EMC: Gadgets

The Gadgets page within the EMC website is the home of fast standardized data visualizations.

Gadgets are standardized data visualizations.  There are many different types of Gadgets for different types of data and different ways of displaying the data.

EMC Gadget Page:

Dashboards Menu:

The darker boxes in the dashboard menu represent Dashboard Groups, and the white boxes in the menu represent individual dashboards.  The Unassigned group lists out all dashboards that have been created by not yet assigned to a group.  Assigning to a group is not a requirement.  It is simply for organizational purposes.

Creating Dashboards:

Dashboards are built by adding the Add Dashboard Button:

After pressing the button, a popup will ask for the name of the new dashboard.  Type in the name and hit Save.  Pressing the close button will exit the popup without creating a new dashboard in the “Unassigned” group.

After the dashboard has been created, it can be added to a Dashboard Group.  To create a Dashboard Group, hit the Add Group button:

Hitting the button will bring up another popup, asking for the name of the group.

To create the group, type the name of the group into the popup and hit Save.  The dialog will close and the dashboard list will refresh.  You will see the Dashboards menu refresh.  The new Dashboard Group will appear in the Dashboard Menu.

Editing or Assigning a Dashboard to a Dashboard Group:

If you hover over an individual Dashboard, whether it is in a group or unassigned, and the logged in user has the correct permissions, an edit pen will appear in the box being hovered over:

Clicking on this edit pen will display a popup for editing the individual dashboard:

From this popup, you can rename the dashboard, by changing the name in the Dashboard Name textbox, or change the Dashboard Group by selecting a group from the Dashboard Group dropdown list.  If no Dashboard Group has been assigned, the list will be blank.  After making the appropriate changes, hit the Save button.  You can exit the dialog without making any changes by hitting the Close button.  Additionally, you can completely delete the dashboard by hitting the red button marked Delete Dashboard.  Deleting the dashboard will require confirmation.

After the dashboard editing is complete, the dialogs will close and the Dashboard menu will refresh with the new configuration.

Adding Gadgets to a Dashboard:

Gadgets can be added to a Dashboard selecting the Dashboard from the Dashboard Menu and then by clicking the + at the top right of the dashboard:

Clicking the plus will bring up the Add Gadget to Dashboard dialog.  This dialog can be confusing:

The Area you are currently in will be selected,  The list of Gadgets down the left side is all of the Gadgets that have been created for this area.  The list is ordered alphabetically, first by all of the Gadgets that are on the current Dashboard.  Those Gadgets will have their names in BoldItalic font.  The Gadgets listed in a normal font are not on the Dashboard.  To add an existing Gadget to the Dashboard, select it in the list and press the Insert Gadget button:

The dialog will close, and the Dashboard will refresh.  The new Gadget should appear at the end of the visible Dashboards.

Creating a new Gadget:

Press the same plus as before to bring up the Add Gadget to Dashboard dialog.

Hit the Clear button to ensure that no Gadget is selected.  Type in the name of the Gadget and its description.  Select a Gadget Template from the list.  Press the Save button.  This should save the new gadget and add it to the Gadget List.  It will also be selected.  The Gadget Sensors grid will now be populated with the individual Gadget Sensor Classes for this gadget.  These classes are specific to each Gadget Template.  Gadgets do not require that all of their sensor classes be attached, but as a basic rule, the Battery Voltage class must be attached in order to get the DateTime and Battery Levels that are standard to all Gadgets.

To attach a class to a sensor, select that row in the Gadget Sensor Class grid.

Next, select a station from the Station dropdown list:

Selecting the station will populate the Sensors listbox will all sensors on the selected station that meet the requirements of the selected Gadget Sensor Class.  This may be 1 to many entries, depending on the makeup of the station.  Select the appropriate sensor from the Sensors list.

Press the Attach Sensor button.  The grid will refresh, and the row selected will have the new sensor information in the Station, Sensor and Active columns.

Some gadgets attach to a pump or port/valve.  On these gadgets, when you select the row in the Gadget Sensors Class grid, if the class is of type Port, the Station List will only show control stations in the area.  Later, after selecting a station, instead of sensors, you will be presented with a list of Ports being controlled on that station.

Conversely, a sensor can be Unattached from a Gadget.  To do this, select a row in the grid which has a sensor attached to it.  Then, press the Unattach Sensor button.

This will remove the sensor attachment.  The grid will refresh, and the sensor information will disappear from the selected row.

You can close this dialog by hitting the close button.

Deleting a Gadget:

On the Add Gadget to Dashboard dialog, there is also a Delete Gadget button.  Warning:  There is currently no confirmation for a Gadget Delete.  If you have a Gadget in the Gadget List selected and  press the Delete Gadget button, the Gadget will be forever deleted from the system!

Understanding Gadgets:

While there are many types of Gadgets, they all have some parts in common.

All Gadgets have:

• Voltage Indicator (1) - shows the voltage of the last reading
• The settings gear icon (2) - allows some configuration of the gadget
• The last DateTime Stamp (3) - the last date/time that a voltage reading was received.  The timestamp may be color coded YELLOW indicating that the data is over 15 minutes old, or RED indicating that the data is more than 30 minutes old. Lastly, the word INACTIVE will display if the station has been deactivated in its configuration.
• Up/Down arrows (4)

Most Gadgets that contain a chart will have a Magnifying glass button (5) for that chart.

Pressing the Magnifying glass will open a popup with a larger version of the same chart.  Most charts can have a series hidden by clicking the series name in the chart legend. This works on the gadget or on the larger popup.

Gadget Configurability:

Most of the gadgets have some level of configurability to them.  They can be configured by pressing on the gear icon at the top of the gadget:

Once the gear icon is pressed, and assuming that the user has the correct level of permissions to edit the gadget, a popup dialog will appear. Standard to all gadgets, is the ability to change the gadget name that appears on the header.  Individual gadgets have the ability to change the chart type, UOM, Trend Duration, Trend Interval.

Once you’ve configured the parameters to your desired preferences, press the Save button.  The popup dialog will close and the Dashboard will refresh.  The gadget should now be reflecting your new configuration.  Hitting the Close button will close the popup without saving changes. Pressing the red Remove Gadget button will ask for a confirmation, and if the action is confirmed, will close the dialogs, refresh the screen and the gadget will no longer be on the dashboard.

Rearranging Gadgets:

By default, all Gadgets are shown in the order they were added to the Dashboard.  To change the order, a specific Gadget can be moved up or down using the arrows on the top left of the Gadget.  This change will take place immediately, and the Dashboard will refresh with the new display order.  There is some variation in size between the different Gadgets, the screen will try to optimize the sizes during display, but sometimes leave whitespace.

The list of all available Gadgets for EMC can be found here:  EMC: Gadget List