Active Console 2 Reference Manual: Europe, Middle East & Africa

Active Console 2 Reference Manual
Version 3.0
Europe, Middle East & Africa

ITRS Europe Ltd.
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London, EC2A 2DX
United Kingdom
T: (+44) 207 638 6700
Americas
ITRS America Inc.
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New York, NY 10012
United States of America
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Asia Pacific
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Version Control
Version 0.1 – Initial draft
Version 0.2 – Version for first internal release
Version 0.3 – Created for the first AC2 Alpha
Version 0.4 – updated for Alpha as of the 27/4/2007
Version 0.5 – updated for Alpha as of the 2/7/2007
Version 0.6 – updated for Alpha as of the 28/8/2007, renamed to a reference manual which is
what it is at this stage
Version 0.7 – Minor updates based on Bug fixes
Version 0.8 – updates based on minor enhancements and bug fixes
Version 1.0 – Active dashboard added, changes based on enhancements and interface updates
Version 1.1 – Added Active Gauge section
Version 1.2 – Added Active Pie Chart section
Version 1.3 – updates based on changes in 080418 and 080430 of the AC
Version 1.4 – Inclusion of Active dashboard Licensing
Version 1.5 – Updates for release version 080626
Version 1.6 – Updates for release version 080717
Version 1.7 – Updated Notifier section.
Version 1.8 – Updated Active Pie Chart Section
Version 1.9 – Added Event commands
Version 2.0 – Added new path editor component
Version 2.1 – Updated Notification section
Version 2.2 – Updated for docking manager improvements
Version 2.3 – Updated for Chart Zooming, and other minor dashboard improvements
Version 2.4 – Updated for gradient fills and user defined tools in the dashboard
Version 2.5 – Updated for dockable close actions
Version 2.6 – Updated for metrics view column settings and table column settings editor.
Version 2.7 – Updated for metrics view filter operator explanations.
Version 3.0 – Updated for GA2010.1, including list view inclusion
14 April 2010 Page 2 of 235

1 Introduction
Active Console 2 (AC2) is a standalone Java and C++ application which allows you to connect
to and view the contents of Geneos gateways. This document is a reference guide which will
step you through the major components. It is not designed as a tutorial, which is the basis of a
separate document.
This document assumes the user has a basic understanding of the Geneos framework.
It guides you through the fundamental principles behind the AC interface and its main
components.
2 Licensing
The Active Console is part of the Geneos Framework, therefore if you have a license for the
framework you can deploy as many Active Consoles as you like within the group or
organization that has the license. There are however some modules within the Active Console
that are licensed separately, they are as follows:
• Active dashboard, see section 15.2 for more details.
When the Active console is started for the first time (after an installation) you will be asked to
Accept or Decline each module that has its own license, in each case a dialog with the license
agreement will be shown. In the event that you wish to change your mind about the license
acceptance at a later date you can access and modify all licenses through the ‘Tools
Licenses’ application level menu.
Licenses are tied to the particular installation of the Active console, rather than a specific
machine or workspace. Therefore if you reinstall you will be asked to accept or decline the
license, but will not have to do so if you just change workspaces.
3 Glossary of terms
The following Active Console specific terms are used extensively throughout this document:
• Data Items - an umbrella term that refers to one or more of the following:
o Gateway
o Netprobe
o Managed Entity
o Sampler
o Data view
o Managed Variable (row / column)
o Headline

4 General Overview
4.1 Starting Active Console 2

Active Console 2 (AC2) is started by running the Active Console executable located in the
directory you installed the files in or unzipped them to. If problems are encountered see the
trouble shooting guide (section 40).
There are a number of start-up flags and settings you can define which modify the behavior and
configuration of the Active Console while it is running. These settings are configured by
modifying the ActiveConsole.gci file that resides in the same directory as the
ActiveConsole.exe. For a complete list of these flags, and details of how to change this file, see
section 35.
4.1.1 Importing AC1 configurations (config.txt)

When you start the AC2 for the first time you will be asked whether you would like to import
an old AC1 configuration (which will be in the form of a config.txt file). If you select this
option then it will prompt you to specify the location of the file, after which it will import it
into your workspace. The following settings are taken from the config.txt
1. The gateway connections, including secondary gateways

2. The View path settings (see section 7.1)
3. The background color
After the import the config.txt will not be used, the settings will be saved in the default
workspace.
4.2 The Application window

An example of the main application window is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The main AC2 application window
Like most standard applications it has a menu and a tool bar, the contents of which are detailed
below. It also has a set of components which are used to view and manipulate the contents of
gateways. All the components reside in dockable frames (see section 4.12) which can be
dragged around the application window or undocked (floated in their own window)
The list of components in AC2 is detailed in section 4.8. Full details of their content and how
to use them are covered in sections 5 to 22. Using and manipulating dockable windows is the
subject of sections 4.13 to 4.18.
At any given time only a single dockable component is selected. This is indicated by giving it
a different colour heading to the other visible components. This is relevant for a few minor
functions of AC2, like the ‘Refresh’ menu.
4.3 The status bar

The status bar (at the bottom of the main application window) displays (from left to right), the
Global state, the current workspace you are working with, and the build number (version) of
the Active console.

4.4 General interface standards and conventions
This section outlines some general standards and tips and tricks in the AC2 interface
4.4.1 Selecting and deselecting items in lists

There will be many situations in the AC2 interface when you will be presented with a list from
which from which you must select one or many items. To do this left click on the required item.
If you want to select multiple items hold down the CTRL key; to deselect an item hold down
CTRL and click on it.
4.5 Gateway Connections

The core of a workspace configuration is the gateways that it tries to connect to. These can be
defined either explicitly (by defining their host and port) or via remote files that contains lists
of gateways (also defined by their host and port). See section 28 for more on defining these
files.
The end result is a set of gateways (host and ports) to connect to on start up.
Note: Duplicates are allowed in the list of connections (be they locally defined or via a remote
file) but are ignored when connecting to the gateways, so that each gateway will be connected
only once.
4.5.1 Defining connections

Connections are defined via the workspace configuration (see section 5.2), they have the
following properties:
• Hostname, the primary host name (or IP address)

• Port, the primary port number
• Enabled [optional], whether the connection should connect or not connect on start up,
note you can always change this property during runtime, this is just how it comes up
on first starting the AC
• Logon Method [optional], the method that the AC attempts to log on to gateway with,
this overrides the workspace logon type.
• Description [optional], a natural language description that you want to display if the
gateway is not connected, once connected it will use the name passed to it from the
gateway.
• Secondary Host [optional], the name (or IP address) that will be used if the AC fails to
connect to the primary gateway. This functionality is also referred to as ‘Hot standby’.
• Secondary Port [optional], the port number of the secondary gateway. This
functionality is also referred to as ‘Hot standby’.
4.5.2 Enabling and disabling gateway connections

Within the workspace a gateway connection can be defined as Enabled or Disabled. If a
gateway connection is disabled then AC2 will not connect to the gateway (if it is already
connected it will break the connection). Note that this does not disable the actual gateway, just
this AC2 from connecting to it. Access to the disable / enable functionality is via the right click
menu on a gateway.

NOTE: You can Enable / Disable all gateway connections at the same time via the File menu.
There is also a Reset connection function, available from the right click menu on a gateway
which will disable, then enable the gateway connection via a single click.
You can decide whether new connections are enabled or disabled when they are imported by
using the ‘Enable new remote connections’ setting. If this is ticked newly added gateways
will come in enabled, otherwise they will be added disabled.
4.5.3 Logging on to gateways

Every workspace is configured with a default gateway logon mechanism. This can be either:
• System logon - AC2 will pick up and use the OS system logon credentials and send
them to the connected gateways when connecting.
• Manual Logon - You can ignore the system logon and instead define a user name that
should be sent to all gateways.
Whenever a connection to a gateway is made the default credentials will be used. When
gateway connections are defined explicitly (not via a remote file) you can override this default
to one of the following:
• Always Ask - Whenever AC2 connects to the gateway you will be prompted to choose
a connection type and to give a username and password.
• Ask Once - You will be asked for a username and password the first time you connect
to the gateway in the AC2 session.
• Use system - AC2 will use your system login when it connects to this gateway (this is
the default mode).
• PAO - AC2 will use PAO when it connects to this gateway. See section 35 for more
information on PAO login.
• Workspace - The system will use the workspace default when connecting to the
gateway.
You can define different logins for each of the gateways that are configured for your workspace
using these settings.
Note: The settings in locally defined connections will always override those defined in remote
files. Thus if there are duplicates the local (connection) settings will always be used first.
4.5.4 Gateway Name or ID clashes

Gateways must have unique names and ID’s in the AC2. If you connect to more than one
gateway, their names and ID’s must be different, if they are not you will receive an error.
It is recommended that you resolve clashes, by changing the gateway setups where possible.

4.5.4.1 Legacy Gateway name clash
Legacy gateway ID’s are actually generated in the AC2, based upon the hostname and port, so
it is not possible for them to clash. The name can clash with another connection. If this is the
case you will see this dialog:
The connection is still valid, but the name of the gateway in the AC2 is changed to ensure
uniqueness. Any paths that rely on the name will likely not work.
4.5.4.2 Gateway 2 name clashes

If a gateway name or ID clashes in the AC2, you will see this dialog:
At this point the connection is rejected, and will contain no data. It is necessary to change the
setup so the name and ID do not clash. This can be set in the Operating environment of the
gateway setup file.
When you save a file using the Gateway Setup Editor, it will check if the name or ID clashes
with any existing connections. If it does you will receive a warning:

4.6 The Menu structure
The main application level menus have the following functions
• File
o Configure Gateway - This menu will have a sub-menu for each gateway you
have configured in the system. Selecting one of these will open the relevant
setup editor (which will vary depending on whether it is an EMF1 or EMF2
gateway).
o Connect to all gateways - ensures that all gateways are enabled (active). See
section 4.5 for more details on gateway connections.
o Disconnect from all gateways - ensures that all gateways are disabled
(inactive). See section 4.5 for more details on gateway connections.
o Workspace - For additional information on Workspaces, see section 27. This

menu also lists the names of workspaces you have previously used.
New - saves the current workspace configuration and loads a new default
workspace configuration. The workspace will next be saved to a file
called ‘Defaultworkspace.aws’ in the working directory. This will
silently overwrite any existing ‘Defaultworkspace.aws’ in the working
directory, unless you perform a ‘Save as’ operation.
Open - saves the current workspace and opens the selected workspace
(.aws file). You can also open a workspace by clicking on its name at the
bottom of the Workspace menu.
Open from URL … allows the user to open a workspace that is located
on a URL, see section 27.9 for more details.
Save - saves the current workspace back to the source file.
Save As... - saves the current workspace to a new file. The current
workspace will now continue to save its state to this newly defined file.
Save Copy As... - saves the workspace to the defined file. This does not
make this file the current workspace, i.e. it will continue to save to the

original workspace. This is useful when you want to ‘Save out’ a
workspace for a third party without using it as your own workspace.
Revert - reloads the current workspace from its file without saving first.
Your workspace will be reset to the time of the last save.
History > List of last accessed workspaces, following the Revert menu
item will be a list of the last 10 accessed workspaces. If they files to
which they refer are not accessible then the menu items will be greyed
out. You can also launch the Workspace selector from this menu, see
section 27.1.
o Import, this is a generic function via which you can import a component
exported from source files, see section 25 for more details on what can be
imported.
o Import AC1 configuration, this will import and old AC1 configuration into
your workspace. See 4.1.1 for more details.
o Exit - saves your workspace and then closes down AC2.
• View (Note that the order of the dockables in the view menu is user definable, see section 24.4 for more
details)
o Undo, Undo the last docking operation performed (see section 4.19 for more
information on the docking framework)
o Redo, Redo the last docking operation that was undone (see section 4.19 for
more information on the docking framework)
o Layout, from this menu you can take a windows layout from a different
workspace and apply it to your current workspace. Only the windows layout will
be modified by this action, no other changes will occur to the workspace.
o Command bar, ensures that the command bar is visible. If you hide the
command bar you will need this function to get it back.
o Gateways - displays the Gateways View component (if it was hidden or closed
it will be displayed in the last known visible location), see section 8
o Metrics - displays the Metrics View component (if it was hidden or closed it
will be displayed in the last known visible location), see section 12
o Active Dashboard Manager – Displays the Active dashboard manager, see

section XXX for more details
o Active Dashboard Palette, the palette that allows users to add context to
dashboards
o State Tree - displays the State Tree component (if it was hidden or closed it will
be displayed in the last known visible location), see section 7
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o EventTickers - displays the Event Ticker component (if it was hidden or closed
o Commands - displays the Command Viewer component (if it was hidden or

closed it will be displayed in the last known visible location), see section 21
o Output - displays the Output Viewer component (if it was hidden or closed it
o Search Results - displays the Search View component (if it was hidden or
closed it will be displayed in the last known visible location), see section 14
o Netprobes - displays the Netprobe View component (if it was hidden or closed
o Entities - displays the Entities View component (if it was hidden or closed it
o Dockable Manager, allows access to the Dockable manager, see section XXX.
• Tools
o Settings - defines the settings for the open workspace. See section 5.
o Create Metrics Overview, These menu options allow you to quickly create a
metrics overview (see section 12.7).
o Diagnostics - opens a diagnostic page on the web browser. See section 39.1.
o Search - allows you to define a search over the data items. See section 14.
o Reporting, Opens the reporting tool, see section 23 for more details on
reporting
o Notifier manager, launches the notifier manager, see section XXX
o Workspace level list view settings, this allows the users to define the settings
used by all the list views in the workspace, unless they have been overridden at a
dockable or list view level.
o Gateway Setup Editor, launches the gateway setup editor, see section XXX
o Table Column settings editor, displays the workspace level column settings
models, see section XXX for more details.
o Path Editor, this allows access to the path editor, though clearly the paths will
not be used in any context, it is essentially just a scratch pad.
o Licenses, this displays a list of the Active Console components that have their
own licenses, each of which you can Accept or decline. If you Decline a license
then the relevant functionality will not be available to you. See section 2 for
more details.
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o Show all windows, this will move all windows connected to the AC process to
the front
o Attach all windows, all detached windows will re-docked to the AC
• Help
o Help - launches the stand alone help application.
o Geneos Online Documentation - launches a web browser page with the Geneos
framework online help (this covers all aspects of Geneos and not just AC2).
o About - launches the ‘About’ dialog. From this you can also create a diagnostic
file to send to ITRS Support in the case of problems. See section 40.
4.7 The Tool bar

The toolbar contains the functions shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The AC2 toolbar
For further information on workspaces, see section 27; on state trees, see section 7; on list view
modes, see section Error! Reference source not found.; on Metric overviews see section
12.7, on workspace settings see section 27 and for the search functionality see section 14.
4.8 Component List

AC2 is composed of a number of components (or views). They can be accessed via the View
menu in the application menu bar. Each component is contained in its own dockable frame
(see section 4.12). The available components are summarised here, and discussed in detail in
the following sections:
1. State Tree - The state tree displays the gateways and their directory components in a
hierarchical structure which can be displayed in a physical view (gateway / netprobe) or
a logical view (ordered by managed entity metadata). This view is the primary means
of navigation around AC2. See section 7 for more information.
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2. Gateways View - This view displays information about the gateways that AC2 is
configured to connect to. See section 8 for more details.
3. Netprobes View - This view displays the list of netprobes known to the gateways that
AC2 is configured to connect to. See section 9 for more details.
4. Entities View - This view contains a set of entity tabs, each of which contains a list of
managed entities. See section 10 for more details.
5. Metrics View - This view contains a set of metric tabs, each of which contains a list of
samplers. See section 12 for more details.
6. Event Tickers - This view contains a set of event ticker tabs, each of which contains a
list of events. See section 13 for more details.
7. Active Dashboard Manager- Allows to draw Visio type diagrams of your system,
including charts and gauges, see section XXX for more details.
8. Active Dashboard Palette, this palette is used to add content to dashboards, see section
XXX.
9. Search View - displays the results of a user defined search over the available directory
components. See section 14 for more details.
10. Command Viewer - displays a list of the running, pending and completed commands.
See section 21 for more information.
11. Output viewer - displays the output of completed or currently executing commands.
See section 22 for more details.
4.9 Icons and colours

