Web API tile
About Web API tiles
The Web API tile allows you to pull data from external APIs and display this data using a variety of visualizations.
What kinds of APIs are supported?
The Web API tile works with any REST API that returns JSON.
How do I connect to the API I want to use?
The connection details are not stored in the tile, but in the provider. You need to create a provider before you can use the Web API tile. Adding an API provider is a one-time configuration task to be carried out by a SquaredUp DS administrator.
See How to add a Web API provider.
How do I get data from the API into the tile?
The Web API tile supports GET
and POST
requests. For the format of those requests, you need to refer to the API documentation of the service you want to integrate with.
What license do I need to use the Web API tile?
A Connect edition license (or above) is required for this feature. To upgrade please contact [email protected].
To check the license edition you are using see How to check which license key is being used . To see what is included in different product edition licenses see the Licensing Overview.
Should I use the Web API tile or one of the dedicated tiles?
For the most used APIs we now have dedicated tiles to make integration quicker and simpler:
If there's no dedicated tile for the API you want to use, you can always use the Web API tile. Here are articles with examples about how to integrate with some popular APIs using the Web API tile:
Further help for integrating with APIs:
- Blog: Integrating SquaredUp DS with external APIs: UptimeRobot
- Webinar - Integrating with Splunk, New Relic, Solarwinds and more
- Take a look at our Community Answers site, where there's a wealth of knowledge about APIs
If you're looking for some real-life examples of dashboards, check out the Dashboard Gallery. You'll find dashboards that users from SquaredUp and the Community have created to help you get the most out of SquaredUp DS:
How to configure a Web API tile
If you don't already have a provider for Web API tiles, you need to create one before you can configure your Web API tile (How to add a Web API provider).
- Add a new tile to a dashboard or perspective and choose Integrations > Web API.
- Choose the visualization for your Web API tile:
A Scalar displays one value. A Scalar is useful to show a specific number like "total cost of my services" or "free disk space on this server".
When multiple values are returned (meaning a table with multiple rows), you will still be able to pick the Scalar visualization, but the Scalar will only show the value of the first row.Example:
A table of data, for example incidents or tickets.
Tip: You can turn the individual rows into links in the settings. For example, if you're displaying tickets in your grid, you can link the rows to the ticket in your external ticket system.
Did you know? Since SquaredUp DS 5.4 users can search the grid, and temporarily change the column size and sorting of the grid (by clicking on the column headers) without having to access the settings. They can also expand a row by clicking on the three dots at the end of each row if cells are too small to show their entire content.
Shows time-series data over time, in a graph with an x-axis (time) and a y-axis. You can show several objects, such as servers, in one graph.
Example:
Visualizes time-series data as vertical columns.
Example:
Shows data over time (like line graphs), but each item gets its own graph instead of showing all lines in one graph.
Example:
Visualizes both a number and the resulting bar width based on the number value.
Example:
Shows the results in a donut shape.
Example:
Shows the state of items as icons with different colors. You can display just the icons or together with a description. You can also use a background image and drag the icons into position on the image.
Example:
Shows the state of items as blocks with different colors.
Example:
The Date Heatmap shows the number of events per hour of the day. It uses lighter colors to show higher values and darker for lower values.
- Scope:
The scope section is optional.
You can specify SCOM objects which can be used to insert an array of SCOM object properties into the search query.Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.
Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.
The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:
- the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")
- the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")
After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.
Suggestions
Suggestions are generated based on the object you are currently viewing. You'll see a list of relevant scope options based on the object's relations to other objects. Suggestions don't cover every possible scope, but they are a quick and easy way to select a suitable scope for your tile.
Note: Suggestions won't be shown if an object has no children, parents or siblings.
Tip: If the exact scope you want isn't listed in the suggestions, you can select a suggested scope that is similar to the one you want, and then click on custom. The custom section will now automatically be filled with the suggestion you picked and you can edit the scope here to adjust it exactly to your needs. This is a more intuitive way to pick a scope than starting in the custom section and navigating the SCOM object model for classes and groups.
Double-check the scope when using suggestions: Using suggestions is an easy way to pick a scope, but you need to make sure that the generated suggestion is appropriate for all objects that use the perspective.
