Grid Designer

The Grid designer is available in the grid columns panel in Grid visualizations. It allows you to easily add, hide, order, and customize columns of data that may come from any internal or external source.

Configuring columns

Hide / Show hidden columns

By default, when you configure a tile all columns will be displayed. To hide a column, simply click hide for each column you wish to hide.

If you have previously hidden some columns that you now want restored, you can click show all columns to show visible and hidden columns (the toggle will now read show visible columns only). Columns that are currently hidden will be grayed out and have the show option instead of hide.

☰ Drag and drop

Changing the column order couldn't be easier, simply click and drag the gray ☰ icon to the left of the column name.

Changing the name of a column

If you want to change a column name, simply click on the existing column name in the grid options panel and enter the new name.

To restore the original name, simply delete your updated name and the column will revert to its original name.

Edit

Data type and Conditional formatting

Select the data type that applies to the column. This will enable sorting to work effectively, i.e. in numerical order, and show the relevant conditional formatting options.

Text

Conditional formatting for text allows you to change the color when the cell value meets your criteria.

Click Add, then Select color and choose a color, then click on the mustache picker to see some examples.

For example:

{{value.indexOf('Windows') != -1}} would change the color when the value contains the word Windows. in the case shown.

{{value.match(/system|System/) != null}} would change the color when the value contains the word system or System.

Conditional formatting for numbers allows you to change the color when the cell value meets your numerical criteria.

For example:

{{value > 0.2}} would change the color when the cell value is over 0.2

{{value >= 10 && value <= 90}} would change the color when the value is between 10 and 90

Selecting the data type of time will automatically format the time data, and show you additional time related conditional formatting. To adjust the time/date format see Using Timeago to convert Unix timestamps

Mostly the time units are milliseconds, but if you know your time is in seconds you can change this here.

For the data type time you can match on any or all conditions

Boolean

For the data type boolean you can choose the true, false and default colors.

Default color

Optionally, set a color for values that don't match any conditional formatting.

Apply color to

By default conditional formatting is applied to the text in the column, click on background to apply the color to the background.

Whole row

With this ticked the color chosen will apply to the whole row, rather than just the cell. The Grid Columns section will show the default sort column.

Custom template

The custom template box allows you to format the way the data in a column is displayed. You can then type your standard SquaredUp 'mustache' syntax and click on done when you have the column looking exactly how you want it. If you want to preview the results before you're done, click anywhere outside the text box while editing it.

A

The mustache syntax is great for converting numbers, adding units, highlighting key values or performing any other customizations you may need. For more information on mustaches see How to use Custom Labels.

Check out our GitHub Samples repository for samples around using mustache. You'll find snippets for custom labels, conversions, manipulating strings, using HTML, and many more use cases.

Using Timeago to convert Unix timestamps

You can use timeago to convert Unix timestamps from milliseconds to show a readable date and time. You can either display an absolute time (for example, August 20th 2021) or a relative time (for example, 20 hours ago).

There are four parameters you can use for converting the time, written in the following format:
timeago(Value you want to convert, Show Absolute, Show Time, Without Suffix, With Prefix).

The parameters for the value you want to convert can either be true or false:

Tip: The default setting for all parameters is false. If you only want to change the first parameters, you can just use timeago(value, true, true) and it will be interpreted as timeago(value, true, true, false, false).

Examples:

To display the relative time (how long ago something occurred):

{{timeago(value)}}

To display the absolute time as the date without the time:

{{timeago(value, true)}}

To display the absolute time as the date with the time:

{{timeago(value, true, true)}}

To display the time with the prefix "for" for relative time and "since" for absolute time (for example, "the status has been unhealthy for 10 hours")

Option A) Use the fourth parameter and set it to true. This will insert the appropriate prefix for the absolute or relative time:

timeago(value, false, false, true, true)

Option B) You can leave out the fourth parameter that controls if the prefix "for" or "since" is inserted automatically. Since you left it out, it defaults to false, causing no prefix to be shown. Instead you insert the word "for" or "since" manually before the timeago function.

for timeago(value, false, false, true)

To convert a time value from seconds to milliseconds:

Some APIs, like Pingdom for example, return the value in seconds. Since Timeago uses the time value in milliseconds, you need to multiply by 1000 in that case:

{{timeago(value*1000)}}

Example with a Pingdom property:

{{timeago(properties.lasttesttime*1000)}}

Adding custom columns

You can dynamically construct new columns based on the data returned by your tile, which is invaluable when dealing with data sources that only support simple data retrieval, or where the API does not return data in a simple tabular form (such as many JSON based Web APIs).