AC2 uses icons and colour to convey information about the state of the system to the user in a
simple and effective manner. This is explained below:
4.9.1 Icons
The following icons are used throughout the application to represent the data items:
Data Item Example Icons

Gateways
Netprobes
Managed Entities
Samplers
Data Views
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Managed variables
Headlines
4.9.2 Colours
The colour of icons that represent directory components will change depending on the
component’s severity, snooze status and any rules which are currently active.
• Grey – In Gateway 2 this means no rules have been triggered on this component or its
children so its severity is undefined. Note this is not equivalent to AC1 where grey
means disconnected.
• Green – In gateway 2 a rule has triggered that tells the system that the directory
component and its children are OK. This colour will override grey. Note this is not
equivalent to AC1 where it will be green if a rule exists on the item and the rule has
not set it to warning or critical.
• Amber - A rule has been triggered that tells the system that the data item or one of its
children is in a WARNING state. This colour will override green.
• Red - A rule has triggered that tells the system that the data item or one of its children is
in a CRITICAL state. This colour will override Amber.
4.10 Error icons

Where data items have an error the following icons will be used:
Meaning Icon Description

Disconnected The data item or the data item this is published from is
disconnected
Error The item has a general error; more information should be available
via its properties dialog (see section 6).
Unreachable The host on which the data item sits (or the data item from which
this is published) is unreachable
License Warning The components license has expired
Rejected The connected to this item has been rejected
Waiting The AC is waiting for a response from the data item
4.11 Visual Indicators

Icons are used in AC2 to represent both the function and the state of data items. We overlay
them to convey additional meanings as explained below:
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Meaning Icon Description
Snooze The data item itself is snoozed
No Samplers The connected managed entity has no samplers
Inactive The data item is inactive
Knowledge Base The item has one or more knowledge base entries
Inactive children The item contains one or more children that are inactive
Assigned User The item is assigned to a user
Gateway Version | The version of the gateway (which can by 1 or 2). By default this is
hidden, turn it on via the workspace settings (see section 5.1)
Snoozed Child The data item has one or more descendents which are snoozed
Snoozed Ancestor The data item has one or more ancestors that are snoozed
Snoozed ancestors The data item has snoozed ancestors AND descendents
and descendents
No Logging The data item should be logged to the database, but the gateway is
not connected to the database
Geneos One or more geneos components (gateway or netprobe) under the
component error data item has an error, which means it is not connected
Log to database The data item is logging to database
4.12 The Dockable framework

The AC2 GUI uses a docking framework where all the components listed in section 4.8 can be
viewed and positioned anywhere the user wishes. In this context these components are known
as dockables. An example of a dockable is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. An example dockable
Each dockable has a number of inherent capabilities which the user can exploit to set the
position and size of the component in the interface:
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• Movable - triggered by pressing and holding the mouse pointer on the component and
then moving the mouse. See section 4.13.
• Combine / un-combine with another dockable - Dockables can be combined with
other dockables to form tabbed (modal) views. This is triggered as part of a move
operation. See section 4.13.
• Auto-hide - tells the component to automatically minimise itself if the user is not
interacting with it. See section 4.15 for more information.
• Float in window - will remove the component from the main interface and place it in
its own independent window. See section 4.16.
• Close - will remove the dockable from the interface. This does not destroy the dockable
but simply hides it. See section 4.17.
• Maximise / minimise - Double clicking on the title bar of a dockable will force it to
take all the available space in the application window. Double clicking it again will
restore it back to its previous size. See section 4.18.
4.13 Move Dockable

Dockables can be moved in the AC2 interface in relation to other dockable components. This
is achieved by pressing and holding the left mouse button on the title bar of the dockable you
want to move, then dragging the mouse to the new location and releasing the mouse button.
The component must be moved to a position relative to another component. To do this, move
the mouse within 80 pixels of the selected edge of the target component as shown in Figure 4.
You can also dock a dockable in relation to whole application window (rather than another
dockable), for example you may wish to dock the state tree so that it fills the whole left hand
side of the application window (from top to bottom). To do this, simply drag the dockable so
that the mouse pointer is within 80 pixels of one of the application edges.
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Figure 4. Moving a dockable
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4.14 Combine Dockables
Dockable components can be combined together to create a dockable frame that contains
multiple dockable components. These components are accessed via tabs situated at the bottom
left of the combined dockable component. To create a combined dockable component, select
the dockable you want to combine with another by pressing and holding the mouse over the
dockables title bar. Then drag the component into the centre of the target dockable (the centre
being at least 80 pixels from the edge of the target dockable) as illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Combining dockable components
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To un-combine a dockable from another drag its tab out from the set of tabs at the bottom of
the dockable it’s present in, once undocked you can drag it like any other dockable.
4.15 Auto-hide Dockable

Dockables can be configured to auto-hide themselves when you are not interacting with them.
To do this click the Auto-hide icon in the top right of the relevant components title bar. The
dockable will be minimised to the edge of the application that the dockable shares the longest
edge with. Figure 6 provides an example of this.
Figure 6. Auto-hiding Dockables
To re-display the auto-hidden dockable, move your move over the tab. It will redisplay after a
short pause. It will not auto-hide again until you have moved the mouse off the dockable. If
you click on the dockable (and therefore give it focus) it will not auto-hide until you click
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elsewhere. Auto-hiding components is useful if you want to work with many components at
the same time without closing them, since they only take up screen real estate when you are
interacting with them.
4.16 Float in window

A dockable can also be detached from the main application window by clicking on the relevant
button in the dockable toolbar (see Figure 3). This window will maximise and minimise along
with the main application window. To re-dock simply click on the float in window button on
the dockable again.
4.17 Close Dockable

If the dockable is a system dockable and the close button is pressed, the dockable will simply
be hidden; it will not be removed from the application. It can be brought back via the ‘View’
menu on the application menu bar.
If the dockable is a locally defined dockable, then depending on the close action set for the
dockable in the dockable manager, the close action may either hide the dockable or remove it
completely from the system (see section 24).
If the ‘Frames Hidable’ setting in the ‘Advanced’ section of the ActiveConsole settings is set to
false; then pressing the close button on dockables will have no effect (dockables will remain
visible).
4.18 Maximise / minimise Dockable

A dockable can be quickly resized to fill the whole application window by double clicking on
its title bar, To minimise it back to its original size double click on the title again.
4.19 Undo / redo docking action

You can undo your last 10 docking actions by using the View Undo function from the main
application window. This allows you to recover if you get the docking into a confused state.
You can also replace docking actions that you had previously undone by using the View
Redo function.
4.20 Detaching individual tabs

As well as being able to detach a whole dockable from the main application window you can
also detach a single tab from a dockable that contains tabs. To do this right click on a tab in a
tab bar (see Figure 7) and select the ‘Detach’ function.
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Figure 7 an example tab bar
This tab will be added to its own frame. Minimizing, maximizing and resizing this frame can
be done independently of the main application window. The actual tab from which the window
was created is not removed from the dockable, but remains acting as a proxy for the tab. This
proxy continues to show the severity of the items, and has functions to reattach the tab and
force it to display at the front of any windows (using the show button). Figure 8 shows an
example of detaching a tab.
Figure 8 Detaching individual tabs
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4.21 Showing and attaching all detached tabs
You can quickly reattached all tabs that have been detached via the Tools Attach all
windows menu item in the main application window. You can also force all detached tabs to
come to the front by using the Tools Show all windows function.
4.22 Creating new tabs

You can create a new tab in a dockable which supports tabs by any of the following methods:
• Double click in the tab area

• Right click on an existing tab, or anywhere in a view which has no tabs and select
‘New tab’
4.23 Closing many tabs at the same time

There are two functions available on tab bars that allow you to close multiple tabs at the same
time (these functions can be accessed via the right click menu on any of the tabs):
• Close All, these will close all tabs in the selected tab bar. The only exception is if one
the tabs is a primary tab (it will have an icon), which will not be closed when this
function is invoked.
• Close Others, This will close all tabs in the selected tab bar except the tab that you
right clicked on to get the ‘Close others’ menu option. The only exception is if one the
tabs is a primary tab (it will have an icon), which will not be closed when this function
is invoked.
5 The Workspace Settings Dialog

The Workspace Settings dialog is available via the Tools menu or the Settings button in the
application toolbar. It allows you to configure the global settings for the current workspace
including connections to gateways. The sections available in the settings dialog are discussed
below.
5.1 General Settings

The following settings can be set in the general settings area:
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Figure 9. The General pane in the Settings dialog
• Title - This is the title that appears in the application title bar. It will be prefixed with
the string “Geneos Active Console”.
• Background Colour - defines the background colour of all the dockable components.
• Font size - defines the size of most of the text in AC2 components.
• List View dimensions – using these settings you can define how large (or small) a-
space icons take up in each of the list view modes, with the inclusion of the List view
(see section XXX) this only effects the Gateways view (see section XXX)
• Transparency - The visibility settings define how opaque the various visual indicators
are in AC2 components. Using these settings you can make selected indicators more
prominent than others. In all cases 100% means they are completely opaque and 0%
means they are completely invisible. See section 4.11 for a list of the available
indicators
• Workspace is read only, this configures the workspace as read only, the AC will not
save back to the workspace between sessions, see section 27.8 for more details.
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• Auto load last good workspace, this stops the workspace selection dialog from being
displayed on start up, instead the last workspace will be automatically loaded. See
section 27.2 for more details.
• Auto-save Period – defines the period in minutes between automatic saves of the
current workspace configuration to a temp file, see section 27.3 for more details
• Max Auto saves, this limits the number of auto save files that the AC will create, see
section 27.11 for more details.
• Save on exit and workspace switch, this will auto save (with out prompt) the
workspace when the AC is shut down or a different workspace loaded, see section 27.3
for more details
• Auto group entities view, If this flag is ticked then when items are selected in the state
tree (see section 7) the grouping in the primary Entities view is automatically set to the
type of the next item down in the state tree, see section Error! Reference source not
found. for more information on this feature.
• View Path, - this is an ordered, case-sensitive, comma separated list of the managed
entity attributes you want to use to group the managed entities in the state tree when the
state tree is in Viewpath mode. See section 7.1 for more details. You can see all the
view path values for the managed entities on your system by right clicking on this
setting.
• Order Preference, by default the state tree is alphabetically ordered, you can however
override this order by entering values into this field. Items in this field will appear at
the top of state tree branches before the remaining items (which will be alphabetically
ordered), see section 7.4 for more details of this function.
• Stay on top, If this flag is ticked then the Active Console will remain on top of the
other application windows. This only works if the Active Console is using Java 1.5 or
above.
5.2 Connection Settings

The connection settings define the gateways that AC2 will connect to when the workspace is
loaded and applied.
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Figure 10. The Connections pane in the Settings dialog
It will also define the logins that the connections will use. The dialog has the following
settings:
• Workspace Logon - defines the default logon that will be used against the configured
gateways that have not had an individual logon defined. This can be configured to use
the system login, a normal /manual logon, in which case you can enter the required user
name in the text box below the login mode, or PAO (see section 35.2).
• Connection files - This allows you to define a list of remote files that contain gateway
connection details (see section 28 for more on this subject). The contents of these files
cannot be edited or viewed from inside AC2. Gateways configured via remote files will
automatically use the workspace logon. You can define whether the gateways
contained within the files come up active or inactive. The remote files can be stored on
a local or mapped drive (in which case use the Local file setting in the Type column) or
on a remote URL.
• Connections - This allows you to define an explicit list of gateways for the workspace.
When a gateway connection is defined locally in this way you can specify whether you
want it to come up active or disabled, and you can also assign it a name, override the
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workspace logon with a specific logon method for this gateway, and assign it a
secondary host and port name which will be used if the AC fails to connect to the
primary host and port.
• Listen port settings - The port that AC2 listens on. As a rule you should leave this at
its default setting
• PAO - defines the class file that is used for PAO authentication. See section 35 for
more details of PAO authentication.
• Enable new remote connections - if this is ticked gateways that are defined in remote
files will automatically connect when the file is first loaded into the workspace (or if
new gateways are added to an existing remote file). Else they will be added disabled.
Note: It is possible to define many remote gateway files and local gateway connections that
may map to the same gateway(s). This is not an issue as AC2 will not duplicate actual gateway
connections. It may be useful to know however, that the contents of the local connection
settings will be used before the gateways defined in remote files. Thus if you have specific
‘logon’ and ‘enabled’ settings for a local gateway definition then they will take precedence
over remote settings. See section 4.5.3 for more information on this.
5.3 Database connection settings

This section defines a list of database connections which can be used by other AC2 components
(primarily active charts and the event ticker). There are two main sources of database
connections, those that are provided by the gateways you connect to, and those you manually
add. The top (read only) list in the dialog displays the connections provided by the gateways,
while the bottom list can be modified to manually define additional database connections.
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Figure 11. The Database pane in the Settings dialog
5.4 System Tray settings

The system tray section allows you to define the system tray behaviour for the workspace.
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Figure 12 the System tray settings
The following settings are available:
• Minimise to System tray, if this tick box is checked then the Active Console will
minimize to the system tray rather than the task bar.
• Use Paths for severity, By default the color of the system tray icon will represent that
of the global state (the highest severity of a connected gateway). You can if you wish
override this default and define a subset of data items that should define drive the colour
of this icon. When using paths to define the colour of the system tray icon the worst
severity of a data item that matches one or more of the paths will define the icon
colour.
• Paths, If you have ticked the ‘Use Paths for severity’ then you need to define the subset
of data items that will drive the colour of the system tray icon via a set of paths. The
paths can be added and removed via the + and – buttons on the left of the path list,
while the paths can be edited by selecting the relevant path and clicking on edit in the
drop down box which will appear, this will take you to the path editor (see section 29.2)
in which you can modify the path. Paths eher can only go down to the Data view level,
this functionality will not work for cells
5.5 Tooltips
The tooltips section of the workspace allows you to define for each data item type the tooltip
information that will appear when you hover over data items of the specified types. For
example if you select ‘Severity’ and ‘Snooze’ for Sampler, then every time you hover over a
sampler you will see its severity and snooze in the tooltip. An example of the Tooltip interface
is shown in figure XXX.
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Figure 13 Setting the tooltip contents for data items in the workspace
These tooltip selections affect all dockables throughout the workspace. You cannot define the
tooltips for separate instances of a dockable.
Having selected the tooltip properties you want for a given type you can also modify their order
by using the arrows to the right of the list. Items at the top of the list will appear above the
others when the tooltip is actually displayed.
5.6 Advanced settings