For example, when you pick a suggestion for an EA, you will get suggestions that are specific to the map, dependencies, and availability tests for this one EA. On perspectives you want to use for all EAs, you have to change the scope suggestion in the custom section so that the tile work for all EAs.You can pick between "this object" and objects that are related to this object as parents, children or siblings. The suggestions for children are written as paths that follow the SCOM object tree structure, parents and siblings can be identified by the word parent or sibling in the suggestion.
A parent of an object is any object that hosts or contains that object.
A child of an object is any object that this object hosts or contains.
A sibling of an object is any object of the same class that is hosted by the same parent.Enterprise Applications are designed so that you can map out the servers that make up the application. You can then configure tiles to show information related to just the servers on the EA's map. When you create a perspective that will be used for all EAs, you need to make sure that you scope the tiles so that they work for any EA. When you start with a suggestion, the tile's scope only works for the one EA you're currently looking at, and this is why you need to edit the scope:
- For an EA you want to scope to the servers that are specified on the EA map by selecting something from the suggestions (SquaredUp DS 4.2 and above) that shows something similar to the following:
This /<YourApplicationName> Map / ... / Windows Computer
The above will scope the tile to all the objects of class Windows Computer on this EAs map.
The screenshot below shows some scope suggestions for an application called FinanceXS. The bold text shows the currently selected scope is This object. The cursor shows the optionThis / FinanceXS / ... / Windows Computer
. Once chosen this scope will show all the Windows computers shown on the applications map. Next, we need to adjust the specified scope to allow it to work for all EAs, rather than just this one. - In the scope section click custom.
- Click on the text
<YourApplicationName> Map (children)
which is your first scope step. This will expand the scope step so you can edit it. - Remove the auto-populated class
<YourApplicationName> Map
by clicking the cross x next to it. - Start typing
Enterprise Application - Map
and select this from the list to add this class. This is so that this tile scope will work for all EAs, rather than just this one EA. - The scope is now configured to show all the Windows computers on the EA's map, whichever EA you happen to be viewing with the perspective.
If you are looking at an EA, the path to find all windows computers in that EA may read
Map / ... / Windows Computer
. It returns all objects of the Windows Computer class contained within all of the paths underMap
.To narrow the scope down, you can click on the triangle to expand the suggestion and select one of the more specific paths. If you select
Map / Web / Windows Computer
you will find all objects of the Windows Computer class in the pathMap / Web
.If you choose the option
Map / *
you'll find all objects contained in the map. If you extend this suggestion by clicking on the triangle, you'll see suggestions to select all objects in a more specific path, for exampleMap / Web / *
.Custom
Here you can pick objects that are related to the object you are currently looking at. If you want to create a specific scope that is not listed under suggestions, you can create the scope here.
Tip: You can pick a similar scope under suggestions first and then click on custom to edit it.
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
For example, for a perspective created for the group IIS8 Computer Group adding a Status tile scoped to show children with a class of
object
will show the group members, i.e. the members of the IIS8 Computer Group.If you need to traverse a more advanced SCOM object model like an EA, you can use the + button to add more steps. This creates a scope that can go through any kind of path of the SCOM object model.
Complete the following steps and then click the + button after you're done to add the next level of SCOM objects:
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
Other specific objects
Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.
Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.
Which status is displayed depends on what you choose as a scope:
- If you want to see the status of individual objects (for example, two individual servers), select multiple objects in the list section.
- If you want to see the status of a group itself rather than the individual objects within the group, select a group in the list section.
- If you want to see the status of each individual group member of a group, select a group in the group section.
- If you want to see the health state of all groups, select the class "group" in the advanced section.
- Provider:
Choose the provider you want to use for this tile.You can use generic and dedicated integrations to create your own providers. Of course, a dedicated provider like ServiceNow will only work with the ServiceNow API.
- HTTP mode:
Choose if you want to use aGET
orPOST
request. URL:
This is the query URL. The query URL gets added to the URL you defined in the provider you are using for this tile.
Example:
You want to queryhttps://myservice/customers/tickets
.
Your provider URL ishttps://myservice/
Your query URL needs to becustomers/tickets
Note:The easiest way to add query parameters to your query URL is using the data section in the Headers&Data panel. The parameters you enter there automatically get added to your query URL in the correct format.
