When AggreGate is used for monitoring different electronic devices, it's often important to be able to view their operational status and important parameters in a real-time. Moreover, it may be necessary to execute certain operations quickly in response to changes in monitored data. Normal AggreGate facilities, such as monitoring device events in Event Log and responding to them using Favourites may not be convenient in some use cases. In such situations, custom Widgets may be created to represent device state. These widgets may also contain buttons and other input controls, to allow interactive communication with a device.
These widgets should be constantly active when a system operator in on duty and AggreGate Client is running. They should run automatically upon AggreGate Client startup. In this article we'll show how to combine widgets with Auto Run feature to form a so-called dashboard. A dashboard is a group of widgets that are started automatically and placed in pre-defined positions to allow quick access to system-critical parameters and functions.
For this example, we'll use the Temperature/Humidity Monitor widget we created in How to create a widget to monitor your device. Of course, any other widget (or widgets) may be used to create a dashboard.
1. Adding Launch Widget Action to Auto-Run
First we open the node for the Device we want to monitor. The context menu of this node should contain a Launch Widget Action. When such an action exists, it means a certain widget was created to work with this Device.
Drag the Device System Tree node (
) and drop it on the Auto Run node (
):
Select the Launch Widget Action (in this case, Temperature/Humidity Monitor) from the drop-down box.
A new Auto-Run Action (
) will be created:
Create Auto-Run Actions for all other Device / Widget pairs that you want to appear in the dashboard in the same way.
2. Creating a Dashboard Layout
Right-click your new Auto-Run Action and select Configure (
) from context menu.
Click the Parameters field of the configuration dialog:
In the Parameters dialog, click in Window Location:
Now you can edit the name of the dashboard to place your widget on and its location inside the dashboard:
More information about window location property is available here.
3. Adjusting Dashboard Layout
Right-click the Auto-Run Action node and select Launch Action from context menu:
The widget will launch, and a new widget window will appear. Move it to the desired position. It may be floating or docked to the other windows. See Customizing Dockable Panes for more information on how to manage window layout.
Repeat the same steps for every Auto-Run Action you've created. Here what the dashboard may look like with all widget windows docked:
Dashboard with separate floating windows:
Floating dashboard with tabbed windows:
A dashboard with tabbed windows grouped with the System Tree:
A dashboard with several widgets grouped in one floating window:
You can exit AggreGate Client now. Your dashboard will appear automatically next time you log on. You can add, remove and relocate its components at any time. All changes will be automatically saved and re-applied upon next launch of AggreGate Client.