link (by right click or double click on the dashboard object) it will launch a different view in the console, or even a different link in the web browser.

This is not strictly out of the box functionality, so there is some work to do on both the console and the gateway as discussed below. Note that it is assumed the reader is familiar with dashboard and the user of modifiers already. If not you can review this page for a tutorial.

On the console you will need to import a new modifier (you will find it attached at the end of this article URLlinkedtovvalue.adm).

See the import section of the modifiers documentation for instructions on how to do this.

This modifier will change the link on a dashboard object to be equal to a cell value.

(Note: modifier is provided under the terms of the MIT license.)

Next we need to create a cell in a gateway that will drive the dynamic URL.

In this example below we create a compute engine data view, and populate it with a URL that points at all critical managed entities in a gateway.

The XML for this view would look like this:

<sampler name="Test URl View">
    <dataviews>
        <dataview name="Test URL View">
            <createOnGateway>
                <enabled>true</enabled>
                <firstColumn>URL</firstColumn>
            </createOnGateway>
            <additions>
                <var-columns>
                    <data>
                        <column>
                            <data>Value</data>
                        </column>
                    </data>
                </var-columns>
                <var-rows>
                    <data>
                        <row>
                            <data>Link</data>
                        </row>
                    </data>
                </var-rows>
            </additions>
        </dataview>
    </dataviews>
</sampler>

You will now need a rule to populate the cell. In essence, you can build any URL in this cell that you want the dashboard object to invoke. In the example below, we are just finding the first critical managed entity and setting the URL to that.

 <rule name="URL path">
    <targets>
      <target>
        /geneos/gateway[(@name=&quot;systemAlerts&quot;)]/directory/probe[(@name=&quot;systemAlerts&quot;)]/managedEntity[(@name=&quot;URL Test&quot;)]
        /sampler[(@name=&quot;Test URl View&quot;)][(@type=&quot;&quot;)]/dataview[(@name=&quot;Test URL View&quot;)]/rows/row[(@name=&quot;Link&quot;)]
        /cell[(@column=&quot;Value&quot;)]
      </target>
    </targets>
    <priority>1</priority>
    <pathAliases>
        <pathAlias name="probeName">
          /geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity[(state(&quot;severity&quot;)=&quot;3&quot;)]/ancestor::probe
        </pathAlias>
        <pathAlias name="meName">
          /geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity[(state(&quot;severity&quot;)=&quot;3&quot;)]
        </pathAlias>
    </pathAliases>
    <block>
        <set>
            <var ref="probe"></var>
            <first>
                <dataItems>
                    <pathAlias ref="probeName"></pathAlias>
                    <property>parameters/@Name</property>
                </dataItems>
            </first>
        </set>
        <set>
            <var ref="me"></var>
            <first>
                <dataItems>
                    <pathAlias ref="meName"></pathAlias>
                    <property>parameters/@Name</property>
                </dataItems>
            </first>
        </set>
        <!-- /geneos/gateway[(@name="systemAlerts")]/directory/probe[(@name="iwhdws")]/managedEntity[(@name="iwhdws")]-->
        <transaction>
            <update>
                <property>@value</property>
                <concat>
                    <string>/geneos/gateway/directory/probe[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="probe"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]/managedEntity[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="me"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]</string>
                </concat>
            </update>
        </transaction>
    </block>
</rule>

You should now drag and drop the URL cell onto a dashboard object and select your new modifier.

We would also advise that on this dashboard object you disable the 'Allow Direct Editing' in the text properties so that the cursor does not come up when you invoke the URL.

Now when you double click the dashboard object it will invoke the URL in the computed cell. In this case move to the first critical entity. If you fix this problem, and click again it will take you to the next critical entity.

Examples of the URLs you may consider include:

A fully qualified data item reference, for example to a cell or entity. In this case the path will be something like - /geneos/gateway/directory/probe[(@name="Virtual Probe")]/managedEntity[(@name="System Alerts")] (note: there is no need to include the dataitem(< >) syntax, the console will do this).
If the data item path matches multiple data items then the console will display the search results
A URL to another dashboard tab (or console dockable), for example - geneos://component(ac)/dockable(activedashboard)/tab(Global Dashboard v8.11)
Or a web location, most likely a knowledge base link, enclosed in a wwwpage(< >) modifier - wwwpage(http://www.<some dynamic URL>)

Populating a cell with its data view path

The lowest level granularity of a URL with respect to data items is a data view (a link will not take you to an individual cell). Below is an example rule that builds a path for that cells data view.

