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Action Tracker

Action Tracker is a self-contained alerting application and is used by Stream for KX.

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Action Tracker with horizontal layout

Basics

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Name
A name for the component provided by the user.
Data Connection
Streaming Data Connection

A connection

Data connection

The connection is a very specific alert gateway process, querying real-time and historical alerts. Alerts are published into a fixed table dxATAlert and the displayed table is kept in dxATItemCurrent. A Data Source is not needed as all modification of the view lies within Dashboards.

You can tick/untick the visible columns in the Style editor. There are some miscellaneous columns (tag1, tag2, etc.) that you can populate freely and then change the column header within Dashboards if you want more customised information in your alert table.

Layout split
Vertical or Horizontal
Show Row Count

Displays number of data rows

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Custom Layout

Select display columns from available data columns. Hidden columns are excluded from the list of available columns.

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Visual Notifications
Check for pop-up notification when new item added
Audio Notifications
Check for aural notification when new item added
Polling Interval (sec)
Set time check for new items
Max Rows
Set maximum display rows of items; default value of "0" shows all rows
Transitions Display Type

Set the way transitions are displayed

  • Grouped

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  • Buttons

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  • Popup

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Default Transition
Default Resolution
Value to be selected (if available) when selecting transition
Case Management

When enabled, allows users create an action case; actions are defined by Action Type Cases

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Users can then configure the individual action

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Case configuration

Ensure cases are specified in Action Type Cases

Preselected Action Type
Selected Action Type value when creating a case
Cases Display Type

Sets the way alerts and cases are displayed

  • Combined - Data Grid displays both alerts and cases.

  • Tabs - Alerts and cases are displayed in separate tabs. When selected, the Selected Tab option will be available.

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Selected Tab

Determines the default Tab to be displayed when the Action Tracker is launched. This property is only available when the Cases Display Type property is set to a value of Tabs.

  • Alerts - Displays Alerts tab when Action Tracker is launched. This is the default.

  • Cases - Displays Cases tab when Action Tracker is launched.

Columns

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User Defined

When checked, the selected column will remain in the Data Grid if the selected column variable is removed from the query. A user-defined query is effectively a ‘lock’ on the column

Watch out

If the User Defined column variable is missing in the query, the User Defined column will show as an empty column in the Data Grid

Data Field Name

A Data Source column or a wildcard column

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When using a wildcard, all dynamic columns derived from a query will use the wildcard column format. The wildcard can be used in conjunction with text headers; e.g. bid* for both bid and bid_update.

Select the Data Field Name from data columns in the Data Source query.

Additional columns can be added, including wildcard columns. If a wildcard is used, any undefined columns will adopt the properties of the wildcard column; e.g. data alignment, decimal precision etc.

Display Name
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Width (relative)

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Relative to the width of the Data Grid. The scale is contingent on the values of each column; for example, columns with a relative width of 20, 10, 5, 1 will scale at a column width of 55% (i.e. 20/(20+10+5+1)), 28%, 14% and 3%.

Relative columns will scale according to the browser size.

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Minimum Width (pixels)
Minimum width in pixels for a column. Columns with this set will scale according to browser size.
Text Align
Horizontal alignment of values within cells
Sortable

When checked, users clicking on a column header will toggle between ascending and descending sort.

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Format
Format for column data. If DateTime is selected, then either a Date Format or Time Format must also be selected.
Precision
The number of decimal places to display for numeric data
Hide Trailing Zeroes
When checked, suppresses the display of trailing zeroes
Currency Symbol
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Columns with Currency Symbol prefixes
Date and time formats

Where Format is DateTime, Date Format and/or Time Format specify the display format:

Date and  time formats Column with Date and Time formats
Date Format and Time Format combine to format a column of DateTime data

Negative Color
Define color for negative values
Highlight Changes
Highlight Change Duration
Show arrows on Change
On change in column cell value, upward changes will highlight green and/or an up arrow, down in red and/or down arrow.
Min Value Color

A color for a border highlight around the lowest value in the column

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Max Value Color

A color for a border highlight around the highest value in the column

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Range Color

A color to be applied as a value gradient across all cells in a column

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Percentage Color

A color to be applied as a mini-bar, where Format is Percentage

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View State Parameters as colors

Any of Min Color, Max Color, Range Color and Percentage Color can be a View State Parameter.

To assign a View State Parameter, roll over the end of the input bar until Screenshot appears, then click to assign.

Read Only
When checked, the column cannot be edited
Template
Templates
Hidden

When checked, hides column

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Selection & Routing

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Item ID

A View State Parameter of type list; supports multiple item selection in tabs.

New Action Tracker Instance

Ensure view state parameter is assigned.

Alert ID

A View State Parameter of type GUID; populated with selected event content from Alerts dialog.

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New Action Tracker Instance

Ensure view state parameter is assigned.

Follow Selected Value
Focuses grid selection to ItemID

Action

Actions

File Export

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Show Export CSV Button
When checked, enables export of content as CSV
Show Export Excel Button
When checked, enables export of content in Excel format
Filename
Filename for export of CSV/Excel files

Filters

This defines which of the Action Tracker data columns (visible and hidden) are available to the user in Search. Values can be mapped to View State Parameters.

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Filter

Define the characteristics for each search filter

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Name
Selected Action Tracker data column
Value
Set value; for example, if using time use "lastTime". Can be linked to a View State Parameter
Hidden
Filter not available to user
Filter Type

Sets the input; Text, Dropdown and Data Source

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If using a Data Source remember to assign Value and Text variables for the dropdown selection

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Multi-select
Allows for multiple input selections

History

Displays historical alerts in separate panel

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Show History
When checked, enables historical panel
Row Height
Set the row height
Start Date
End Date
Date range to be applied at startup, use rolling View State Parameter of type Date (e.g. T-1)

Overrides

Filters applied to the main grid are also by default applied to the historical grid. This section helps to override those filters.