The advanced settings allow you to define the docking, tab and window framework behaves, as
well as some other advanced configurations options. All the settings are discussed below.
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Figure 14 the advanced workspace settings
The available advanced settings are as follows:
• Maximum rows for a metrics overview, Metric Overviews allow you to combine
multiple data views into a single metrics view (see section 12.7 for more details), but it
is impractical to compile thousands of rows into a single table. This setting limits the
maximum number of rows that can exist in a single metric view.
• Dashboard refresh, this determines how frequently the dashboards evaluate their
modifiers, see section 15.15 for more details
• Event ticker old events removal rate, determines how frequently the event ticker
purges old events that should be removed due to a filter, see section 13.1 for more
details.
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• State tree leaf type, determines what the leaf nodes are in the state tree, see section 7.5
fore more details
• Snooze stops error propagation, if set to True this means that data items in an error
state which are snoozed will not cause the error symbol to appear on the ancestors in the
tree. See section 7.3.1 for more information
• Gateway setup editor as a separate process, if selected the gateway setup editor will
be launched in its own process, this has two main effects, firstly connection information
will not be available from the Active Console, secondly if the GSE experiences a
problem it will not affect the Active Console.
• Use Large Error Icons, if selected then the error icons (shown in figure XXX) will be
twice as large. This is useful if connection problems to geneos components is of
particular interest.
• Frames floatable, See section 4.16 for more details of floatable frames. If this value is
True then it is possible to float frames in their own windows, otherwise you cannot
• Frames auto hidable, See section 4.15 for more details of auto hidable frames. If this
value is True then it is possible to auto hide frames in their own windows, otherwise
you cannot
• Frames Hidable, See section 4.17 for more details of hidable frames. If this value is
True then it is possible to hide frames in their own windows, otherwise you cannot.
When the value is set to false, the close action of all dockables is set to ‘Not Closable’
and cannot be altered by the user.
• Frames re-arrangable, If this value is true then frames can be moved around within
the docking framework (see section 4.13 for more details of moving frames).
• Resizable, if this value is true then dockable frames can be resized with respect to each
other frames, I.E. you can change their width and height within the AC frame, if this is
false then you cannot resize them.
• Continuous Layout, If true when you resize frames they reposition immediately, if
false then a simple line will appear suggesting where their new width / height will
appear. It is suggested that on lower specification machines this be false
• Easy tab docking, This determines whether frames can be docked together to create
modal frames by dropping dockables into the center of other dockables, see section 4.14
for more details
• Title bar dragging all tabs, By default when you dock one frame with another to
create a modal frame (see section 4.14) only the currently selected / visible frame will
be docked with the target frame. If this setting is true then all frames within the frame
you drag via the title bar will be merged with the target frame.
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• Show frame gripper, In the top left of each frame there is a small gripper, this setting
determines whether this appears or not. This is a simple aesthetic setting.
• Show frame title bar, determines whether the frames have a title bar. Note that if this
is false (and therefore they do not have title bar) then almost all the docking framework
functionality will be inaccessible.
• Side bar rollover, if frames have been auto hidden and this setting is true, then when
the mouse hovers over an auto hidden frame tab then the frame will appear. If this
value is false, then the user must click on the auto-hidden tab to make the same frame
appear.
• Allow nested floating windows, If true the docking behavior that occurs in the main
application window (see section 4.12) can also occur in undocked (or floating)
windows.
• Dragging Mode, Determines how the grey frame which shows where a floating frame
will end up when dragging appears.
• Use Normal Frames for undocked components, If true then when you undock
components they will appear in conventional window frames, which can move resized,
maximized and minimized. If False, then the windows will appear as docking
framework frames, which can only be resized.
• Embed tabs when detaching, This determines whether a tab should appear in the
detached window when a tab is detached (see section 4.20). If set to false then the tab
will not appear at the top of detached window. Tabs are generally colored with the
worst severity of all the items they contain, so can be useful, but on the down side they
take up screen real estate.
• Use Dialog when detaching, this determines whether detached tabs should be
displayed in dialog windows, rather than normal windows. Dialog windows differ from
normal windows in two main ways, namely that they are minimized with the main
application window (normal windows remain), have no minimized and maximize
controls, and have a presence in the OS task bar.
• Show tab close buttons, this determines whether tabs have a close button on their right
hand side. If this is not the case then the only way to close tabs is to right click on the
relevant tab and select the close button. The figure below illustrates this function.
• Show close button on tabs, this setting is only applicable if the ‘Show tab close button’
setting is true. If this setting is false, then tabs are closed via a communal closed button
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situated on the right hand side of the tab pane. Pressing this close button will close the
currently selected tab
• Show gripper on tabs determines whether a gripper should be displayed on the tabs,
this is a simple aesthetic setting.
• Bold Active Tabs, determines whether the currently selected tab(s) should be shown
using a bold font, making them stand out further from the non selected tabs.
• Tab Resize mode, this determines how tab bars which have multiple tabs are displayed.
The following modes are available:
o Default, The default setting for the application (which is none)
o Fit, this will fit all the tabs into the available tab area, this will mean the tabs
will get smaller and occluded by other tabs as the space becomes inadequate for
the tabs , but all the tabs will be visible
o Fixed, this will fix the width of all the tabs, if their titles are longer than than
their width then it will be cropped
o None, tabs will be as wide as they need to be to display their title, if the tab area
is to small to display all the tabs then arrows will appear on the right of the tab
area allowing to scroll over the tabs
• Output, This setting determines whether output windows (see section 22) should
appear in a tab in the output viewer, or in a detached frame. Once the output window
has been created it can be moved between these modes freely as you wish, this is just
the starting position.
• Show enhanced tooltips, determines whether tooltips should be displayed for data
items
• Look and feel, the look and feel of the docking framework
6 Properties dialogs
Where ever you see a data item (see section 3) in the Active Console interface you can right
click on it and select a properties menu item. This will produce a dialog similar to Figure 15.
The Properties dialog displays all relevant properties for the selected data item broken down
into general categories. If the Auto Update tick box (at the bottom of the dialog) is checked
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then these values will update as and when they change. Values can be cut and pasted from the
fields, and categories collapsed and expanded.
If the Auto update is off, then the values can be updated via the refresh button. You can have
as many properties dialogs open at the same time as you like, but their presence is not saved
and restored with the workspace.
Figure 15 an example of a Properties dialog (in this case for a managed entity)
At the bottom of the dialog is a ‘Copy all’ button which places the contents of the dialog on the
system clipboard.
7 The State Tree Dockable

The State Tree dockable displays the contents of all the gateways known to AC2 in a
hierarchical view. It can be displayed in one of two modes, which can be toggled by selecting
the relevant item from the right click menu on the state tree, or the State Tree view mode icon
on the toolbar.
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• Viewpath (logical) - which constructs the tree with logical attributes of the managed
entities using the view path configured in the settings dialog. See section 7.1 for more
details. Only managed entities and their sub-components will be available in this mode.
• Netprobe (physical) - which has the gateways as the primary nodes, then their
components nested by netprobe, managed entity, and sampler.
An example screenshot of the State Tree view in Netprobe mode is shown in Figure 16 below:
Figure 16. The State Tree
The tree is read only, in that its contents is defined by the gateways and their setups and cannot
be modified directly by the user. Each element is represented by its icon (see section 4.9.1) and
its name. Like all tree views the branches can be expanded and contracted as required.
Most of the data items available are in the tree. Their functions can be accessed by right
clicking on the relevant item and using the resultant pop-up menu. Selecting items in the tree
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will update the primary Entities, Metrics and Event Tickers views (see sections 10, 12.3 and 13
respectively).
7.1 Defining and viewing the ‘Viewpath’

The view path is used when the state tree is in Viewpath mode (logical). It uses the managed
entity attributes to sort the tree into logical groups. If no view path is defined the state tree will
simply contain a list of all the managed entities configured in the connected gateways. Once a
view path is defined the state tree will group together managed entities that have the same
attribute value. For example, let’s say we have 4 managed entities:
1. ME1, with attributes ‘Country = England’ and ‘City = London’

2. ME2, with attributes ‘Country = France’ and ‘City = Paris’
3. ME3, with attributes ‘Country = England’ ‘City = London’
4. ME4, with attributes ‘City = Hong Kong’ and ‘OS = Windows’
5. ME5, with attributes ‘Country = England’ and ‘City = Manchester’ and OS=’Linux’
6. ME6, with attributes ‘Country = France’
And a view path setting of ‘Country, City, OS’. The tree would be organised in the following
way:
• England
o London
ME1
ME3
o Manchester
Linux
• ME5
• France
o Paris
ME2
o ME6
• Hong Kong
o Windows
ME4
The items are sorted by the attributes defined in the view path in order. So in this case the
system will try and get the Country attribute of all the managed entities and create entries for
each unique Country before putting the relevant managed entities under each Country. It will
then sub divide the set of managed entities under each unique Country by the second attribute,
i.e. City. This process continues until all the view path attributes have been applied.
Where a managed entity does not have a value for a given attribute (in the example above ME4
does not have a Country) it will not be classified under an instance of the attribute (e.g.
England) but instead will be inserted at the same level in the tree as the unique values for the
attribute, i.e. it will have the same parent as the attribute. The net result is that gateways can
have entirely independent view paths, and still be displayed successfully in logical view mode.
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The definition of the attributes in the view path setting is case sensitive.
7.2 The state tree and snoozed items

The state tree also displays the snooze status of data items displayed in it. This includes not
just whether the item itself is snoozed, but whether it has descendents or ancestors that are
snoozed as well. The icons and their meanings are discussed below:
The data item itself is snoozed

The data item is not snoozed but has 1 or more descendents that are snoozed
The data item is not snoozed but has 1 ore more ancestors that are snoozed
The data item is not snoozed, but has 1 or descendants and 1 or more ancestors that are
snoozed
7.3 The state tree and geneos errors

In the event that netprobes and gateways are in an error state (I.E. disconnected, unreachable) a
small road sign will appear in the bottom right corner of their state tree representation. This
propagates up the state tree all the way up to global state. Therefore if a state tree item contains
an item which has a geneos error then it will also display the road sign. Examples of this can
be seen in Figure 16.
You can make this road sign large by changing the advanced properties, see section XXX.
7.3.1 Geneos errors and snoozed items

Via the Advanced workspace settings (see section 5.6), it is possible to stop the propagation of
the geneos errors up the tree for data items which are snoozed. For example under normal
operation if a net probe is disconnected and not snoozed an error triangle would propagate up to
the global state, however with this flag set to true, if the probe was snoozed, the error
propagation would not progress up the tree (but would be displayed and stop on the probe).
Note: Because only Managed Entities can be slept to GW1 all MEs on a disconnected probe
must be snoozed to stop the propagation.
7.4 Ordering in the state tree and the entities view

By default all items in the state tree are ordered alphabetically. You can however force
specified items to occur at the top of the items at any given level in the state tree by specifying
them in the ‘Order preference’ section of the workspace general settings (see section 5.1).
Figure 17 illustrates this point.
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Figure 17 Specifying Order Preference
The definition of order preference is case sensitive; any item that occurs in the state tree can be
specified in this way. You can specify many items in the Order preference (separated by
commas) with items at the beginning of list taking preference over items at the end of the list.
7.5 Limiting the state tree content

You can restrict the level of data items that appear in the tree. This setting is defined in the
advanced workspace settings (see section 5.6). The following options are available:
• Data View, the state tree will allow you to navigate down to the data view level
• Sampler, the state tree will allow you to navigate down to the sampler level, but not
data views
• Managed Entity, the state tree stops at the managed entity level, it will not display
samplers or data views
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Note: The primary reason for restricting the data items in the state tree is performance.
Stopping at the Managed Entity level will be more efficient for example than stopping at the
data view level. Workspaces that connect to lots or large gateways will see significant
performance gains on start up if the state tree is restricted.
8 The Gateways Dockable

The Gateway dockable displays a read only list of the gateways that are currently configured
for AC2. They are displayed in a list view (see section Error! Reference source not found.)
thus you can display the gateways in a number of different ways and even group them by
attributes if you wish (see section Error! Reference source not found.). When displayed
using large icons relevant visual indicators will be shown with the gateway icons (see section
4.11).
Figure 18. The Gateways view
Right clicking on a gateway will allow you to edit its configuration, disable or enable it, run
commands appropriate to gateways, and RMS functions (currently supported for EMF1
gateways only via AC1).
8.1 Secondary gateway indicators (Hot standby)

Where gateways are configured with secondary connections (hot stand by’s) they will have a
slightly different icon in the gateway view. Examples are shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19 Hot stand by icons
The primary gateway icon will display in front of the secondary gateway. If a gateway
(primary or secondary) is up it will appear solid, and be colored for its severity. If it is down
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then it will appear partially transparent and be grey. Examples of the three possible
combinations (of gateways being up or down) are shown in Figure 19.
How to configure Secondary connections is the subject of section 4.5.1 and 28.
8.2 Gateway Licenses

License information for the gateways is available if you switch the gateway view to Details
view (see section Error! Reference source not found.) and find the ‘License expiry’ column.
If gateways are coming to the end of their licence period then a warning will be displayed in the
output viewer (see section 22)
9 The Netprobes Dockable

The netprobes dockable is a list view (see section XXX) that is configured by default in new
workspaces. By default it has a single tab that displays all the netprobes currently connected to
the Console (via the connected gateways).
Like any list view you can remove it from your workspace via the dockable manager, and
restore it after a delete by importing it (see section XXX). Additional tabs created in the probe
view will display only probes. If you drag and drop a data item into a tab in this view it will
locate the probe relevant to the item and add it to the view.
For full details of list all list view functions see section XXX.
10 The Entities Dockable

The entities dockable is an instance of a list view (see section XXX). It is configured as default
in a new workspace. By default the entities view has a single tab, the contents of which will
follow user selection.
When following user selection it will display all entities relevant to the selected item, for
example if a gateway is selected it will display all the entities in that gateway, if a data view is
selected it will display the entity that is an ancestor of that data view.
The first tab is also configured to auto group based on the user selection (see section XXX).
If additional tabs they are configured by default to display only entities. When you drag and
drop data items into such tabs the following will occur:
• Drop global state, a gateway, net probe or view path folder, the entities within these
items will appear in the view, the contents will automatically update as these entities
change, including the creation of new entities, or removal of existing ones.
• Drop an entity, if you drop an entity you will be presented with 2 choices, the first is to
drop it in such a way that it will only appear in the list view if the ME is connected to
the console (using a dynamic path), and the second means there will always be an entry
in the tab for the entity, regardless of its connection status (Static). See section XXX
for more details on static and dynamic paths.
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• Drop a sample, data view or cell, this will locate the entity that is an ancestor of the
selected data item, and add it to the tab.
Like any list view the entity view can be removed from the workspace via the dockable
manager (see section XXX), and restored via the import function (see section XXX).
For full details of the functionality available within list views (including the entity view), see
section XXX
11 Active Console List Views

Before reading this section you should ensure that you under understand what is meant by the
term ‘Data item’ which is covered in section XXX, and used extensively in the following text.
11.1 Overview
The purpose of the list view component of the Active Console is to allow the user to create a
number of dockables that contain tabs, where each tab contains a set of related data items. By
default a new workspace will contain a dockable for the display of entities (see section XXX), a
dockable for probes (section XXX), and a dockable called the Status Overview whose only tab
follows user selection and reports on the critical and warning cells under the currently selected
data item in the console (see section XXX for more information on these default views).
The user however is not restricted by this default configuration, they can in fact create as many
new list view dockables as they wish, which can be configured to display any set of data items
from the gateways to which they can connect. They can even remove the default ones.
This section provides a detailed overview of this list view functionality.
11.2 A list view dockable

Shown in figure XXX is a list view dockable with a number of list views.
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Figure 20 A list view dockable
Each list view is contained within its own tab. As a user you can have as many list view
dockables as you like within a workspace, which in turn can have many list views. Each list
view is configured to display a list of data items, the exact data items it displays is determined
by the paths that it is configured with (see section XXX). Most list views are dynamic, in that
as data items are added, removed and change state, so the various list views you have
configured will change.
11.2.1 Creating a new list view dockable