<rule name="URL path">
    <targets>
        <target>/geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity/sampler/dataview/rows/row/cell[(@column=&quot;Path&quot;)]</target>
    </targets>
    <priority>1</priority>
    <block>
        <set>
            <var ref="gateway"></var>
            <target>
                <gatewayName></gatewayName>
            </target>
        </set>
        <set>
            <var ref="probe"></var>
            <target>
                <netprobeName></netprobeName>
            </target>
        </set>
        <set>
            <var ref="me"></var>
            <target>
                <managedEntityName></managedEntityName>
            </target>
        </set>
        <set>
            <var ref="sampler"></var>
            <target>
                <samplerName></samplerName>
            </target>
        </set>
        <set>
            <var ref="dv"></var>
            <target>
                <dataviewName></dataviewName>
            </target>
        </set>
        <!-- /geneos/gateway[(@name="systemAlerts")]/directory/probe[(@name="iwhdws")]/managedEntity[(@name="iwhdws")]-->
        <transaction>
            <update>
                <property>@value</property>
                <concat>
                    <string>/geneos/gateway[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="gateway"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]/directory/probe[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="probe"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]/managedEntity[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="me"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]/sampler[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="sampler"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]/dataview[(@name=&quot;</string>
                    <var ref="dv"></var>
                    <string>&quot;)]</string>
                </concat>
            </update>
        </transaction>
    </block>
</rule>

Moving directly to the root cause of an issue

Using this function it is now technically possible to have the user click on a dashboard object and go through to the root cause of a problem, by passing a dashboard proxy view, or even some middle ware gateway SQL. The only restrictions you are working within is that the URL can take just one path, and you need to be able to create that path in the data view cell (so need to get the required information together in that place). In the case where you are using gateway sharing because the console is gateway agnostic you may even be able to bypass the shared gateway and go to the root cause gateway.

Linking to a dynamic web page

Using the standard URL function for a dashboard object you can add a link such that if you double click on the object, or right-click and use the 'links' menu it will invoke the link in the OS standard web browser (shown below)

This link is however non-mutable, I.E. unless you manually change the URL it will not update. Using the link URL to value modifier however it is possible to make this link more dynamic. Although we provided the modifier above to give more detail you can replicate the same modifier in GA4.0 and onwards using the Tools --> Custom Modifier Manager, an example is show n below:

The modifier the above creates is available as an attachment at the end of this article (LinkURLToValue.adm)

You can import this using file --> Import.

This modifier will link the value of a cell to URLs on a dashboard object. Thus before you can use this you need to have setup a cell with the URL value, probably using gateway SQL or compute engine, though a toolkit or SQL toolkit or API sampler will work as well. Here is an example computed view:

<sampler name="URLTest">
    <dataviews>
        <dataview name="Test URL View">
            <createOnGateway>
                <enabled>true</enabled>
                <firstColumn>URL</firstColumn>
            </createOnGateway>
            <additions>
                <var-columns>
                    <data>
                        <column>
                            <data>Value</data>
                        </column>
                    </data>
                </var-columns>
                <var-rows>
                    <data>
                        <row>
                            <data>Link</data>
                        </row>
                    </data>
                </var-rows>
            </additions>
        </dataview>
    </dataviews>
</sampler>

If you have used the above, you will also need a rule to populate the URL cell:

 <rule name="URL path">
    <targets>
        <target>
           /geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity/sampler[(@name=&quot;URLTest&quot;)][(@type=&quot;&quot;)]
           /dataview[(@name=&quot;Test URL View&quot;)]/rows/row[(@name=&quot;Link&quot;)]/cell[(@column=&quot;Value&quot;)]
        </target>
    </targets>
    <priority>1</priority>
    <pathAliases>
        <pathAlias name="probeName">/geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity[(state(&quot;severity&quot;)=&quot;3&quot;)]/ancestor::probe</pathAlias>
        <pathAlias name="meName">/geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity[(state(&quot;severity&quot;)=&quot;3&quot;)]</pathAlias>
    </pathAliases>
    <block>
        <transaction>
            <update>
                <property>@value</property>
                <string>wwwpage(http://www.google.co.uk)</string>
            </update>
        </transaction>
    </block>
</rule>

To link to a dynamic web page the cell value must be of the format wwwpage(<some full url>), examples can be seen below

wwwpage(http://www.bbc.co.uk)

wwwpage(https://www.google.co.uk)

You can then drag the cell that you have created on to a dashboard object and use the new modifier.

The existing URLs will be replaced with the cell value. If the cell value changes the link in the dashboard object will also be updated.

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Geneos - Can I make the URL on a dashboard object dynamic?

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