If you want to add the query parameters manually here, you need to make sure you use the correct format to separate the query parameters from the query URL, for example
https://myservice/endpoint?filter=customers
Please refer to the API documentation of the API you are using to see which query parameters are supported and what values they can have.
Using the page timeframe as a query parameter
You can use the clock insert time value button to insert page timeframe and date variables in your query.
Please refer to the API documentation of the API you are using to see what kind of time format is required as a value.
Dynamic page timeframe formats
When you use page timeframe variables, the dynamic page timeframe will be inserted as a
string
in your search query, script, field, or wherever you use the variable.Fixed timeframe formats (without using the dynamic page timeframe)
Example:
https://myservice/endpoint?duration={{timeframe.isoDuration}}
Using the scope as a query parameter
If you defined a scope you can use the mustache picker to insert scope variables (values that refer only to the defined scope) into your query.
Values that refer to the defined scope carry the prefix
scope.
before the value. For example, you can use the value{{scope[0].displayName}}
for the name of the first item in your scope. You can manipulate the values with javascript syntax. For example, if you want to insert a quoted comma separated list of displayNames from every item in the scope, you can use{{scope.map(item => '"'+item.displayName+'"').join(',')}}
.Example:
https://myservice/endpoint?filter={{scope.displayName}}
By default, only SquaredUp DS administrators (Types of users in SquaredUp DS) can create and edit Web API queries in the Web API tile. To delegate permissions to other users see Signing and security for sensitive tiles.
- Headers & Data:Headers:
The HTTP header. Here you can enter properties for authentication or specify that the content type of the return data needs to be JSON. Please refer to the API documentation of the API you are using to see what properties are supported.
Data:
If you are using aGET
request:
Here you can add query string parameters to your query string.
If you are using aPOST
request:
Here you can add additional data to the request body of your query. You can send query string parameters as aform
, and other data in the content typejson
,xml
, ortext
.
Please refer to the API documentation of the API you are using to see what parameters and content types are supported.You can use the clock insert time value button to insert page timeframe and date variables in your query.
Please refer to the API documentation of the API you are using to see what kind of time format is required as a value.
Dynamic page timeframe formats
When you use page timeframe variables, the dynamic page timeframe will be inserted as a
string
in your search query, script, field, or wherever you use the variable.Fixed timeframe formats (without using the dynamic page timeframe)
Example for using the page timeframe as a query parameter:
You want the results of your query to adapt to the page timeframe. The API supports the
from
query parameter, so you can use it to select results starting from whatever page timeframe is currently set. You want to query an API which uses milliseconds to denote a time range. This means you can use theunixStart
page timeframe format.Data
Name:
from
value:
{{timeframe.unixStart}}
Example for using the page timeframe in the request body:
You want your
POST
request to create a table of sales data that adapts to the page timeframe, because you want to see closed and won opportunities within the time period of the currently set page timeframe. The API for your CRM system supports plain text request bodies and ISO-format date strings, which means you can use theisoStart
page timeframe format to filter out opportunities that are older than the currently set page timeframe.Content type:
text
Body:
Select Name, Amount, CLoseDate FROM Opportunity WHERE StageName = 'Closed Won' AND CloseDate > {{timeframe.isoStart}}
Note:If you defined a scope you can use the mustache picker to insert scope variables (values that refer only to the defined scope) into your query.
Values that refer to the defined scope carry the prefix
scope.
before the value. For example, you can use the value{{scope[0].displayName}}
for the name of the first item in your scope. You can manipulate the values with javascript syntax. For example, if you want to insert a quoted comma separated list of displayNames from every item in the scope, you can use{{scope.map(item => '"'+item.displayName+'"').join(',')}}
.By default, only SquaredUp DS administrators (Types of users in SquaredUp DS) can create and edit Web API queries in the Web API tile. To delegate permissions to other users see Signing and security for sensitive tiles.
- Response Data:
This is where you enter the location of the results set that is returned. The response data box shows you a preview of the data returned, so you can check the location of the data returned, and use that in the key path. - Configure the settings for your visualization:
Scalar
Color
Conditional formatting:
You can display the data in different colors based on values you define here. For example, you can display the data in green when the value is below 100 and in red when it is above 100.