There are a number of ways that a new list dockable view can be created. This section outlines
the approaches:
• Via the dockable manager, this is the only method of creating an empty list view
dockable with no configuration. To do so, go to the dockable manager, via the
application level’ View Dockable manager’, click the ‘+’ symbol on the left of the
list, select list view from the available dockable types, give it a name, then come out of
all dialogs. See section XXX for a more detailed overview of the dockable manager.
• Importing a list view (.ltv file) or list view dockable (.ado file), you will need an
existing file, which you can then import via the application level ‘File Import’
function. See section XXX for more details.
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• Via a search (or report), you can dump the results of a search to a new dockable, see
section XXX, this can be a very quick way of generating a dockable, but restricts the
configuration that can be initially setup (though the configuration can be changed at a
later date as required).
11.3 List Views

The term list view refers to a tab within a dockable that has a number of paths configured
within it, such that at any given point in time it is displaying a number of data items from the
gateways that the active console is connected to. That last sentence said a lot, and in effect was
a summary for the remainder of this section, so let us break it down and step over the points
one by one. Before we get going Figure XXX shows an example of a list view so you have a
context to work from.
The principal purpose of the list view is to create ordered and grouped lists of these data items,
into views which are useful for you as a user. For example you may have all Managed Entities
in a selected country in one view, all snoozed items in your system in another, or everything
assigned to you at a given point in time in a third view.
The term ‘List view’ refers to a single tab within a list view dockable. The term list view
dockable refers to a single dockable that contains 1 to many List views.
11.4 Populating list views

At their most primitive level Active console List Views are simply collections of data items
(see section XXX for a definition of data item). What data items are present in a list view is
defined by a set of paths. For a data item to be present in a list view it must match one or more
of the paths configured on the view. With the exception of static paths (which are covered in
section XXX and should be considered a bit of an edge case) if a data item matches more than
one of the paths it will still only appears once in the list view (there are no duplicates)
Here are some example paths and the data items that would match them (note that paths are
shown in user readable form, you’ll not be able to type these directly into a list view):
• //managedentity (severity = critical), will create a list view with all critical managed
entities.
• //managedebtity (snoozed = false)//cell (severity > 1), all cells that have a severity of
warning or critical that are in an entity that is not snoozed
As you may already have gathered a list view can have many paths, if you consider that at any
given point in time each of these paths will match 0..* data items then the contents of a list
view at time X will be union of these sets, with no duplicates.
As gateways are connected, disconnected, change state or are re-configured data items may be
added or removed from a list view dynamically. For example a List View configured with a
single path:
• //* (snoozed = true)
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will match all snoozed items in the system. If an item is snoozed by a user, then it will
dynamically appear in this list view, if it is then unsnoozed it will be removed.
11.4.1 Types of path

There are three main types of path that can be configured within a list view, they are as follows:
• Dynamic, dynamic paths will ensure that all data items that match the specified path at
any given point in time are present in the List View as individual items / rows. The term
dynamic refers to the fact that this set of matching items is likely to change (or be
dynamic) over time. Section XXX covers dynamic paths in more detail.
• Static, static paths will only ever insert 1 and only 1 entry into a list view, regardless of
how many data items its associated path matches, They also allow the same data item to
be inserted into a list view multiple times, see section XXX.
• Follow Selection, a follow selection path allows the user to configure a view to
dynamically update based on their selection in other parts of the active console, for
example in the state tree, event ticker, or other list views. See section XXX for more
details.
The path types are covered in more detail in the following sections.
11.4.2 Dynamic paths

Dynamic paths will ensure that all data items that match the specified path at any given point in
time are present in the List View as individual items / rows. The term dynamic refers to the fact
that this set of matching items is likely to change (or be dynamic) over time.
If a given data item matches more than 1 dynamic path in a single list view then that item will
only appear once, and only be removed once all matching paths have been removed from the
list view.
11.4.3 Static Paths

Static paths will only ever insert 1 and only 1 entry into a list view, regardless of how many
data items its associated path matches. There are 3 cases to consider here:
• Matches 0 data items, That the path matches no data items, in which case a question
mark will be shown to represent the path
• Matches 1 data item, in which case the data item will be shown in the normal way
• Matches more than 1 data item, in the details mode this will appear as a row with a
number of child rows, equal to, and displaying the number of matching data items. In
any of the icon based views it will appear as a folder.
Figure XXX shows some examples of static paths within a list view in each of its states.
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Figure 21 an example of a static path and its display in a list view
The colour of the static entry will represent the highest severity of any of the matching items.
The term ‘static’ refers to the fact that it inserts a single entry into the list view, it does not
imply that the data items that it matches will not change.
Static items have one principal advantage over dynamic paths in that if a dynamic path
matches no data items the list view would contain no items, where as if the path is configured
as static there will be an entry, all be it, as a question mark. This means you can get a
permanent entry for a data item independently of the gateways connection status in the list
view. It is also required to replicate the older style (GA2009.1) custom entities view, where, if
an entity was inserted into the view a question mark would display if the gateway it was part of
was not connected.
In the event that the static path matches 0 or more than 1 item then the name of the static path
itself will be used in the list view rather than the name(s) of the data item it matches. The name
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can be set via the Path configuration dialog, see section XXX. An example of this can be seen
in figure XXX.
11.4.4 Follow user selection paths

Follow user selection paths allow users to configure all or part of a list view to update based on
the users selection in other areas of the console (such as the state tree and other list views).
Unlike the static and dynamic paths a follow selection path is composed of a geneos URL (see
section XXX) rather than a data item path. At its simplest the path will be as follows (note that
this is the user readable version of the path and cannot be pasted directly into the console):
• Geneos://ac/userselection
If left unmodified whenever you make a selection the selected data item would appear in the
list view, I.E. if you selected Managed Entity X, then X would appear in the list view. This
obviously has limited value so it is likely that using the geneos URL editor the designer of the
list view would add some modification rules to the URL which mutate the selected data items
path before it is added to the list view. What rules you can apply, and how they work is the
subject of section XXX, but here are a few examples (again written in the shortened user
readable form), and an explanation of what they would do:
• Geneos://ac/userselection/append( //dataview ), this would show all the data views under the selected item
• Geneos://ac/userselection/merge( //managedentity (snooze = false ) ) / append ( //cell (severity = critical)), this

would show all critical cells under the selected item, that were not a descendent of a managed entity that was snoozed
11.5 List View Properties dialog

Most of the properties for a list view are accessible exclusively via the List View properties
dialog. To get to this dialog use the ‘Properties’ button from the status bar (see section XXX),
or right click in the list view and select ‘Configure List View’. Either way you will then see
the dialog shown in figure XXX.
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Figure 22 the List view configuration
The dialog contains the following sections:
• Content Paths, this dialog allows you to define the paths that will populate the list
view, see section XXX for more details.
• Filters, allows you to define temporary filters on the list view which restrict the data
items that displayed, see section XXX for more details.
• Drag and drop, this defines what should happen when data items and other paths are
dropped into the list view. See section XXX for more details.
• General visual, this allows you to define some general aesthetic properties of the list
• Details View, this allows you to specify other visual aspects of the details (table) mode
of the list view.
• Properties, this dialog allows you to select which data item properties are listed in the
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11.6 The Content Path dialog
The Content path dialog is a sub-section of the larger List View Properties dialog (see section
XXX for how to access this). It allows you to add, remove and edit the paths that populate a
list view. Figure XXX provides an example of the dialog.
Figure 23 the content path dialog
Clicking on the ‘+’ to the left of the list allow you to add new paths to the list view. You can
remove a path be selecting the relevant path and clicking the ‘-‘ button. You edit the properties
of the paths directly in the table, or via the Path editor (see section XXX); each path has the
following properties:
• Name, this is the name of the path, it is only really significant for static paths, see
section XXX, duplicates are valid though probably undesirable if they are static paths
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• Type, this is the type of the path, which can be static, dynamic or follow selection. See
section XXX for more details on path types.
• Enabled, if ticked then the path will be populating the list view, if not then it will not
contribute data items (it is essentially turned off, and play no part in defining the
contents of the list view)
• Path, this is the actual path which data items will have to match to end up in the list
view. See section XXX for details on how paths contribute towards the contents of list
view, and section XXX for the path editor, which describes how to construct paths
(though not what paths you should define).
There are two other settings which will automatically configure the list view based on user
selection. Note that these settings only apply if there is at least one ‘Follow use selection’ path
configured in the list view (see section XXX).
• Auto Group, if set to true each time a selection occurs the view groups by a property
dictated by the dockable in which the user clicked. Note that for the most part
responding to these clicks is limited to the State tree, see section XXX.
• Rename tab on selection, when a user selects an item in another view as well as
restructuring the contents of the list view, if this option is selected it will also re-name
it, based on what was selected.
11.7 List View Filters

Filters can be defined on a list view, via the list view properties dialog (see section XXX).
They work by applying the configured filter on all the data items that are present in the list
view, and hiding them if they do not pass the filter. Note the use the word ‘Hide’, they are not
actually removed they simply do not appear in the list view as long as the filter is in place. A
summary of how many items are being displayed as a result of the filter is available in the
status bar (see section XXX).
Filters can only be defined on a list view; they cannot be defined at a dockable level. This is
essentially because they are considered temporary restrictions on the view rather than a
permanent change to the contents of the view so it does not make senses to define these on all
list views in a dockable at the same time, see section XXX for a narrative on this point. All this
said they are persisted in the workspace, and will be restored with the list view on load.
A filter is defined via the List view properties. Figure XXX displays an example of the screen.
Only one filter can be added to a list at any given point in time, but it can have many
expressions strung together via AND and OR operations.
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Figure 24 filtering a list view
To add a filter, or an additional expression to the filter, click the ‘+’ sign to the left of the filter
list. If the row is the first row, then the operator is not relevant, since there is nothing to AND
or OR it against. You should however select the Property you want to filter on, the operator
you want to use (I.E. equals, greater than, less than etc) and the value you want to compare it
to.
You can add additional expressions to the filter to make to more specific, or to add multiple
criteria.
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11.7.1 Filters Vs changing the paths
More astute users may note that paths and serve a similar purpose in that they define what can
be seen in the list view consider for example the following two cases:
• A list view with a path ‘//probe (Severity = Critical)’

• A list view with a path ‘//probe’ and a filter ‘Severity = critical’
If you configure these two views they would always have the same contents, so what’s the
advantage of one over the other? The following points may be useful when choosing one over
the other:
• Is the filter temporary, or do you change it a lot? If you want to use the filter for a
short time then it will probably be easier to define a filter rather than change the paths
(which would be the alternative). If you have only one path this may not seem to
onerous, but if you have many paths this would represent a lot of re-configuration,
which you would probably have to put back later in order to remove the filter.
• Is the filter there most of the time? There is an associated performance cost with
having large scale list views permanently running in an AC. While this is difficult to
quantify (since computer speeds vary as do the size and type of the list views) it would
be fair to say that the more data items and paths in a list view the higher the CPU and
memory requirement. There is also a CPU overhead to maintaining and applying the
filters. Given this if a filter is there most of the time it may be cheaper in CPU and
memory to re-factor that paths that make up the list view, and effectively embed the
filter into the paths, like the example at the beginning of the section (XXX).
11.8 Dragging and dropping into list views

List views have full support for drag and drop, including a significant amount of configurability
over what happens when the drop occurs. This section provides detail on how it works, and
how to set it up.
11.8.1 Drag and drop rules

Any given list view has a set of drag and drop rules. Whenever a data item is dropped into a list
view its drag and drop rules are consulted and all matching ones used to decide what paths
should be added to the list view. Quite a lot was said in that last sentence so let us cover these
concepts one by one.
Firstly note that a list view has drag and drop rules, each rule has the following properties:
• A Display Name, which is used when there is some ambiguity about which drag and
drop rule to use, see section XXX.
• A Modification, which defines how the path of the dropped item should be morphed
before being added to the list view, see section XXX.
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• A set of filters, which limit the data items that a drag and drop rule is appropriate for
• Path type, this will either by static and dynamic, and defines what type the paths are
that are added to the list view when the drag and drop rule is appiled, see section XXX
for more details on path types.
• Expand paths, a Boolean flag that determines whether to expand the path before the
paths are added to the list view
The drag and drop rules are set up using the List View configuration dialog, an example can be
seen in figure XXX
Figure 25setting up drag and drop in list views
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11.8.2 Deciding which drag and drop rule to use
Whenever a data item is dropped into a list view the set of drag and drop rules associated with
the list view are consulted. A drag and drop rule will be used if one or more of its filter paths
match the item that was dropped. If no filter paths are defined then it automatically matches.
For example if a drag and drop rule has the following filter path:
• //ManagedEntity
Then it will only apply if a managed entity is the data item being dropped. In this case:
• //probe//*
The drag and drop rule will only apply if the item being dropped is a child of a probe.
If more than one drag and drop matches, then the user will be presented with options on a
menu (which will appear at the time of the drop). For example, let’s say we have 2 drag and
drop rules one with a filter equal to //managedentity called DnDRule 1 and the other with no
filter called DnDRule 2. If a non-entity is dropped then there is no ambiguity and DnDRule 2
will be used. If an entity is dropped then a menu would appear asking them to choose which
rules to use, as can be seen in figure XXX:
Figure 26 resolving which drag and drop rule to use
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Once the user has selected a drag and drop rule it will be applied as normal
11.8.3 Applying drag and drop rules

Once a drag and drop rule has been selected it is applied to the list view. The net result of any
application of a drag and drop rule is that the view is populated with one or more new paths
(see section XXX for the effects of adding paths to list views).
The application of a drag and drop has a number of steps:
1) Apply Modification, If a modification is defined that it is applied, see section XXX for
more details on modifications
2) Expand Path, if the drag and drop rule should expand the path before addition of the
path(s) then it does so now, see section XXX for more details on the expansion of paths.
3) Add the paths, at this stage the derived paths are added to the list view and the list
view re-configured for its new contents.
11.8.4 Modifying a path before drag and drop

Each drag and drop rule can have a defined modification. A modification will take the path of
the dropped item and mutate in some way. The mutated path is then used for re-configuring the
list view rather than the original path of the data item. For example take the following
modification which may be defined on a drag and drop rule
• DroppedItem()/append( //dataview )
And let us now pretend that a probe has been dropped onto the list view, which has the
following path:
• Gateway1 / myprobe
The path is mutated by the drag and drop rule by replacing the ‘droppeditem’ element with the
path of the item that was actually dropped then applying the modifications, in this case we
would end up with:
• Gateway1/myprobe//dataview
which would subsequently be added to the list view. In this case although the user dropped a
probe he ends up adding all the data views that are part of the probe.
For full details of the allowable modifications and their effects see details of the genos URL
editor in section XXX.
By default drag and drop rules have a modification equal to ‘droppeditem()’ which will not
modify its path in any way, thus users will simply drop the selected item into the list view.
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11.8.5 Expanding the path during drag and drop
By default when a drag and drop rule is applied it will create just a single path in the target list
view (which may have been mutated by a modification, see section XXX). However the
designer of the drag and drop rule can also specify that instead of dropping just this path an
additional process step can take place which does the following:
1) Gets all matching items for the path