To add a custom column:

1. Click the add button near the bottom of the grid columns panel.
2. Click the column name and change the name from customcolumn1 to the name you want to give the column.
3. In the data key path box, enter the (original) name of the column or path to the desired property in the returned data (this will depend on the API you are returning data from). If you need to access the values of multiple columns (i.e. concatenating two columns together) simply leave the box empty.
4. Optionally, if you want to customize the display of the column, you can enter a mustache in the custom template box
5. Click done when you have finished.

Custom columns have a pencil icon in the grid options panel to indicate they have been added by a dashboard author.

Example: Customizing the output of a SCOM task

In this example, we are going to customize the output of a SCOM task from the Data On Demand management pack that displays CPU process information. This will include hiding columns which may not be interesting, reformating some data for legibility, and separating the path column into separate folder and executable columns, so that a long path doesn't make it hard to see what program is being run.

1. Add a new tile to a dashboard or windows server perspective. If using a dashboard, on the scope panel specify a valid Windows computer.
2. Click on SCOM Task and then On-Demand Task (Grid). Click next.
3. In the task config panel select List Processes (Data On Demand) as the task to execute.
4. Click hide next to sessionId, handles, parentPid and threads.
5. Click add and select Format in the override parameters dropdown. Enter csv and click apply changes (execute). Click next twice.
6. Rename cpuPercent to CPU Usage % by clicking on its name in the grid columns panel.
7. Rename the privateBytes column to Private MB and click edit. In the template box enter {{Math.round(value/1048576)}}. Click done.
8. Rename the path column to Folder. Click edit and enter {{value.substring(0,value.lastIndexOf('\\'))}}. Click done.
9. Click add to add a new custom column. Rename the column from customcolumn1 to Executable. In the path box enter path and in the custom template box enter {{value.slice(1+ value.lastIndexOf('\\'))}}. Click done.
10. Click and drag the ☰ icon to the left of the Executable column above the Folder column.
11. Click the orange done button to finish editing the tile.

Using Timeago to convert Unix timestamps

You can use timeago to convert Unix timestamps from milliseconds to show a readable date and time. You can either display an absolute time (for example, August 20th 2021) or a relative time (for example, 20 hours ago).

There are four parameters you can use for converting the time, written in the following format:
timeago(Value you want to convert, Show Absolute, Show Time, Without Suffix, With Prefix).

The parameters for the value you want to convert can either be true or false:

Tip: The default setting for all parameters is false. If you only want to change the first parameters, you can just use timeago(value, true, true) and it will be interpreted as timeago(value, true, true, false, false).

Examples:

To display the relative time (how long ago something occurred):

{{timeago(value)}}

To display the absolute time as the date without the time:

{{timeago(value, true)}}

To display the absolute time as the date with the time:

{{timeago(value, true, true)}}

To display the time with the prefix "for" for relative time and "since" for absolute time (for example, "the status has been unhealthy for 10 hours")

Option A) Use the fourth parameter and set it to true. This will insert the appropriate prefix for the absolute or relative time:

timeago(value, false, false, true, true)

Option B) You can leave out the fourth parameter that controls if the prefix "for" or "since" is inserted automatically. Since you left it out, it defaults to false, causing no prefix to be shown. Instead you insert the word "for" or "since" manually before the timeago function.

for timeago(value, false, false, true)

To convert a time value from seconds to milliseconds:

Some APIs, like Pingdom for example, return the value in seconds. Since Timeago uses the time value in milliseconds, you need to multiply by 1000 in that case:

{{timeago(value*1000)}}

Example with a Pingdom property:

{{timeago(properties.lasttesttime*1000)}}

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