- Click on add to configure a condition.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
value
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
For example:{{value < 10}}
(The color you pick will be used if the value is less than 10) - Value is present in the result (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.IndexOf('error') != -1
(The color you pick will be used if the string value "error" is present in the results) - Value matches one of the regular expressions you defined (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.match(/healthy|good|up/)
(The color you picked will be used if the string values arehealthy
,good
, orup
)
- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
Display:
Here you decide how the color is used:
Link options
Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.
Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.
For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is
https://www.my-system/ticket-123
, where123
is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URLhttps://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}
.- For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property
value
in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. - For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.
Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.
ServiceNow incidents:
https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}
PagerDuty incidents:
{{incident.html_url}}
Azure DevOps projects:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}
Azure DevOps builds:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}
Zendesk tickets:
https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}
Azure Application Insights
https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
Grid columns
Grid columns opens the grid designer, where you can show or hide columns, change the order of columns, edit column names or add custom columns.
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Grid options
Tip for column sizing: You can change the column width directly in the grid by clicking on the divider lines between columns and dragging them to the width you want. You need to show column headers (by activating the show column headers check box) to be able to change the column width.
Resizing columns while in edit mode affects how the grid looks by default when users open the dashboard. Users can temporarily change the column sizes by dragging them, but those changes only last until they leave the page.Data mapping
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Top N
Here you can define a limit for the number of results you want to see. Activate the limit number of results displayed checkbox to enter a limit for results. You can choose if this limit should be applied from the top ranking results down (ascending, default option) or from the bottom ranking results up (descending).
Threshold
You can choose to apply a threshold line at a specified value, and whether you wish to fill above or below this value, or just show the line. For example, for free disk space you might want to fill below the line to highlight when space goes below a particular threshold. For processor information you might want to fill above the line to highlight when processor percentage goes above that threshold. The threshold is also shown on the drilldown view.
Max, min, avg
When drilled-down to view a graph, you can select the min, max and avgoptions for each object (displayed to the right of the graph), which displays a line cutting horizontally across the graph a each of the selected value points.
Data range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Display
Height:
Allows you to set the height of the tile with a slider.
Show hover details:
Shows the value for all lines at any point you hover. There may not be a value exactly where you hover so the value is interpolated from the values either side.
Show points:
Shows where the data points are on the line. Useful to identify missing points, or detail for changing data.
Show trend
Enable the Show Trend Linestoggle to display a trend line for the line graph data. Disable the toggle to hide the trend line.
Custom colors:
You can display the data in different colors based on labels. For example, you can display data in green for a specific user.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
label
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Condition is true if the label contains something
For example:{{label.indexOf('SQL') != -1}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'SQL') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things
For example:{{label.match(/C:|D:|E:/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'C:', 'D:' or 'E:') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things with multiple variations
For example:{{label.match(/^[Ss]erver[0-9]+$/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label is 'Server' or 'server' with a number after it)
- Condition is true if the label contains something
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Label:
Data mapping
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Threshold
You can choose to apply a threshold line at a specified value, and whether you wish to fill above or below this value, or just show the line. For example, for free disk space you might want to fill below the line to highlight when space goes below a particular threshold. For processor information you might want to fill above the line to highlight when processor percentage goes above that threshold. The threshold is also shown on the drilldown view.
Data range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Display
Height:
Allows you to set the height of the tile with a slider.
Show hover details:
Shows the value for all lines at any point you hover. There may not be a value exactly where you hover so the value is interpolated from the values either side.
Solid bars:
Show the bars as solid color or translucent.
Custom colors:
You can display the data in different colors based on labels. For example, you can display data in green for a specific user.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
label
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Condition is true if the label contains something
For example:{{label.indexOf('SQL') != -1}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'SQL') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things
For example:{{label.match(/C:|D:|E:/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'C:', 'D:' or 'E:') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things with multiple variations
For example:{{label.match(/^[Ss]erver[0-9]+$/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label is 'Server' or 'server' with a number after it)
- Condition is true if the label contains something
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Label:
Data mapping
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can sort by value (ascending or descending) or label (alphabetically ascending or descending).
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Color
Data mapping
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can sort by value (ascending or descending) or label (alphabetically ascending or descending).
Value
Value formatter
Allows you to format the value by using the mustache picker. For example, you can round the value up or down or convert it.