2) Add a path to the list for each matching item
For example, if a dropped path after a modification was equal to:
• myGateway/myprobe//dataview
and the drag and drop rule specified that it should be expanded, then at the time the drop
occurred the system would get all data items that matched the path (which in this case would be
a set of data views) and then add 1 path per matching item, where each path would be an
explicit path to an explicit data view. I.E.
• /myGateway/myprobe/ME1/Sampler1/DV1
This is useful if you want the drag and drop contents to not update over time, I.E. what ever
was added at the time of the drop should be all that ever appears in the list view. It is also
required to simulate the old (GA2009.1) custom entity view behavior.
11.8.6 Allowing general paths during drag and drop

If this option is checked in a filter it means that if a simple path is dropped into the list view
(rather than a data item) that the drag and drop rule is appropriate. This occurs for example
when a real path folder is dropped from the state tree, or a text string that represents a path is
dropped from an external application.
11.9 The List View General Visual Dialog

The General Visual settings dialog in the list view allows the user to set up many of the
aesthetic properties of the list view. It is accessible via the main List View properties dialog,
see section XXX.
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Figure 27 the general visual settings of the list view
It contains the following settings:
• Background colour, this defines the background colour of the list view
• Mode, this defines the mode of the list view, note this can also be changed via the status
bar (see section XXX), and right click menu.
• Name, this is the name of the list view as it appears on the tab. It can also be edited
directly by double clicking on the tab.
If the name is defined at the dockable or workspace level then it defines the default names for
any new tabs created in the list view dockable. I.E. if at the dockable level you set the Custom
tab name to be ‘Foo’ then the next tabs created in the list view will be called ‘Foo 1, Foo 2, Foo
3’ and so on.
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11.10 List View Modes
List views have a number of modes; these allow the contents of the list view to be displayed in
different ways. The available modes are defined at a workspace level and made available to all
list views. A list view mode can be changed via the status bar (see section XXX), or via the
right click ‘Mode’ menu. By default the following modes are available in all workspaces:
• Details mode, this is tabular view, with the data items in the list view forming the rows
of the table, and the configured properties (see section XXX) defining the columns. See
section XXX for more on the details mode.
• Icon mode, this is classic grid based explorer view where each data item is represented
by a 32x32 icon and a label with its (display) name, then laid out left to right. The
labels will expand in height as required to show the whole name of the data item.
• List View Mode, this is a compact mode, with data items displayed using a 16x16 icon,
and a label for their (display) name. The items are laid out left to right.
Examples of these modes can be seen in figure XXX
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Figure 28 the default modes available with the List view
These modes are defined as system modes and cannot be removed or modified. It is however
possible to define your own modes, this is the subject of section XXX.
The mode that each list view uses at any given point in time is independent from the other list
views, and is persisted in the workspace, meaning on a reload the list view will be restored in
the same mode it was saved in.
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11.10.1 List view Details mode
The details mode allows users to view the contents of the list view in a rich table view. This
section describes the various settings and configurable options that the users have when using
this mode.
11.10.2 Column settings

The columns at the top of the details mode are defined by the properties that are configured on
the list view (see section XXX). Ignoring for the time being how they are added to the view
(see section XXX), they can be changed in the following ways:
• Re-ordered, columns can be re-ordered by pressing on them with the mouse then
dragging them to the desired location.
• Changed in width, you can change the width of a column by moving the mouse over
one of the ends, then pressing and dragging the mouse.
• Hiding / Un-hiding, the visibility of a column can be toggled by right clicking on the
headings, then clicking on the relevant heading name. This is a toggle, so if it was
visible it will now be hidden or vice-versa. See section XXX for a narrative on the
differences between hiding columns and removing them via the list view properties (see
section XXX).
• Sorting, you can also sort the view by clicking on the headings, see section XXX for
more details on sorting.
The column settings for a list view are persisted in the workspace, and restored on load.
11.10.3 Hiding columns vs removing them in the list view properties

There are two principal means of removing columns from the details mode, although they have
the same immediate impact they are subtly different:
• Use the right click on the column headings and hide, this will temporarily remove
the column from the details mode, but in the background the value is still present in the
list view, this should be used if the removal is temporary or the column you are hiding
still needs to effect the icons in the list view (see section XXX).
• Use the properties dialog to remove the property from the list view, this will
completely remove the property from the list view, it will not be available to users of
the list view nor will it contribute towards the icons in the list view (see section
XXX). Generally removing a column rather than hiding it will lower the CPU and
memory footprint of the list view on the machine it is running on, so if the column is
generally not interesting this is probably a better solution.
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11.10.4 Other visual properties of the details mode
There are a number of other visual settings you can define for the details mode. They can be
configured via the Details mode dialog, which in turn can be accessed via the List View
Properties dialog (see section XXX). Figure XXX provides an example of the Details view
Dialog.
Figure 29 configuring the details mode of a list view
The following settings are available:
• Row Height, this defines the height of each row (in pixels)
• Show root handles, defines whether the expand / retract buttons should be
displayed to the left of the root level items (folders). If they are not displayed you
can still access the expand/retract functions by double clicking on a row.
• Indent, defines the distance that the rows under each group should be indented from
the left when the view is grouped.
• Show Tree lines, determines whether to show the lines that connect child nodes to
the parent within the tree
• Tree line colour, determines the colour of the tree lines (if they are configured in
the previous property).
• Sorted, determines whether the view is sorted or not
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11.11 List view selection
When you select items in the list view they will highlight in the OS selection colour. If you
select more than one item then the anchor item (the one that is first selected) will be displayed
in a different colour than the remainder of the selection.
Note: When a select event occurs all the other components in the AC will be told about the
selection, but they will only be told about the anchor selection, not the complete set of selected
items.
11.12 List View Template Editor

Users are not restricted to the limited number of modes that are shipped with the console as
standard (see section XXX), they can if they wish create their own. To do so they must use the
‘List View template Editor’.
To access the editor go to the application level ‘Tools Workspace level list view settings’
and select the ‘Templates’ section of this dialog. You should be presented with the screen
shown in figure XXX.
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Figure 30 creating user defined modes at the workspace level
The Template list will contain two main templates types, system templates and user defined
templates. System templates cannot be edited or removed, they are always available. User
defined templates are shown in white, and can be added, edited and removed. User defined
templates are saved in the workspace they were created in.
To create a new template use the ‘+’ button to the left of the list, to remove one select it then
click on the ‘-‘ button (any list views using the mode when it is removed will revert to Icon
Mode). To edit a template double click on its template picture, or right click and select edit, you
will be presented with the template editor, see section XXX for more details.
You can also change the modes name by double clicking on the name in the table directly.
This name will appear in the mode lists for each list view.
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11.12.1 The template editor
When you edit a template you will be presented with the template editor screen, shown in
figure XXX.
Figure 31 configuring a user defined template
In the centre of this screen is an outline which represents a single instance of a data item in a
list view configured with your selected mode. Within this box will be a number of data item
properties which will be displayed for all data items represented by the mode. Figure XXX
provides an example of a mode being edited and what will appear in a list view when it is used.
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Figure 32 an example user defined mode
The size and shape of each data item the template is used to represent is defined by the
boundary (shown in figure XXX). All data item properties added to the template and
completely contained within the boundary will be displayed when the template is used; figure
XXX shows an example of this.
Properties that are NOT completely within the boundary of the shape will be shown in red
within the editor and will not be displayed when the mode is used. In addition if the editor was
shut down and re-opened these properties will not be displayed in the editor (you would have to
drag them back on from the tools at the top).
To add new properties drag and drop them from the tools at the top of the editor, the tools are
broken down by the type of data items that are appropriate for, including a section whose
properties are suitable for all data items. You can delete properties you have added to a
template by selecting and clicking delete, or right clicking and selecting ‘Delete’
Having added a property you can right click on it and change its properties by selecting the
‘Properties’ menu. You will see the dialog shown in figure XXX.
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Figure 33 the template editor properties dialog
Complete this -XXX
Note the need to include the property in the list view the mode will be used for
11.12.2 Using user defined modes

Using a user defined mode is easy, having created the mode go to the list view you want to use
it in, and select your new mode from the mode list (see section XXX).
11.13 Selecting data item properties for list views

For any given list view users can select the data item properties that should be displayed within
it. Examples of data item properties include, name, severity, Number of snoozed children,
connection status and so on. Only properties that are selected will appear in a list view, even
if some data items in the list view have other properties. So for example an entity has 15 or so
properties and appears in a view, but if the only properties you have selected for the list view
are ‘Name’ and ‘Severity’ then only a name and severity column will be available.
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Selecting a property for inclusion in a list view does not guarantee that it will be available; if no
data items that are present in the list have the selected property then it will not be added. For
example the only data item with the property ‘Value’ is a managed Variable (or cell), therefore
even if you had selected value, if there were no cells there would be no Value column.
11.13.1 Parent Properties

The list view supports the display of parent properties; see section XXX for a full description of
parent properties.
11.13.2 The property selector dialog

The configuration of properties is done via the Properties tab in the list view configuration, an
example of which can be seen in figure XXX.
Figure 34 the property selection dialog
The available properties are shown in a table. Where there is a grey tick in a cell it means that
property is available but not selected (and therefore will not appear in the view), where there is
a green tick, it is available and selected (so will may appear in the list view assuming there is at
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least one of a suitable data item type), and where the cell is empty it is not appropriate to the
specified data item type, so will never be available.
Selecting properties in the ‘Any’ column means that whatever the data item type of the
property is available it will be shown for that data item. For example if ‘Name’ has been
selected and the list view contains a Probe and a Managed entity then they will each display
their respective names.
The other columns allow you to configure parent properties (see section XXX). For example if
you select probe.name that means that for each data item if it is a probe or has an ancestor
which is a probe then the probes name will be displayed.
11.13.3 Locating properties

There are a lot of potential properties which you can add to a list view, when searching for a
given property you may find it helpful to use the filter box at the top of the table which will
limit the rows to those that contain the word you enter. This can be invaluable for quick
configuration of the properties.
11.13.4 List View Property selection and icons

One subtle feature that users should be aware of is the construction of an icon for any given
data item and how property selection can effect it. Consider the following icon:
Figure 35Entity icon with snooze and OS icon
This icon is actually displaying a number of pieces of information, namely:

• That it is an entity
• What OS its ancestor probe is running on
• The fact that it is snoozed
• That it or one of its children is in a critical state.
This will only occur in a list view if probe.OS, Snoozed and Severity are configured as
properties in the list view; if you were to remove one or more of these then the icon would no
longer reflect these states. For example if we removed ‘Snoozed’ from the list view then the
snoozed children indicator would be removed from all icons in the list view, as shown in figure
XXX
Figure 36 the same entity icon, but with the snoozed property removed from the list view
11.14 Grouping
A List view can be grouped by a selected property. You can achieve this ether via the status
bar (section XXX), or via a right click menu ‘Group’ anywhere within the list view.
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Whichever method you choose you will have to choose the property at the time group function
is selected. The available properties are limited by those configured in the list view (see section
XXX).
The data items will then be inserted into the relevant groups. Figure XXX displays an example
of a group in the two principal list view modes:
Figure 37 groups in the two main modes
Groups are dynamic, in that if a data item is removed from the view and the group is now
empty the group will be removed. Conversely if an item is added to the list which has a value
for the grouped property that no other data item has, then a new group will created for that
property value.
The groups are sorted, using the sorting mechanisms, see section XXX.
You can remove grouping by selecting ‘None’ when choosing the property to group by.
Groups can be expanded and collapsed. This can be achieved by double clicking on the group
row, or using the ‘-‘ button at the end of the bar in icon mode (you can also display a +/- button
in the details mode by changing the details mode visual properties, see section XXX).
You cannot create or add your own groups, nor can you remove them, they are automatically
defined by the system if you have grouping enabled.
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Each group has a group icon; its colour defines the worst severity of a data item within the
group, in much the same way as severity propagates up the rest of the geneos system.
11.15 Sorting
List view can be sorted by any property that they are configured to display (see section XXX).
There are a number of ways in which sort can be enabled:
• Use the sort button on the status bar (see section XXX),
• Right click ‘Sort’ menu anywhere in the list view.
• In details mode (see section XXX) you can simply click on the column headings.
To remove sort select None as the sorting property, or keep clicking on the column heading
until the sort arrow disappears.
A sorted view will order the data items based on their value in the selected property. If the
value is a textual then this will be alphabetic, if its numeric then it will be numeric. Severity is
a special case, this will order from Undefined to Critical.
The sorting property of a list view is persisted in the workspace.
If a view is also grouped (see section XXX) then sorting will first occur on the groups, then
separately on the data items within those groups.
11.15.1 Sorting by multiple properties

Users can actually sort on multiple properties at the same time via the details mode. If you hold
down control when clicking on column headings the previous sort will not be removed, instead
additional properties will be used during the sort. You can see that this in operation since each
sort arrow in the column headings will have a number next to it. Figure XXX illustrates this
Figure 38 sorting on multiple properties
Multiple sort works by sorting all items by the first property, then where the property value was
equal sorting on the second, then third and so on.
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11.15.2 Importing and exporting list views and list view dockables
Individual list views and entire list view dockables can be exported via the Active Console.
This can be useful for sharing list view configurations with colleagues, or creating backup for
rarely used list view configurations. This section describes how to perform these functions.
11.15.3 Exporting List views

To export an individual list view right click anywhere within the list view and select the
‘Export Configuration’ menu item. You will be prompted to select a file name, which will
automatically be given an .ltv extension. This file contains the entire configuration local to the
list view; including settings which have been overridden locally (see section XXX for details of
the inheritance of list view settings).
11.15.4 Exporting a List view dockable

You can export an entire list view dockable, which will include all dockable level settings, and
all existing list views (tabs), with their configuration. Such an export will create a .dbo file. To
do this you must use the ‘Export’ function in the Dockable manager. Open the dockable
manager via the application level ‘View’ menu right click on the dockable you want to export
then select ‘Export’. See section XXX for more information on the Dockable manager.
11.15.5 Importing a List view

To import a list view, select the application level ‘File import’ menu. You will be promoted
to select the .ltv file. After doing so if there are many list view dockables within your
workspace a dialog will appear asking you which dockable you want to import the list view
into.
11.15.6 Importing a list view dockable

To import a list view dockable, select the application level ‘File import’ menu. You will be
promoted to select the .dbo file. After the import the dockable will appear in your workspace.
NOTE: dockables, must have unique name, if you try and import a list view dockable that has
the same name as another list view dockable it will be renamed to make it unique.
11.16 Status Bar

At the top of a list view is a yellow status bar. This contains some textual information on the
list view, including any filters defined on it, and what it is currently grouped and sorted on, plus
some buttons which allow quick access to some of the more commonly used features. Figure
XXX provides an example of the status bar
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Figure 39 the list view status bar
The status bar contains the following functions
• Item count, on the left is a report on how many data items are currently matching the
paths that are populating the list view. Note that if you are using Static paths (see
section XXX) then this number may be higher than the number of icons or rows you see
in the actual list view. If the view is filtered it will also display how many of the
available items are visible.
• Filter information, if you have defined a filter on the view (see section XXX), then the
status bar will also report how many items you can see relative to the number of items
actually in the list, for example Viewing 4 of 50 means there are 50 data items in the
list, but only 4 match the filter you have defined at that point in time.
• Long description, this is the long description of the list view
• Group and sort by text, in the event that you have ether grouped or sorted (or both) the
list view the properties that are being used for these purposes are listed in the status bar.
• Mode, from here you can select the mode that you what to view the list view in. See
section XXX for more information on modes.
• Group, this allows you to group the list view by a selected property, see section XXX
for more details.
• Sort, this allows you to sort the list view by a selected property.
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• Play / Pause, this will toggle the list view between paused and an un-paused mode, see
section XXX for more information on the pause feature.
• Refresh, this will force an update of the list view based on the current state of the
connected gateways, it should not be necessary to use this during normal operation,
though it may be useful when the view is paused, see section XXX.
• Properties, this will launch a dialog from which you can change the properties of the
list view itself. See section XXX for more details.
• Minimize status bar, this will hide the status bar, you can get it back by right clicking
in the list view and selecting the ‘Status bar’ menu item.
11.17 Settings Hierarchy