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Name
Selected Action Tracker data column of filter to override
Value

Set value; for example, keep value empty for "Assignee" to not apply the filter for assignee column (that is used in main grid).

Value can be linked to a View State Parameter ("Tag1"-value can be bound to a list of values selected and set via "Actions" in main grid)

Hidden
Filter override not displayed

Highlight Rules

Used to apply color updates to notify users of changes in grid values

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Highlight rules in operation

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Name
Name of the rule
Target
The grid column to which the rule will apply. It can be any column; it does not have to be the Condition Source
Condition

Data from the Condition Source (a Data Source column) is tested with the Condition Operator against the Condition Value – typically previous value.

The Condition Operator may be a numeric comparison, but can also test for strings in text values.

Color
The cell text color when the Condition rule is true
Background Color
The cell background color when the Condition rule is true
Border Color
The cell border-color when the Condition rule is true
Icon
An icon to appear when rule is true
Icon Color
The color for the icon (if used) when rule is true

Action Type Cases

Users can create individual actions, which can be (optionally) associated/linked with other actions to form a case. Action creation requires Case Management in Basics to be enabled. The Case Management UI calls dxATCreateItem with 3 parameters, these are:

  1. The Action Tracker
  2. Action Tracker Parameter Dictionary.
  3. Action Tracker Payload Dictionary (i.e. any new columns added to the properties section)

    Sample Dictionary Parameters

    If the following parameters are specified in the UI: description, sym, alertkey, source, alertClass, tag1, tag2 and tag10, then the dictionary key will look like:

    q `sym`alertkey`source`description`alertClass`tag1`tag2`tag10

Create a Case

  • Select available Action Type from dropdown. This is a list of available Action Trackers and is the only required parameter

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Standard editable actions are: description sym alertkey source alertClass, but these are not required parameters.

  • Add each supported Action Type for a case. More than one Action Tracker can be added

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  • Click Screenshot to add an action

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  • Additional properties can be added to a case; added properties will appear in the case property panel.

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New column items are added to dxATAlert.

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  • Tags can be used and renamed in Dashboard Column Properties

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  • View action (use filters if necessary); it will have it's own unique ID.

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  • An option to link the created action with other actions is available as a tab

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Linking Actions

Actions can only be linked when Case Management in Basics is enabled, otherwise this panel will be hidden.

  • When adding a link, select from Link type and Items (Action ID). Available link options are relates to, derives to, is derived from, is dependent to, depends on, is blocked by, blocks, duplicates, is duplicated by

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Linked actions can be viewed with a double-click. This will also open a tab for linked actions.

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  • All linking activity is recorded in the Activity tab

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Payload

Configure the content and layout of the payload panel

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Allow Payload Editing

When checked, allows users to edit the details of the Alert:

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Extras Template

Apply HTML customizations with Handlebar helpers; for example:

<div><span>{{payload.breachLevel}}</span><span>{{payload.sym}}</span></div>

Templates

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Extras Position
Select from Top, Bottom

Hidden Properties

Properties to hide (hidden properties remain available in the template)

Tabs

Configure which tabs are active and their order. Supported options are Properties, Activity, Links and one custom/user-defined tab. The first tab on the list is opened by default.
Custom Tab Template

Template for custom tab

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Style, Format, Margins

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Alert Title Template
Alert Title Templ. (Case)
Alert Details Template
Alert Details Templ. (Case)
Alert Dialog Template
Alert Dialog Templ. (Case)
HTML Templates for Alert Title, Alert Details and Alert Dialog, and Handlebar helpers to map data into the template.

The Action Tracker has the following HandleBars helper function:

formatTimeStamps

Finds all kdb timestamps in a given string and converts them to a different format. If the date format parameter is omitted, the default conversion format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS. The resulting value outputs the date and time based on the timezone setting in the Dashboard.

Parameters:

  • string {String}: The string containing kdb timestamps.
  • date format {String}: Optional. The date format used for conversion. Refer to moment for available formats.

Returns {String}: The string containing the converted date formats

Example:

{{formatTimeStamps "Sample date: 2019.12.31D15:30:11.000000000" "MM-DD-YYYY HH:mm:ss.SS"}}
<!-- results in:  "Sample date: 12-31-2019 15:30:11.00" if timezone is set to UTC --> 
<!-- results in:  "Sample date: 12-31-2019 10:30:11.00" if timezone is set to New York --> 
<!-- results in:  "Sample date: 01-01-2020 00:30:11.00" if timezone is set to Tokyo -->
Activity Character Limit

Specify character limit in activity logs record.

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Style for common style settings

Templates for configuring property panels

Virus scanning

Files uploaded via the Upload component, and attachments uploaded via the Action Tracker, may be screened for viruses.

Two prerequisites for virus scanning:

  1. ClamAV installed on the appserver box with up-to-date definitions.
  2. Virus scanning enabled in delta.profile as follows:

    bash DELTAAPPSERVER_VIRUS_SCAN_ENABLED=true

    Restart the appserver to pick up any changes to the above environment variable.

Confirm virus scanning is enabled

Check the running Tomcat process: bash $ using ps -ef | grep tomcat and look for bash -DdeltaAppServerVirusScanEnabled=true or bash -DdeltaAppServerVirusScanEnabled=false

With virus scanning enabled, uploaded files will automatically be scanned and, if they fail the virus check, the upload is aborted and an error reported on the dashboard.