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Display
Vertical:
Tick this option to show vertical bars, otherwise horizontal bars are shown.
Bar width:
Allows you to set the width of the bars with a slider.
Color
Data mapping
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can sort by value (ascending or descending) or label (alphabetically ascending or descending).
Value formatter
Allows you to format the value by using the mustache picker. For example, you can round the value up or down or convert it.
Display
Size mode:
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Table or Inline:
Show the legend as a separate table or as labels pointing to the segments. When using Inline you can also hide the segment values, and use the slider to change the size of the labels.
Show zero values in legend:
Will show legend items for values of zero which are otherwise missing from the donut.
Fixed height scrollable legend:
Sets the legend to a fixed height where you can scroll through the items. This means that the tile doesn't become too large if there are many items.
Display mode:
Allows you to switch between displaying absolute values or percentages.
Color palette:
Here you can choose between different color palettes.
Note: If there are more items than colors, the colors repeat from the beginning.
Tip for displaying priorities or health states: If you want to display priorities or health states from a data source that doesn't enrich the data with information about priority or health (like the SQL tile or external APIs), use the custom color option and map the results to the correct color. This way, you can make sure that healthy or low priority results are displayed in green, unhealthy or high priority results are displayed in red, etc. If you use the color palettes Priorities, Health1, or Health2 the colors get assigned depending on how the results are sorted, which doesn't guarantee that the colors make sense for the priority or state they represent.
Data mapping
Here you map the status information from your return data to the states of the status icons or blocks. Since every API returns data in a different format, you need to tell the tile where to find the status information and how to interpret it.
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
- State property:
Here you tell SquaredUp DS where to find the status information in the return data.
Use the mustache picker to select the property from your return data that contains the status information, for example{{status}}
.Note: If you type in the property, make sure you add the mustache
Defining custom states{{}}
to the property name. Otherwise, you'll either get an error message or the property will be interpreted as a static value and be the same for every result.
If your return data doesn't contain a specific state property or you want to use your own categories, you can use JavaScript to define states. This allows you to take your return data and define something like "I want result x (number of open tickets, response time, etc.) to be considered as healthy, otherwise the result should be considered unhealthy."Defining simple custom states
Use case:
Your API returns data with a response time (for example, you monitor servers in Pingdom). You want a response time of over 500 ms to be considered as "Warning", anything else should be considered as "Ok".{{lastresponsetime >= "500" ? "WARNING" : "OK" }}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see yellow blocks or icons when the response time is over 500 ms and green blocks or icons if the response time is below 500 ms. There will be no red icons or blocks since there is no mapping for "Critical". There will also be no gray blocks since there will be no "Unknown" state, because the return data will always be either below or over 500 ms.Displaying only results of a specific type
Use case:
Your API returns data with a type and a priority (for example, tickets in Zendesk). You only want to see high priority cases. You consider a case high priority when the two fields "type: problem" and "priority: normal" apply to the result. All other results should be ignored.{{#if type == "problem" && priority == "normal"}}HIGHPRIORITY{{else}}IGNORE{{/if}}
Mapping:
The checkbox hide tiles where the state is unknown is activated.
Result:
You'll see red blocks for the cases you defined as high priority. You'll see no green, yellow, or gray blocks, since they have not been mapped and unknown states are hidden.Defining custom states based on multiple conditions
Use case:
Your API returns data with a state and a response time (for example, you monitor servers in Pingdom). You want to define states based on those criteria. If the status is "up", you consider it healthy as long as it is below 65 ms response time. If it is "up" and over 65 ms, you want it to be considered as "warning" in SquaredUp DS (yellow block or icon). If the state in the response data is "warning" instead of "up", you also want it to be considered as "warning". If the state is "down", you want it to be "critical" in SquaredUp DS.{{status === 'up' && lastresponsetime < 65 ? 'Green' : status === 'up' && lastresponsetime > 65 ? 'Yellow' : status === 'warning' ? 'Yellow' : status === 'down' ? 'Red' : 'unknown'}}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see green blocks or icons (Healthy
) for results with the status "up" and a response time below 65 ms. If the status is "up" but the response time is above 65 ms, you'll see a yellow block or icon (Warning
).