A list view has a lot of settings; therefore the act of configuring a list view can be an involved
task. To reduce this burden it is possible to define settings on a list view dockable and at the
workspace level, this means that:
• Change settings on all list views at the same time, Existing list views can inherit
common settings, such that when these settings are changed they effect all list views
• Create defaults for new list views, that new list views come with some default settings
that can be defined at the dockable and workspace levels, meaning there is less
configuration to perform on a per list view basis.
These functions are referred to as the List view Settings hierarchy. There are three levels of
settings as illustrated by figure XXX
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Figure 40 List view settings inheritance
Settings can be overridden at each of these levels, such that the parent setting is ignored. Let us
run through an example. Take background colour, this can be set at the workspace, dockable
and list view level in the general visual dialog. Let us assume that it is set to green at the
workspace level and that all list view dockables and list views are configured to inherit this
setting from the workpsace level settings. If you were to then change that colour to red, all list
views in the workspace would now have a red background.
If you were to override background colour on a specific list view dockable to red, there by
ignoring the workspace level settings all list views within the dockable would now be red. If
you set the background colour directly on a list view within the dockable to yellow then that list
view would be yellow, the other list views in that dockable would be red, while all other list
views in the workspace would be green.
11.18 Designing list view and list view dockables

XXX
11.19 Pausing a list view

It is possible to pause a list view. A paused list view will not update. Items will not be added
and removed and the properties of the data items (including the icons, groups etc.) will not
change. When you pause a list view it essentially becomes a snap shot in time and all the data
must be considered stale and invalid with respect to the current state of the system. When
paused a blue bar will be added to the top of the list view which says paused and details the
time and date that the pause occurred. In addition the button in the status bar which allows you
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to pause / un-pause the list view will display a ‘play’ icon. Figure XXX shows a paused list
view.
Figure 41 pausing a list view
Pause is primarily used for search results, but since search results are simply a list view in their
own right the function is available to all list views.
Selecting ‘Refresh’ on a paused view will force an update, and get the latest state of the list
view based on the current gateway contents, but it will remain paused.
11.20 Default List views

When a new workspace is created a number of default list view configurations are created,
namely:
• An Entities View, which displays lists of entities, and allows you to create new entity
based views, see section XXX for more information
• A Probe view, which by default lists all the probes within the gateways you are
connected to, see section XXX for more information
• A Status Overview, which follows user selection and details all the critical and
warning cells that are not snoozed beneath the currently selected item in the console.
In the event that you delete these views (by accident or on purpose) you can get them back by
importing the default configurations from the ./useresources/listviewconfigurations directory
within the Install dir of the Active console.
12 The Metrics Dockable

The Metrics dockable contains a number of Metrics views. Each Metrics view is represented
by a named and coloured tab at the top edge of the dockable. Clicking on the tabs displays the
contents of the selected metrics view. At any given point in time the metrics dockable will
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contain the Primary Metrics view (the left most tab with an icon) and a number of user defined
custom metrics views.
Figure 42. An example of the metrics dockable
A metrics view consists of two main components; on the left is the View Selector which
contains a list of the metric tables available in the view. On the right is the metric table that is
currently selected. As items are selected in the view selector the metric table in the right will
update to display the items.
For example in Figure 42 the CPU metric table has been selected in the view selector and has
been displayed in the right.
12.1 Metric tables

The view selector contains a list of metric tables. A metric table contains a zero to many data
views which are published from the plug-ins connected to the gateways. They have two main
properties:
• Name - This is the name used to identify the metric table in the view selector and the
viewer. By default it takes the name of the first data view that is connected to the
metric table.
• Paths - This is a set of user defined paths (see section 29.2) which determine which
data views are included in the metric table. To be included a data view must satisfy one
or more of the path criteria (treat this like an inclusive OR operation).
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These properties can be accessed by right clicking on a metric table in the View Selector and
selecting ‘Metric Table Properties’.
In the simplest case a metric table has a single path which points at a single data view. This
will be true for most metric tables. However it is possible not only to include several paths, but
to configure one or more of them to match multiple data views (see section 29.2). In these
cases the metric table may contain more than one data view. When the metric table is selected
and its contents displayed in the viewer it will be in the form of a single merged table which
contains the contents of all the data views (in AC1 these tables were known as Dynamic
Overviews). In AC2 these are referred to as Metric Overview Tables.
The set of data views connected to a metric table will update as gateways and probes come up
and down, i.e. the content of metric tables is dynamic and reflects the current state at all times.
12.2 Refreshing Metric table data

You can ‘Refresh’ the contents of a metric table at any point by clicking on the ‘Refresh’
button next to the name of the table (see Figure 43). The sample rate is shown under the name.
To force a refresh (resample) right click on the metric table icon at the top left of the table, or
the metric table in the view selector.
Figure 43 refreshing a data view
12.3 Contents of metric views

The contents of the primary metrics view will always follow the selection in other AC2
components. It will create one metrics table for each data view within the relevant directory
component and insert it into the primary view. Custom metric views are manually populated
by users. The list of data views they contain will not change unless the user adds or removes
metrics tables from them.
There are no restrictions on the source of the data views that can placed into a single metrics
view, i.e. they can come from independent gateways and be connected to any plug-in type.
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12.4 The View Selector
The view selector appears on the left hand side of a metric view. It displays a list of metric
tables. The metric tables can be grouped by a primary and secondary attribute. The attributes
that can be used are:
• Gateway - The gateway that the data views within the table are contained within.
• Netprobe - The netprobe that the data views within the table are contained within.
• Managed Entity - The managed entity that the data views within the table are
contained within.
• Sampler - The sampler that the data views within the table are contained within.
• Sampler Group - The sampler group (as defined in the gateway setup) that the data
views are contained within.
• Plug-name - The type of plug-in name that the connected data views come from.
• None - You can negate the primary or secondary grouping by setting them to ‘None’,
meaning no grouping will occur at the specified level. If the primary grouping attribute
is set to ‘None’, then the secondary grouping attribute will have no effect.
In cases where the data views connected to a metric table do not share a common value for a
selected attribute they will be placed into a group labelled ‘Multiple’. In cases where the
specified attribute cannot be located they will be classified under an ‘Unknown’ group.
The primary and secondary grouping attribute can be defined independently for each metrics
view. Their current configuration will be displayed at the top of the view selector. They are
changeable via the right click menu anywhere in the view selector and saved in the workspace.
You can expand and contract the groups within the metrics view selector by double clicking
on the group headings. If you display Root handles (covered later in this section) you will also
see a +/- button that can be used for the same function.
The View selector is a tree structure, consisting of groups and metric tables as leaf nodes. You
can display it in a more tree like way be right clicking on the view selector and selecting ‘Show
Root handles’
Each group will be coloured to reflect the worst severity of an item within it.
12.5 Adding and removing metric tables

New metric tables can be added via the following methods:
• Via a managed entity or sampler -
o Right clicking on any managed entity or sampler (from any point in AC2
including other metric views) - will provide access to an ‘Add <data item
name> to ►’ menu item. This will have a ‘New Metrics View’ sub-menu item
and list existing custom metrics views. Choosing one of these will create a
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metric table for each data view in the selected data item and import them into
the selected custom metrics view.
o Drag and drop a managed entity / sampler or data view - You can also drag
and drop a managed entity or sampler from the state tree into a view selector, or
drop it into the tab area at the top of the metrics dockable to create a new
custom metrics view tab (which will be called the same as the item you
dragged).
• The ‘New Metrics Table’ menu - The right click menu in the view selector provides
access to a ‘New Metrics Table’ menu item, which will create a new metric table. You
will then have to edit its Paths property to define the data views it should display.
Note: that you can only add new metric tables to custom metrics views, you cannot modify the
primary view
Metric tables can be removed by right clicking on a metric table or a group heading and
selecting ‘Remove Selected items’. The metrics will be removed from the metrics view. This
cannot be done within primary metrics view.
12.6 The Metric table viewer

The right hand side of the metrics view displays the metric table that is selected in the left. All
metric tables are displayed in a tabular format; the exact content is defined by the data view(s)
they are representing.
If the metric table is displaying just a single data view then the headlines for that data view will
be displayed above the table in a series of horizontally ordered boxes. If the metric table has
more than one data view then the headlines will be shown in another table, with columns
detailing the gateway and managed entity the headline is applicable to, so that you can tie
specific headlines to specific data view instances that make up the metric table. This format is
known as a Metric Overview Table.
12.6.1 Configuring the column headings

The columns in metric tables can be re-ordered (via drag and drop), hidden (via the right click
menu on the column), sorted (using column headers), and resized using the mouse or auto-
resized. These settings will be remembered as long as the metric table exists in the view
selector. Having configured a table’s columns you can choose to save the settings as the
default for all metric tables of the same name. This is done via the ‘Column Settings ► Save as
Data view Defaults’ menu item, which is accessible by a right click on the actual table (rather
than its icon or name in the view selector).
Alternatively, you can save column settings selectively using the Column Settings Editor
dialog. This dialog is accessible by the same right click menu. To bring up the dialog select
the option ‘Column Settings ►Table Column Settings Editor’ (Table Column Settings Editor is
explained in more detail in chapter 31).
From that point on whenever a metric table with a data view of the same name is created these
default column settings will be applied. However existing metric tables will not be affected.
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Note that the primary metric view constantly refreshes its content based on user selection so
don’t spend too much time setting up table layouts here as they will be lost as soon as there is a
new user selection in another AC2 component. You can of course define dataview default
settings here which will be remembered.
If you have modified the metrics table column settings, and would like to revert these settings
to the dataview defaults (I.E. lose your changes in favour of the settings defined for the
dataview in the workspace), then you can use the right click menu ‘Column Settings > Revert
to data view Defaults’.
Figure 44 Metrics view with column settings status
If you would like to revert any modified settings to ‘factory defaults’, you can do so by going
in ‘Column Settings ► Revert to factory defaults’. If you choose to do so, you will lose any
modified settings in favour of factory defaults but no changes will be written to the workspace.
Therefore, when the data view is loaded next time, workspace defaults will automatically be
applied (in this sense this option is temporary).
Any settings saved in workspace can be removed by going to the Column Settings Editor
dialog. You can either remove settings selectively for a data view or delete all settings for that
data view altogether. All removed settings of course will be reset to factory defaults.
The ‘Column Settings’ sub-menu, that is available to you if you right click on table, is also
available on right click for column settings status icon.
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12.6.2 Column Settings Status Button
This status button is available to you on the metrics table filters bar next to pause and refresh
buttons. It has three features associated with it.
1. Current Settings Persistence Status. If you have any settings saved in workspace for
the metrics table the icon on the button will turn blue. If you don’t have any settings
then the icon will stay dimmed. Figure 45 shows the difference between these icons.
2. Open Table Column Settings Editor. Left click on this button opens the Table column
settings editor.
3. Column Settings sub-menu. The sub-menu associated with ‘Column Settings’ section
of the table right-click menu can be opened by right clicking on this button.
Figure 44 shows the button with sub-menu.
Figure 45 Column settings persistence status
12.6.3 Status of Hidden Columns

The status bar displays a list of column names that are currently hidden from the table. It is also
displayed highlighted if any hidden columns are present. A screenshot of this is shown in Figure
44. This hidden column information is independent of any persisted table settings, if there are
hidden columns they will be listed here.
Note: The exception to this rule are columns whose name starts with a ‘/’. These are hidden by
default, and therefore their hidden status is not reported on the status bar.
12.6.4 Pausing and refreshing metric tables

Metric tables update automatically when the data views they contain resample. You can if you
wish pause these updates by selecting ‘Pause’ on the right click menu from the metric table in
the viewer. A manual refresh can be performed in this mode using the right click ‘Refresh’
menu, disabling the pause is done via the same menu or the pause button in the header of the
Metric table.
Note: that paused data will update if you move away from the data view on screen (selected
another metric table in the view selector or another part of the AC) then come back to it. It will
still be paused but the data will be appropriate for when the metric view was re-viewed.
Note: also those metric tables in the primary view are discarded along with their entire
configuration when you switch to another data item (such as another entity), this includes their
pause status which will be removed
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12.6.5 Active and inactive metric tables
You can make metric tables active and inactive, to do this right click on the selected metric
table in the View Selector, or right clicking on the metric table in the viewer. Inactive metric
tables contain no data views. This is useful if you have large scale metric overview tables that
you only need at the time you query them, rather than having the active all the time (such tables
can be expensive in memory and CPU), see section 12.7 for more information. When they are
activated they will populate with the required data view set.
Figure 46 inactive metric tables
Inactive data views are shown with a blue icon with a white cross. If a Metric View contains
ONLY inactive metric overviews then it will have a blue tab. The active status of Metric table
in custom metrics views will be maintained in the workspace.
You can display tick boxes next to the data views within the view selector which allow fast
access to the active / inactive functions, to do so, right click in the view selector and toggle the
‘Allow fast table metric activation’.
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12.6.6 Outputting metric tables
Metric tables can be output via the right click menus ‘Save As …’ which saves the table to a
comma separated .csv file and ‘Copy dataview’ which places the non-filtered table contents
into the system clipboard.
Note: There is also a copy command for copying the full and short path name of a data item
(see section 3), which can be accessed from all areas of the Active console for all data items.
12.6.7 Querying the metrics table

There are some simple query functions that can be performed on metric tables, as follows:
• Count Unique - This will count the number of unique names or values in a given
column. Right click and select ‘Query Table ► Count Unique’ then ‘Name’ or ‘Value’.
The result is shown in a temporary dialog box.
12.6.8 Filtering
You can add filters to any metric table by right clicking on the metrics table and selecting the
‘Filter Table’ menu item. Filters restrict the rows that are displayed based on criteria. A row
will only be displayed if it passes all of the filter conditions. Each filter has the following
attributes:
• Column - The column whose row value must pass the filter. There are also special
cases for ANY COLUMN, where 1 or more cell values in a row must match the criteria,
or ALL COLUMNS, where all row values must match the criteria.
• Not - A Boolean flag that inverts the criteria.
• Value - The value to match against.
• Operator - A series of logical operators that determines the relationship between a

successful match and the value specified in the value column.
o Contains: Matches if the value of the specified column(s) contain(s) (case

sensitive) the value defined.
o Contains No Case: Matches if the specified column(s) contain(s) (non-case

sensitive) the value defined.
o Equal: Matches if the specified column(s) equal(s) the specified value. This is a
literal string equality (case sensitive).
o Equal No Case: Matches if the specified column(s) equal(s) the specified value.
This is a literal string equality (non-case sensitive).
o Less than: Matches if the specified column(s) are/is less than the specified
value.
o Greater than: Matches if the specified column(s) are/is greater than the
specified value.
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o Numeric Equals: Matches if the specified column(s) equal(s) the specified
value as a mathematical equality.
If a metric table is filtered then a yellow banner will appear above the metrics table informing
you of how many rows are displayed, and how many filters are being applied.
Filters persist for the life time of the metric table (and between AC2 sessions). It is for this
reason that is possible to add two metric tables to a metrics view which have the same path
attributes (and therefore contain the same data views) because you can set up different filters on
these tables.
Filters can be removed via the same right click accessible dialog through which they are added.
Filtered data specific functions
There are some functions that are available specifically for filtered data, these functions area
available via the right click > filtered data menu item. They are as follows:
• Query table, this has the same function as the basic Query table feature (see 12.6.7),
but is restricted to operating on the filtered data (rather than all rows).
• Save as …, This will save the data to a comma separated file (CSV). You will be asked
to enter the file name on selecting this function.
• Copy dataview, will place the filtered data on the system clipboard
12.6.9 Metrics view Quick filter

