Monitoring

Monitoring is based on a special type of assignment referred to as the monitoring assignment. The monitoring assignment is a type of assignment: it defines what and where is assigned. The involved data is considered monitoring data, the metrics, and is accessible to reports and dashboard widgets of the BAM application.

The monitoring data is uploaded as part of the model and then accessed by the reports and widgets with metric from the BAM Application Monitor.

Note: Process Design Suite uses the BIRT framework for reports and widgets (for further information refer to the respective BIRT documentation).

Defining Monitoring Data

To define the data and their layout in the Business Activity Monitor, you need to do the following:

1. Define the monitoring data: In PDS in the Properties view of the respective process elements, specify the monitoring assignments on the Monitoring tab.
2. Define the report or widget that will operate over the monitoring data: In PDS in your module, create the report or widget definition file, and create the report or widget in the file.
3. Define the report design that will determine how the data in the widget or report are presented in the Business Activity Monitor: Switch to the Report Design perspective and create a new report design.

Note that example report designs are available: Go to File > New > Examples > Common Monitoring under Process Design Suite.

Creating Reports

A report is a static visualization of the current business intelligence data in a specific layout. The data is loaded in the moment the report is visualized.

The layout and data sources can be defined in any of the supported business intelligence tools: A report may access data from LSPS as well as any other available external business data available in a database.

Note: To create a report that contains data that depend on the logged user, the report has to define the parameter currentUserLogin of the type String and set as hidden. When the report is invoked, the parameter is automatically filled with the login data of the person in the Business Activity Monitor.

To define a report, do the following:

1. In the GO-BPMN Explorer view, double-click the respective report definition.
2. In the Reports area, click Add.
3. In the Report Details area, define the report properties:
   • Name: report name
   • Title: report title

   • Design file name: design file created in a business intelligence tool with the report layout

     You can create a design file in the Report Design perspective, which is a standard BIRT perspective. For further information, refer to the BIRT documentation.

   • Performers: set of roles or performers who are allowed to access the report
   • Description: free text

Creating Widgets

A widget is a dynamic visualization component of business intelligence data: Widgets are placed on dashboards of the Business Activity Monitor application. They define a specific layout filled with runtime data loaded on every refresh, manual or automatic. The widget layout and data sources can be defined in any of the support business intelligence tools.

Widget definitions are created in a widget definition file. One Module may contain multiple widget definitions.

To define a widget, do the following:

1. In the GO-BPMN Explorer view, double-click the respective widget definition.
2. In the Widgets area, click Add.

3. In the Widget Details area, define the widget attributes.

   • Name: widget name
   • Title: widget title
   • Design file name: design file created in the business intelligence tools

   You can create a design file in the Report Design perspective, which is a standard BIRT perspective. For further information, refer to the BIRT documentation.

   • Default width: default widget width when visualized on the dashboard
   • Default height: default widget height when visualized on the dashboard
   • Refresh rate: period of data refresh
   • Performers: set of roles or performers who have the access rights to the widget
   • Description: free text

Note: To create a widget that depends on data about the logged-in user, define the parameter currentUserLogin of the type String on the widget definition and set as hidden. When the widget is displayed, the parameter is automatically filled with the login data of the person currently logged in the Business Activity Monitor.

Business Activity Monitor

Business Activity Monitor is a web-based dashboard application for the visualization of reports and widgets with metrics. The application enables you to work with monitored data (KPIs) in real time.

It displays metrics in reports or widgets on a dashboard. Note that both reports and widgets are defined as model resources.

The web application is accessible from http://<LSPS_DOMAIN>/lsps-monitoring, when running on localhost http://localhost:8080/lsps-monitoring.

The Business Activity Monitor contains by default the following:

• Dashboard tab is a private tab displayed by default. It is located in the area where all dashboard tabs, that is, both the private and common tabs are open.
• Reports tab contains a list of available reports.
• Common tabs contains a list of common tabs.

Note that you can delete the default private Dashboard tab and create an arbitrary number of private tabs. However, at least one dashboard tab must be available.

Business Activity Monitor with multiple common and public tabs

The Business Activity Monitoring application is supported on the following browsers:

• Google Chrome 23 and newer
• Mozilla Firefox 17 and newer
• Internet Explorer 8 and newer
• Safari 6 and newer

Customizing Dashboard

The Business Activity Monitor is locked by default to prevent accidental changes. To change the properties and content of dashboard tabs, click the Edit Dashboard button to enable editing of all dashboard tabs.

To save any changes made to the particular dashboard tab, click the Save Dashboard Changes ( ) button. To revert all changes on the dashboard tab since unlocking, click the Revert Dashboard Changes button ( ) button.

To lock the dashboard tab, click the Cancel Dashboard ( ) button.

Dashboard Tabs

The Business Activity Monitor dashboard is divided in tabs; each tab contains its set of widgets.

Depending on the accessibility of tabs, the application can contain two types of dashboard tabs:

• A private tab can be created by the currently logged-in user and is visible only to this user.
• A common tab can be created by a user with administration rights and is visible to multiple users.

Private Tabs

Any user of the Business Activity Monitor can create their private tabs with custom widgets and tab properties. These tabs cannot be displayed by other users.

Adding and Removing Private Tabs

Before you can add or remove private tabs, unlock the dashboard for editing.

To add a private tab, click the Add New Dashboard Tab (+) next to the tabs labels. To remove a private tab, click the Delete ( ) in the label of the tab.

Common Tabs

A common tab is a dashboard tab available to a set of users (for information on user management, refer to the chapter Persons in the Process Design Suite User Guide).

To be able to create common dashboards, you need to have the respective security rights.

Defining Common Tabs

A user with administration rights can create common tabs that are available in the Common Tabs of a group of users. Such a user must have the respective security role assigned.

To create a common tab, do the following:

1. Display the Common tabs tab.
2. Click the Add New Dashboard Tab link and define the tab configuration.
3. Click the Close button.
4. Click the Save button to confirm the creation of the common tab.

You can manage and delete the common tabs on the Common tabs tab.

Display the tab by clicking its name in the Show hidden common tabs menu ( ) and insert the required widgets.

Hiding and Showing Common Tabs

The logged-in user has the right to view one or more common tabs.

To hide and re-display a common tab, do the following:

1. Unlock the dashboard.
2. Click on the common tab you want to hide.
3. Click the Delete ( ) button in the tab label.
4. To display a hidden common tab, click its name in the Show hidden common tabs menu ( ).
5. Lock the dashboard.

Renaming Tabs

To change the label of a displayed tab, make sure the dashboard is unlocked, click the tab label, enter the new name, and press Enter.

Rearranging Tabs

To rearrange the displayed tabs, drag-and-drop the tabs by the Drag to reorder dashboard tabs ( ) button.