If the status in the response data is "warning" instead of "up", you'll also see a yellow block, since you defined this also a yellow and yellow is mapped toWarning
.
If the status is "down", you'll see a red block (Critical
).
Any other results that don't fit in the categories you defined will be displayed as a gray block or icon (Unknown
).Tip: Since there are two possible causes for the
Warning
state, you want to be able to tell if the status or the response time caused the issue. Use a custom label or sublabel that shows you the status and the response time in your status icon or block to be able to see what caused the warning.Defining custom states with a date and time threshold
Use case:
Your API returns data with a date and time, as well as a type and a priority (for example, tickets in Zendesk). You want tickets of type problem with a normal priority to be acknowledged within 30 mins, which is why you want to see tickets older than 30 mins highlighted in yellow and older than 45 mins highlighted in red.{{#if Date.now() - Date.parse(created_at) >= 1800000 && type == "problem" && priority == "normal" }}30MINS{{elseif Date.now() - Date.parse(created_at) >= 2700000 && type == "problem" && priority == "normal" }}45MINS{{else}}OK{{/if}}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see tickets that have been created today (Date.now()
), are older than 30 mins (1800000 ms
), and are of the typeproblem
with anormal
priority as yellow blocks or icons since you mapped 30MINS toWarning
. When those tickets are older than 45 mins (2700000
ms), they'll turn red since they are mapped tocritical
. All other tickets will be displayed as green blocks or icons because all other tickets fall into the OK category that is mapped toHealthy
.
There will be no gray (unknown
) blocks or icons since all tickets will fall into one of the custom states you defined. - State mapping:
Here you tell SquaredUp DS how you want the status information to be interpreted.
Map the values of the property from your return data to the states of the status icons or blocks. For example, when the{{status}}
property from your return data can have the valuesgood
,average
andbad
, your mapping would look like this:
Any value that is not mapped to a state will be interpreted asunknown
.
The mapped state values define the color of the status icons or blocks:
Link options
item link:
Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.
Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.
For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is
https://www.my-system/ticket-123
, where123
is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URLhttps://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}
.- For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property
value
in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. - For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.
Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.
ServiceNow incidents:
https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}
PagerDuty incidents:
{{incident.html_url}}
Azure DevOps projects:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}
Azure DevOps builds:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}
Zendesk tickets:
https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}
Azure Application Insights
https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Sublabel
Allows you to add a sublabel of the results.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can also group them by their characteristics.
Limit:
Allows you to define a maximum number of objects that will be shown. When 'group by' is used the limit applies to each group individually, for example to show 10 objects in each health state.
Image
Here you can choose one of the provided images or upload your own.
Tip: If you want a different selection of maps, you can download more at https://freevectormaps.com/Supported image formats: png, jpg, jpeg, gif, tif, tiff. svg, bmp
Tip: SVG images resize best since they are vector images.File size limit: 10MB
Image size: Images fill the size of the tile, which means you can resize the image by adjusting the tile's size. The size of the tile also depends on the screen the dashboard is being viewed on.
Icons
Here you can customize the icons on the image:
- You can change the size of the icons with the slider
- You can change the shape of the icons (square or circle)
- You can drag the icons on the image into position
Display styles for Status icons
This setting is not done in a panel, you can change the display style even after you finished configuring the tile.
You can use toggle zoom button at the top right of the tile to change between the different ways Status icons can be displayed.
Data mapping
Here you map the status information from your return data to the states of the status icons or blocks. Since every API returns data in a different format, you need to tell the tile where to find the status information and how to interpret it.
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
- State property:
Here you tell SquaredUp DS where to find the status information in the return data.
Use the mustache picker to select the property from your return data that contains the status information, for example{{status}}
.Note: If you type in the property, make sure you add the mustache
Defining custom states{{}}
to the property name. Otherwise, you'll either get an error message or the property will be interpreted as a static value and be the same for every result.