You can specify a quick filter on any metrics table by using the quick filter search box at the
top of the Metric table. This is equivalent to ‘Display all rows that have a value in any column
that is equal to or partially equal to the specified value’. An example is shown in Figure 47.
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Figure 47 The Quick filter function of the metrics table
12.7 Metric Overview Tables

When a metric table contains more than one data view (because it has multiple or wild carded
paths, see section 29) then it is referred to as a Metric Overview table. Metric overview tables
differ from single data view tables in that they have an additional gateway and managed entity
column so that you can tell (for each row) which data view it has come from. This is also true
for the headlines which instead of being displayed one a grid type layout are in a table of their
own.
Note that metric tables can be expensive in terms of memory and CPU, you may consider
making them inactive when not is use, see section 12.6.5.
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12.7.1 Creating Metric overview tables
Note that these were known as Dynamic overviews in AC1
Metric overview tables can be created by adding a new metric table to a metrics view and
configuring it with multiple or wild carded paths (see section 29). There is also a Metric
overview wizard available from the tool bar or ‘Tools’ menu which allows you to quickly
create common Overview tables (see Figure 48).
The wizard will allow you to specify a data view name, a target metrics view, and whether to
filter the data views on the current state tree selection. Having made your selections and clicked
OK, a metrics overview will be created in the relevant metrics view that contains all data views
of the specified type currently connected to the Active console, in the specified section of the
state tree. The settings on this wizard are described here in more detail:
1. Data view attribute, this defines which attribute of data views should be used to
populate the list, and subsequently used to populate the overview.
2. Data View name, this is a list of all the unique names of the data views you are
currently connected to (via the gateways). You have to select one or more of these
before clicking on OK (hold down the Ctrl key to make a multiple selection). Note you
can also double click an item in this list to save having to click on OK, but this will
limit you to the selection of just one data view type.
3. Metrics view, this is the target metrics view that you want to insert the new metrics
overview into.
4. Filter on state tree selection, this a toggle (which by default is on) which limits the
data views that will be selected to go into your new metrics overview based on the
current selection in the state tree (I.E. only data views that are children of the currently
selected state tree node will be selected to go into your metrics overview. If you turn
this off, then the state tree selection will be ignored (as though you had selected the
global state) and all data views with the specified name will be inserted into the state
tree. Note this only applies when the metric overview table is created, the resultant table
will not track state tree selection after it has been created.
Like other metric tables, as and when gateways and probes drop and come up this set of data
views may change (E.G. if you are viewing all CPU data views, and a new probe comes up that
contains a CPU plugin that the relevant data view will be added to the set of data view in the
metrics overview table).
In actual fact all the wizard does is create a metric table with a suitable wild carded path. You
can see this by opening its properties (double click on it in the view selector), and even modify
the path to make it more specific, or add new paths.
The wizard lists all the data view types that currently available via one or dataviews connected
to the Active Console.
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Figure 48 Using the metric overview wizard
If the data views within an overview table contain disparate columns then the super set of
columns will be available in the table, where cells that do not have values (because the column
is not available in the data view it has come from) they will appear blank.
12.8 Exporting and importing metric views

You can export a metrics view (one of the tabs) to a file, which can then be imported into
another workspace. To export right click in the view selector and select the export function.
You will be prompted to provide a filename; the resultant file will have an .msv extension.
To import an exported metrics view, use the application level ‘File Import’ feature.
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13 The Event Tickers Dockable
The Event Tickers dockable contains a number of Event Ticker tabs. Each tab has a name and
contains a list of local and gateway events. An example is shown below:
Figure 49. The Event Ticker view (with its filter dialog)
The left-most tab is known as the Primary Event Ticker. It is the only event ticker that has an
icon in addition to its name (which cannot be modified). Each event ticker tab shows the
relevant information of an event in different columns for example it shows the fully qualified
path of the item for which the event was raised. It also shows the name of individual items
which make up the fully qualified path. If the path does not contain the precise information
about the items that make up the path then event ticker will show empty values for those events
in the columns of those data items. For example if the event occurred for a managed entity the
fully qualified path will contain gateway followed by managed entity and not contain any items
below that managed entity, such as dataview, sampler or a cell. Therefore in such cases where
it is not possible to get the name of items from path of an event, the data item columns values
for that event would contain empty values. Other case where the data item column values of
certain events could be empty is, when the path contains some wild cards etc.
The following additional features are available in the event ticker (they are accessible via the
right click menu in the event ticker):
• Import, this will import events via a database query. You will be prompted via a dialog
that allows you specify the time span to consider, from where the historical events
should be imported, the maximum number of results to return and whether the query
should be additionally constrained by considering the path of the component which
raised the event or not, see section 13.2for more details.
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• Export, this will export the filtered contents of the event ticker to a comma separated
(CSV) file. If no filters are applied then all events will be exported.
• Pause Updates, Determines whether new events that come from the connected
gateways should be displayed in the event ticker. Any events that you missed while the
event ticker was paused will be displayed when it is un-paused.
• Filters use this menu item to set the filter that is applied to the event ticker.
Menu items applicable to the data item that was the source (I.E. commands) of the event will
also be available in the event ticker right click menu.
13.1 Event Ticker removal of old events

If there is a relative time filter set on the event ticker then events older than the specified time
need to be removed from the event ticker. This would be expensive if run every second, so
instead its run each period, where the period is defined in the advanced workspace settings. By
default its each 60 seconds, at which time relevant items are removed.
13.2 Importing historical events

You can import historical events from a database into an existing or new event ticker, to do so
right click and select import from any event ticker. The dialog you will be presented with is
shown in Figure 50.
14 April 2010 Page 88 of 235

Figure 50 Getting historical events
From here you can select the time range within which you want see the events, ether absolutely
(I.E. between time X and Y), or relative to the current time and date, you can also specify the
source database, the event ticker target and the maximum rows you want back.
You can limit the gateway that the events should be returned for by entering a value into the
gateway field. This is optional however since leaving it blank will just mean no filters will be
performed on gateway. This feature is essential if you have many gateways logging to the
same database.
NOTE: setting the maximum rows to a very large number (50,000+) may cause AC instability
since it will require a lot of memory.
When you click ok an asynchronous database query will be dispatched to the database
(meaning you can continue to use the AC). Once the database has returned with the results the
events will appear in your nominated event ticker.
Events created in thus manor will be retained when the workspace is saved and restored.
13.3 Custom Event Tickers

You can create additional event tickers via the right click menu available in an event ticker
view, or from the ‘View’ menu at the top of the application window. These additional views
are known as custom event tickers. They can have different filters from the primary event
ticker.
13.4 Event ticker filters

Independent filters can be set on each event ticker that you have configured in your system.
These filters determine which events appear in the event ticker. The Filter dialog is shown in
Figure 49.
The filter options have the following effects:
• Severity - defines which severities you are interested in, or which ones you want to
ignore.
• Time - You can ether define an absolute time period within which you want to see
events, or a period relative to the current time.
• Description - You can filter on the description field of events, matching all or parts of
their content.
• Netprobe, Managed Entity, Sampler and data view, this allows you to filter the
events based on the contents of these columns. They are simple string matches,
including a partial contain and ‘not contain’ function.
• Max Rows - defines the maximum number of events you want to see in your list at any
given time.
14 April 2010 Page 89 of 235

• Attributes – Limits the events based on view path attributes, if you right click in this
bow you can add attributes that are known, based on your currently connected
gateways.
• Type - limits the displayed events based on their type.
• State Tree, Restrict based on current selected state tree node, this will show all
events that occurred on the data item currently selected in the state tree (or one of its
children)
Once a filter is applied, a yellow information bar will appear in the relevant event ticker which
informs you how many events were examined and how many were left after the filter had been
applied. The presence of the yellow bar informs you that a filter is currently being applied to
that event ticker.
Whenever new events occur they will be added to all the event tickers, but may not appear if
they do not pass the event ticker’s filter.
13.5 Event commands

It is possible specify commands to run locally, against ticker event attributes. The commands
are specified in the ActiveConsole.gci file.
13.6 Specifying commands

The commands are specified like so:
-eventcommands
name=<Command Name>
workingdir=<Directory Path>
execute=<Path>
arguments=<StaticArg>|$(<DynamicArg>)
...
13.7 Parameter description

Parameter Description Example
name The display name of the command. This will be shown Telnet to probe
in the menu
workingdir The working directory of the command C:\Work
execute The executable or script to run telnet.exe
arguments Formatted arguments Type=$(_event_type)
13.8 Arguments
There are 2 types of arguments: Static and Dynamic. Static arguments are passed as is from the
argument; Dynamic arguments are substituted at runtime with values from the event.
Dynamic arguments have 2 types: Event attribute and XPath.
Argument type Specification Example

Event attribute $(_event_<attribute>) $(_event_description)
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XPath $(<xpath>) $(parameters/@Name)
XPath arguments will evaluate against the Data item in the event, if it has one. Event attribute
arguments, extract an atttribute from the event.
Here are all the attributes:
Attribute Description Specification

gateway The gateway name $(_event_gateway)
eventId The ID of the event $(_event_eventId)
gatewayId The gateway ID $(_event_gatewayId)
dateTimeStamp The Date and time $(_event_dateTimeStamp[<f
ormat>])*
severity The severity of the event $(_event_severity)
triggerOn What the event was triggered on $(_event_triggerOn)
triggerBy What the event was triggered by $(_event_triggerBy)
triggerDataValue The Data value that triggered the $(_event_triggerDataValue)
event
description The event description $(_event_description)
path The path of the data item $(_event_path)
type The event type $(_event_type)
uniqueID The unique id of the event $(_event_uniqueID)
triggerOnXPath The xpath of the triggerOn $(_event_triggerOnXPath)
attribute
*<format> in the dateTimeStamp specifies a date formatting string. (See ‘Date Format Strings’)
13.9 Examples
-eventcommands
name=My Ticker Command

workingdir=C:\User\jsmith
execute=C:\Program Files\MyApp\go.exe
arguments=Day $(_event_dateTimeStamp[E])) Name $(parameters/@Name)
name=My Ticker Command

workingdir=C:\Program Files\Telnet\
execute=telnet.exe
arguments=$(../parameters/@HostName) $(_event_type)
14 The Search Function and Dockable

AC2 provides a search facility which allows you to define a search over all the data items
known to the system. The search function can be accessed in the following ways:
• Via the Tools menu at the top of the application;
• Pressing CTRL + F anywhere in the application
• Via the search button on the toolbar, see section 4.7
Whichever way you choose you will then be presented with the search dialog (see Figure 51).
14 April 2010 Page 91 of 235

Figure 51 the search dialog
There are two principle types of search, a standard search which provides some simple
functions (and therefore has limited capability), and an advanced search, which utilises paths to
define the search criteria.
14.1 The standard Search

The Standard search dialog allows you to search for instances of a single data item type that has
selected values for common properties. This is quite restrictive but much simpler than building
paths (as in the advanced search) and covers a lot of common search functions.
Having selected the type of data item you want a report on you can then specify the following
properties of matching items:
• Name
• Row and Column (Cell only)
• Value (cell and headline only)
• Severity
• User assigned
• Snooze state
• Active status
14 April 2010 Page 92 of 235

• Who its assigned to
• The entity attributes
14.2 The target destination of the search

By default when you perform a search the results are sent to the ‘Search Results’ tab in the
Search Results dockable. The Search results are a list view, and the Search Results dockable a
list view dockable, see section XXX for full details.
You are however not limited to sending the results to this target. Using the Target settings at
the bottom of the search dialog (see figure XXX) you can also:
• Send the results to a new tab in the search view Dockable
• Send the results to a NEW list view dockable (and there fore new tab)
• Send the results to an existing list view dockable, at which point you will be able to
select the tab to place the results in, which can be a new tab.
In all these cases you can select whether to merge the results of the search with the existing
contents of the existing list view, or replace it. If you replace it all existing paths will be
removed before the new search path is added.
Alternatively you can send the results to a CSV file. To do so select the ‘File destination’ target
option and provide it the filename. You can choose to append a date and time to the file name
using a time format string, see section XXX for the required syntax.
If the results are sent to a list view then the list view will be paused by default (see section
XXX)
14.3 Search persistence and reset

Within a session of the AC the search you last performed will be persisted, such that if you
search, then come back to the search dialog your last search criteria will remain. You can reset
this dialog by using the ‘Reset’ button in the bottom left of the dialog.
The contents of the Search dockable however is NOT persisted between AC2 sessions. It
is contents is designed to be temporary. That said if you send the results of a search to a new or
existing (non-search) dockable these will be persisted with the workspace since they are treated
like any other list view within the workspace (see section XXX).
14.4 Advanced searches

If the Standard search (see section XXX) is too restrictive then you can use the advanced
search. An example of this dialog can be seen in figure XXX.
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Figure 52 the advanced search function
The advanced search is fairly straight forward in that you simply specify a set of paths (see
section XXX) that you want to add to a list view (or whose matching items you want to add to a
CSV). However you need to be able to reason about paths, and build them using the path editor
(see section XXX), so for that reason it may not be appropriate for basic users.
Because the search criteria persists for the AC session (see section XXX), and the dialog is
reused in the Reporting functionality it is also possible to enable and disable the paths that
make up the reporting criteria. To do so use the tick box at the end of each line tin the
advanced search dialog.
The mechanism by which the target of the search results is selected remain unchanged from the
standard search.
14.5 Quick Search

If you want to find a data item by its name you can use the Quick search function illustrated in
figure XXX.
14 April 2010 Page 94 of 235

Figure 53 the Quick find toolbar function
The name entered here is implicitly wild carded, for example if you enter ‘Foo’ into the quick
search then you will be searching for any data item that has ‘Foo’ within its name (*Foo*). The
results will be sent to the Search Results tab in the search results dockable. It will replace the
current contents.
Note: This replaces the find host function from AC1
15 Active Dashboards
The Active Console allows users to create dashboards within their workspace. A dashboard
consists of vector graphics (these can include your own images such as jpeg’s, png’s). Aspects
of these diagrams can then be configured to update based on changes in the gateways the active
console is connected to. For example you could make the background colour of a shape update
based on the severity of a managed entity, or a text value change based on a specified managed
variable value.
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Figure 54 the Active Dashboard manager
15.1 Dashboard dockables

You can configure as many dashboard dockables as you like within a workspace. By default
there will be a single dashboard dockable. Each dockable can have many dashboards, each
within its own tab.
The addition, removal and properties of dashboards are changed in the Dockable Manager (see
section 24). You can access the available dashboard dockables via the application level View
menu.
A dashboard dockable has the following components:
• Tab area, this contains a tab for each of your dashboards