If your return data doesn't contain a specific state property or you want to use your own categories, you can use JavaScript to define states. This allows you to take your return data and define something like "I want result x (number of open tickets, response time, etc.) to be considered as healthy, otherwise the result should be considered unhealthy."Defining simple custom states
Use case:
Your API returns data with a response time (for example, you monitor servers in Pingdom). You want a response time of over 500 ms to be considered as "Warning", anything else should be considered as "Ok".{{lastresponsetime >= "500" ? "WARNING" : "OK" }}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see yellow blocks or icons when the response time is over 500 ms and green blocks or icons if the response time is below 500 ms. There will be no red icons or blocks since there is no mapping for "Critical". There will also be no gray blocks since there will be no "Unknown" state, because the return data will always be either below or over 500 ms.Displaying only results of a specific type
Use case:
Your API returns data with a type and a priority (for example, tickets in Zendesk). You only want to see high priority cases. You consider a case high priority when the two fields "type: problem" and "priority: normal" apply to the result. All other results should be ignored.{{#if type == "problem" && priority == "normal"}}HIGHPRIORITY{{else}}IGNORE{{/if}}
Mapping:
The checkbox hide tiles where the state is unknown is activated.
Result:
You'll see red blocks for the cases you defined as high priority. You'll see no green, yellow, or gray blocks, since they have not been mapped and unknown states are hidden.Defining custom states based on multiple conditions
Use case:
Your API returns data with a state and a response time (for example, you monitor servers in Pingdom). You want to define states based on those criteria. If the status is "up", you consider it healthy as long as it is below 65 ms response time. If it is "up" and over 65 ms, you want it to be considered as "warning" in SquaredUp DS (yellow block or icon). If the state in the response data is "warning" instead of "up", you also want it to be considered as "warning". If the state is "down", you want it to be "critical" in SquaredUp DS.{{status === 'up' && lastresponsetime < 65 ? 'Green' : status === 'up' && lastresponsetime > 65 ? 'Yellow' : status === 'warning' ? 'Yellow' : status === 'down' ? 'Red' : 'unknown'}}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see green blocks or icons (Healthy
) for results with the status "up" and a response time below 65 ms. If the status is "up" but the response time is above 65 ms, you'll see a yellow block or icon (Warning
).
If the status in the response data is "warning" instead of "up", you'll also see a yellow block, since you defined this also a yellow and yellow is mapped toWarning
.
If the status is "down", you'll see a red block (Critical
).
Any other results that don't fit in the categories you defined will be displayed as a gray block or icon (Unknown
).Tip: Since there are two possible causes for the
Warning
state, you want to be able to tell if the status or the response time caused the issue. Use a custom label or sublabel that shows you the status and the response time in your status icon or block to be able to see what caused the warning.Defining custom states with a date and time threshold
Use case:
Your API returns data with a date and time, as well as a type and a priority (for example, tickets in Zendesk). You want tickets of type problem with a normal priority to be acknowledged within 30 mins, which is why you want to see tickets older than 30 mins highlighted in yellow and older than 45 mins highlighted in red.{{#if Date.now() - Date.parse(created_at) >= 1800000 && type == "problem" && priority == "normal" }}30MINS{{elseif Date.now() - Date.parse(created_at) >= 2700000 && type == "problem" && priority == "normal" }}45MINS{{else}}OK{{/if}}
Mapping:
Result:
You'll see tickets that have been created today (Date.now()
), are older than 30 mins (1800000 ms
), and are of the typeproblem
with anormal
priority as yellow blocks or icons since you mapped 30MINS toWarning
. When those tickets are older than 45 mins (2700000
ms), they'll turn red since they are mapped tocritical
. All other tickets will be displayed as green blocks or icons because all other tickets fall into the OK category that is mapped toHealthy
.
There will be no gray (unknown
) blocks or icons since all tickets will fall into one of the custom states you defined. - State mapping:
Here you tell SquaredUp DS how you want the status information to be interpreted.
Map the values of the property from your return data to the states of the status icons or blocks. For example, when the{{status}}
property from your return data can have the valuesgood
,average
andbad
, your mapping would look like this:
Any value that is not mapped to a state will be interpreted asunknown
.
The mapped state values define the color of the status icons or blocks:
Link options
item link:
Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.
Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.
For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is
https://www.my-system/ticket-123
, where123
is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URLhttps://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}
.- For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property
value
in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. - For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.
Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.
ServiceNow incidents:
https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}
PagerDuty incidents:
{{incident.html_url}}
Azure DevOps projects:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}
Azure DevOps builds:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}
Zendesk tickets:
https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}
Azure Application Insights
https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
Property names that contain hyphens (for example
properties.name-with-hyphens
) can't be processed due to a JavaScript limitation. If you want to use a property that contains a hyphen, you have two options:- If you have access to the data source and can change the name of the property, change the name of the property to a name without hyphens.
For example, if your Elasticsearch query uses a property (an aggregation, a grouping or any other property you want to use) with a name that contains a hyphen, you can either access your Elasticsearch instance and change the name there or you can overwrite the name in the query dsl field. - If you can't change the name of the property, you need to enter the property name in the following format:
Original property name:{{properties.name-with-hyphens.value}}
New format:{{properties['name-with-hyphens'].value}}
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Sublabel
Allows you to add a sublabel of the results.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can also group them by their characteristics.
Limit:
Allows you to define a maximum number of objects that will be shown. When 'group by' is used the limit applies to each group individually, for example to show 10 objects in each health state.
Blocks
Here you can set the number of columns for the blocks, their height and the font size within the blocks.
Data mapping
Data aggregation
You can optionally choose the sum aggregation which uses the field you enter in the value box to sum up events for dates.
Timestamp
Here you define the time series to be used for the visualization.
To enter your timestamp, you have to find the property that contains it. If there is a mustache picker you can use this to see every property from the response data. Pick the property that contains the timestamp you want the visualization to use.
Note: If you type in the property, make sure you add the mustache
{{}}
to the property name. Otherwise, you'll either get an error message or the property will be interpreted as a static value and be the same for every result.Note: Timestamps that are supported are Unix timestamp in milliseconds or the ISO 8601 format
Display
Choose to use squares or circles, and optionally whether to hide weekends, week days and/or empty days.
Color
Here you can choose the color scheme for your heatmap. Higher values are shown in a lighter shade of the color, and lower values in darker shades.
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Click done to save the tile.
The tile now shows data according to your settings.
Paging and limiting the results size
One thing to keep in mind when making queries is that the Web API tile does not support request paging. Some APIs will not return all the query results in a single request (say limiting each request to only 100 items), and require the user to make multiple subsequent requests to get the entire results set. Since there is no standard way of doing this, we are currently unable to support it.
This may mean your tile is only able to display the most recent results, and may be an issue if you are say trying to query for every incident in the system and display a donut showing the counts of incidents in each status. To avoid this, if you need to display summaries either query API endpoints that provide summarised information for you, or make sure you indicate in the tile name/description that this may be only recent results.
If your API does not page requests and instead can return large datasets in a single request, consider adding limits to your query if the API supports it. If your query returns 10,000 results, you may experience a tile that takes a long time to load and display data. Don't show data for all time when the last 30 days will do!
Custom code tips and examples for the Web API tile
Where to use this code:
You can use this code in Web API tiles for the Donut or Bar Graph visualization.
Open the Data Mapping panel, set the data aggregation to count and enter this code in the Grouping field.
When to use this code:
Let's say you want to group by the field status
but aren't happy with the names of the field values. In this example, the values for status
are 1,2, and 3 which doesn't tell your users much about the meaning of those values. With this code you can rename them to warning, critical, and healthy to make the values easier to understand:
{{#if status === 1}}Warning{{elseif status === 2}}Critical{{elseif status === 3}}Healthy{{else}}Unknown{{/if}}
If your field values are not numeric values but strings, you need to wrap them like this:
{{#if status === "Status A"}}Warning{{elseif status === "Status B"}}Critical{{elseif status === "Status C"}}Healthy{{else}}Unknown{{/if}}
Walkthrough: Configuring the Web API tile to show a JSON placeholder example
http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/
is a JSON REST API used for testing services and this example demonstrates how you would retrieve data from this API and show it using SquaredUp DS.
- Browse to
http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts
The data shown is a list of posts which we can show in SquaredUp DS as a table. - Create a new dashboard and click on the Web API tile.
- Select Web API (Grid) and click next.
- Leave the scope as it is and click next.
- Select generic from the drop down list for the provider, and click next.
- Paste the web address from step 1 into the URL box.
For help customizing the columns of data see How to use the Grid Designer - Click done.
The data from the external API is now shown in SquaredUp DS.
It is important to note that this data will refresh along with the rest of your dashboard and is great for showing tabular data such as a list of open support tickets or configuration changes.