• Status bar, which provide meta-information on the update of the dashboards, and
access to common functions via buttons.
• Current Dashboard, this contains the dashboard that is currently selected in the Tab
area.
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15.2 Dashboard licensing
The Active dashboard is licensed separately from the Active Console. After installation you
will have a 14 day period of evaluation after which you must accept or decline the license (see
section 2 for more details of licensing within the Active Console). If you decline the license
then the following restrictions will be in place:
• You can only use charts, the only objects that you will be able to create are charts, see
section 16 for more details
• Modifiers will not function. The modifiers on the dashboard will not operate, meaning
no updates will occur as a result of changes in the underlying model. See section 15.15
for more details of modifiers.
If you load a workspace which has one or more dashboards which contain components other
than charts, then they will load, you will be able to view them, but they will not update. A
yellow banner will appear at the top of the dashboard telling you this. If you subsequently
accept the licence agreement (available via the ‘Tools Licenses menu’) then the dashboard
will start to update.
Note: You can also use the Licenses menu to accept or decline the license at any point during
the evaluation period.
15.3 Dashboards
A new workspace starts with a dashboard dockable which in turn has a single empty dashboard.
You can create new dashboards in a dockable by double clicking in its tab bar.
Dashboards can be renamed by double clicking on the tab that represents them, then typing in
the new name.
You can close dashboards by right clicking or clicking the X on the relevant tab, you will be
prompted to confirm your decision if the dashboard contains content.
15.4 The dashboard palette

The dashboard palette allows you to add contents to a dashboard and create your own tools. It
is accessed via the application level ‘View Active dashboard palette’ menu. An example of
the dashboard palette is shown in figure XXX.
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Figure 55 the dashboard palette
15.4.1 Palette groups

The palette consists of a set of groups, each group has a number of tools. Groups can be
expanded by double clicking on their title bar or using the +/- button on their right. By default
when one group is expanded all others will become collapsed. If you want more than one
group open at a time then right click in the palette and toggle the ‘Auto Minimise Groups’
function.
Users cannot create groups they are derived from the attributes of the tools within the palette.
By default they are grouped by ‘Category’, for other grouping options right click in the palette,
select group and choose a new grouping property.
You can create your own grouping structure by changing the meta-data on the tools within the
palette. By default all tools have a category value, but you can add new meta-data to tols, then
group by this new meta-data, see figure XXX for an example
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Figure 56 grouping the palette by a user defined grouping property
15.4.2 Hidden tools

Some tools only make sense when a data item is dropped onto a dashboard or dashboard
widget. For example a ‘Chart data set’ tool only makes sense when a data item is dropped onto
a chart. Such tools are marked as hidden and not shown by default in the palette. You can
however display them by right clicking on the palette and toggling the ‘Show hidden tools’
menu item.
15.4.3 Using palette tools

To use a tool simply drag it onto the selected dashboard, and an instance of it will appear.
Tools are also accessible when you drag and drop a data item onto the dashboard, see section
XXX for more information.
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15.4.4 Tool Properties
You can access the properties of a tool by right clicking on it in the palette and selecting
‘Properties’. You will be presented with a dialog like the one in figure XXX.
Figure 57 the tool properties dialog
Tools have the following properties:
-XXX
15.5 Basic Shapes

Basic Shapes are the building blocks of dashboard diagrams. You can create them using the
tools available in the ‘Basic Shapes’ section of the palette.
15.5.1 Moving shapes

To move a shape left click and hold the mouse button down on the selected shape then drag the
mouse to the desired location.
14 April 2010 Page 100 of 235

If a shape is part of a group, and you want to move it (or manipulate it directly) you can hold
down the ALT key when selecting it, this will by pass the groups and allow you to change its
properties without having to break down the group first.
15.5.2 Resizing shapes

When you click on a shape you should notice that it becomes surrounded by 8 (light grey)
control points (see Figure 58); if you left click and hold down the mouse button on one of
these control points, then drag it the shape will change size, the exact dimension (width, height
or both) that changes is dependent on the control point you selected.
You may also notice that there is a control point in the centre of the shape; you can use this to
move the shape around.
Figure 58 moving and resizing basic shapes
15.5.3 Shape properties

You can specify many of the properties of shapes, to do so right click on the selected shape
and select the ‘properties’ menu item. The properties box (shown in Figure 59) will appear.
14 April 2010 Page 101 of 235

Figure 59 the dashboard object properties dialog
The following properties of a shape can be changed:
• Appearance
o Object Name, this is the name given to the dashboard object, this is used to
reference the shape when using modifiers; it does not determine the text that
appears on the object in the diagram (which is specified in the Text property).
o Shape Style, this is a ‘wizard’ setting that will apply a certain shape style to the
selected object as a one-off operation, because you can subsequently change the
shape (see section 15.10) this property is not saved as part of the dashboard
objects configuration, thus when you next view the properties dialog the shape
you selected will not be displayed.
o Width and height, if you want to set an explicit size for the shape you can do it
via these settings; clearly you can also resize the shape using its control points.
This setting is useful if you want to make many dashboard objects the same size.
o Filled, this setting determines whether the shape should appear filled (rather
than just as an outline).
o Fill Colour, Determines what colour the shape should be filled with.
14 April 2010 Page 102 of 235

o Gradient Fill Colour, if this is set then the fill of the shape will be a gradient,
from the Fill colour to the colour defined in this setting. For example, if red was
the fill colour, and this was set to yellow, then the shape would be filled from a
shade of red flowing into a shade of yellow. See section 15.11 for further
configuration which can be done, including the direction and angle of the fill.
o Transparency, this determines the transparency of the fill, where 0 is

completely opaque and 100 is completely transparent.
o Drop shadow, determines whether the shape should have a drop shadow.
o Anti-aliased, this will make the shapes edge appear smoother, but is more
expensive to render, meaning if you have large numbers of anti-aliased objects
on the dashboard it will take more CPU. By default this property is turned off.
o Visible Border, this determines whether the border should be visible
o Border Colour, determines the colour of the border
o Line Thickness, determines the thickness of the border (in pixels)
o Line Style, you can set the line style to be solid or dashed
o Transparency (Border), determines the transparency of the border, where 0 is

completely opaque and 100 is completely transparent.
o Move to front of selection, this determines whether when the object is selected
it moves to the front of the drawing, see section 15.9 for more details
Note that you can change the visual properties of many canvass objects at the same time by
selecting all the relevant objects (see section 15.12), and then bringing up the properties
dialog.
15.6 Including text in shapes

With the exception of lines all basic canvass objects can contain text. The text tool, rectangle
tool, and ellipse tool all actually create the same type of basic canvass object (which can have
text), just with different default configurations. When text can be displayed in the object the
properties dialog will also contain a ‘Text’ section, which contains the following settings:
• Text Format
o Text, this is the text that appears in the object on the dashboard, the text box will
expand automatically as you type.
14 April 2010 Page 103 of 235

o Text Font, this is the font that will be used on the label.
o Text Style, the style of the font can be plain, bold, italic, or bold and italic
o Font Size, The size of the font (in pt).
o Text Colour, the colour of the text. If this is set to ‘None’ then the text colour
will change to contrast with the selected background colour. For example if the
background colour is black then the text will be white. If there is no fill colour
then the text will change to be visible on what ever is behind the label.
o Transparency, the transparency of the text, where 0% is completely opaque,

and 100% is invisible
o Anti Alias font, if this is ticked then the font will be displayed anti aliased. Note
that anti aliasing is more expensive in CPU terms than non anti aliased fonts
o Horizontal text Alignment, This determines the positioning of the text in the X
axis. It can be left, right or centre aligned.
o Vertical text alignment, This determines the positioning of the text in the Y
axis. It can be top, bottom, or centre aligned.
o Multi line, this determines whether the text is allowed to span multiple lines of
text
o Line Wrapping, this determines whether lines should wrap when there is not
enough space to display them (so if ticked then a single line will appear on
multiple lines if there is not enough space to display it on one).
o Text Clipping, this determines whether the text is allowed to leave the outline
of the shape if the shape is too small to contain it all. If this is ticked then the
text will not leave the shape outline (so when the shape is very small you may
not see it all).
o Allow Direct Editing, if this is ticked then the text will be editable directly on
the dashboard rather than going via the properties dialog, see section 15.6.1 for
more details.
o Highlight colour, this will determine the colour used to highlight text while it is
being edited on the dashboard directly
o Reset to defaults, if this is ticked when apply or OK is ticked the labels text
settings will be restored to the hard coded application values.
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15.6.1 Directly editing label text
You can edit the text that appears in a label directly by double clicking on the selected label
then typing (rather than going via the properties dialog). Once you have finished editing the
text click somewhere else on the dashboard to stop the edit.
15.7 Lines
Lines are created with the line tool, they have the standard appearance settings like other
shapes, plus a number of line specific settings, which are described below. Note that the visual
properties of lines are mainly modified by changing the border settings in the appearance
section of the properties dialog.
• Line format
o Line start, determines whether the line should have an arrow head at its start.
o Width and height (of the start arrow), this determines the size of the start
arrow head, see Figure 60for more details.
o Line end, determines whether the line should have an arrow head at its end.
o Width and height (of the end arrow), this determines the size of the end arrow
head, see Figure 60 for more details.
o Anchor X offset, the relative X position of the anchor within the boundary of
the shape. See Figure 61 for more details
o Anchor Y offset, the relative Y position of the anchor within the boundary of
the shape. See Figure 61 for more details
Figure 60 the width and height attribute of arrow heads
14 April 2010 Page 105 of 235

15.7.1 Moving and anchoring lines
To select a line simply click on it. You can move a line by pressing and holding down the
mouse over the line then dragging. A line has a control point at each end; you can use these to
drag the end of the selected line around without moving the other end.
Lines can be anchored to other (non-line) objects, such that when you move the other
dashboard object around the line remains anchored to it (moved with it). To anchor the end of
a line drag the control point at the relevant end over the selected shape and release the mouse
pointer. The line will then anchor to the shape at the point you released the mouse. You can
see if the line is anchored because a blue circle will appear around the relevant control point.
Figure 61 illustrates this concept.
Figure 61 Anchoring lines
You can also change the point at which the line is anchored to the shape by dragging around the
line end within the area of the shape. It is possible to manually define the anchor point via the
Line Dialog, see Figure 62. You can manually edit the anchor position by going to the line
properties and changing the anchor settings, Figure 62 shows you how.
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Figure 62 manually changing the anchor positions
To un-anchor a line select click and drag the anchored control point away from the shape it is
anchored to.
You can stop the lines from auto anchoring by default by right clicking anywhere in the
dashboard and toggling the ‘Auto-anchor’ menu item so that it is not ticked. This can be useful
when you want to add lines over the top of existing objects without having them anchor to it
(such as when you have pictures in the background of the dashboard)
15.7.2 Multi-point lines

Lines can have multiple ‘way-points’ so they can go round other shapes on the dashboard. To
add an additional control point to the line, right click at the point you want the ‘bend’ and select
the ‘Add control point’ menu item. Alternatively you can hold down ALT the press and drag
the mouse at the point in the line you want the new control point to appear at.
14 April 2010 Page 107 of 235

Control points in the middle of lines cannot be anchored like the control points at the beginning
and end of lines.
To delete a control point, right click near the point and select the ‘Delete control point menu
item’
15.7.3 Locking angles in multi-point lines

A toggle mode that allows lines to auto-lock 90 degree angles such they will remain in the line
as line is moved around and repositioned. This makes it easier to create large complex
diagrams that remain neat, to toggle this function on and off right click anywhere in the
dashboard and click the ‘Auto lock line angles menu option’.
Once active when ever a line with multiple control points gets a 90 degree angle within its
length this angle will lock.
You can remove such a 90 degree angle by holding down ALT while selecting the control
point, then dragging the control point to a different location, or simply turning off the Auto lock
function.
15.8 Pictures
Pictures are created with the picture tool. On creation you will be prompted to select the image
you want the picture to display (you can cancel this box when it appears if you wish, in which
case the picture will be created with no image). In addition the standard appearance settings
(see section Error! Reference source not found.) pictures support the following attributes
(which can be accessed via their properties dialog):
• Picture, a thumbnail of the image will be displayed in the picture dialog. If you click
on this you can change the displayed picture.
• Remove applied image, if you do not want the picture to contain an image, then tick
this box and apply your changes
• Stretch image to fit shape, this will stop the image scaling; it will subsequently display
it at its normal size.
• Transparency, this will determine the transparency of the image, note that this is
independent of the fill transparency,
Note: Pictures are imported into the workspace, you will not need the original source images,
even if you are exporting/ importing the dashboard into another workspace.
15.9 Auto moving objects to the front

You can configure selected shapes to automatically move to the front of the dashboard (move
over the top of other objects) when they are selected. To do this right click to access their
properties and select ‘Move to front on selection’ in the Appearance settings. From this point,
when selected they will move to the front as though you had right clicked and selected
14 April 2010 Page 108 of 235

‘Arrange move to front’. If the object is part of a group then the whole group will be moved
to the front
15.10 Complex and arbitrary shapes

You are not restricted to the shapes available via the toolbar and the ones provided in the
‘Shape ‘settings of the appearance section in the properties dialog. The dashboard actually
allows you to define arbitrary polygons. There are two main ways to construct such shapes
(and they are no mutually exclusive they can be used together):
• Shape Amalgamation and Subtraction, this allow you to modify existing shapes by
adding and subtracting the areas of other shapes from the target. See section 15.10.1
• Segment manipulation, shapes are made up of a number of segments, where each

segment is a straight line or curve (a square for example would be made up of 4
segments). It is possible to add, remove and modify segments directly, see section
15.10.1.
15.10.1 Shape Amalgamation and subtraction

We can build up more complex shapes from basic shapes by using the Amalgamate shape
functionality. This works by selecting a set of other dashboard objects (which may have been
created specify for the purpose of creating the complex shape), then right clicking on one of the
selected shapes and selecting the ‘Shape Amalgamate selected shapes’ function. The shape
that was right clicked on will now have its border augmented with the boundaries of the other
selected shapes. An example can be seen in Figure 63.
14 April 2010 Page 109 of 235

Figure 63 Amalgamating shape outlines
The inverse can also be achieved, in that you can delete the area of the other selected shapes
from the selected item. An example can be seen in Figure 64.
14 April 2010 Page 110 of 235

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14 April 2010 Page 2 of 235

• Active dashboard, see section 15.2 for more details.

14 April 2010 Page 3 of 235

4.1 Starting Active Console 2

4.1.1 Importing AC1 configurations (config.txt)

1. The gateway connections, including secondary gateways

4.2 The Application window

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4.3 The status bar

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4.4.1 Selecting and deselecting items in lists

4.5 Gateway Connections

4.5.1 Defining connections

• Hostname, the primary host name (or IP address)

4.5.2 Enabling and disabling gateway connections

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4.5.3 Logging on to gateways

4.5.4 Gateway Name or ID clashes

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4.5.4.2 Gateway 2 name clashes

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o Workspace - For additional information on Workspaces, see section 27. This

Save - saves the current workspace back to the source file.

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o Exit - saves your workspace and then closes down AC2.

o Active Dashboard Manager – Displays the Active dashboard manager, see

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o Commands - displays the Command Viewer component (if it was hidden or

o Notifier manager, launches the notifier manager, see section XXX

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o Attach all windows, all detached windows will re-docked to the AC

o Help - launches the stand alone help application.

4.7 The Tool bar

Figure 2. The AC2 toolbar

4.8 Component List

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4.9 Icons and colours

Data Item Example Icons

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4.10 Error icons

Meaning Icon Description

Rejected The connected to this item has been rejected

Waiting The AC is waiting for a response from the data item

4.11 Visual Indicators

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4.12 The Dockable framework

Figure 3. An example dockable

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4.13 Move Dockable

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Figure 5. Combining dockable components

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4.15 Auto-hide Dockable

Figure 6. Auto-hiding Dockables

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4.16 Float in window

4.17 Close Dockable

4.18 Maximise / minimise Dockable

4.19 Undo / redo docking action