Changes related to dashboards
Changes related to dashboards are described below. For information about migrating dashboards, see the migration notes at the end of these descriptions.
Tomcat no longer bundled with Apama
The Tomcat application server and Tomcat-specific features have been removed from Apama.
Named Data Server support
Advanced users can now associate non-default Data Servers with specific attachments and commands. This provides additional scalability by allowing loads to be distributed among multiple servers. It is particularly useful for Display Server deployments. By deploying one or more Data Servers behind a Display Server, the labor of display building can be separated from the labor of data handling. The Display Server can be dedicated to building displays, while the overhead of data-handling is offloaded to Data Servers. For more information, see
Working with multiple Data Servers.
Dashboard deployment changes
The Deploy/Publish wizard has been streamlined and simplified. For more information, see
Using the Deployment Configuration editor and .
Dashboard message localization support
For thin-client (Display Server) deployments, you can now localize the text displayed in pop-up menus, login windows, status windows, and various error messages. For more information, see
Localizing dashboard messages.
Dashboard attachment and command changes
The command and attachment dialogs now display the scenario ID for selection, not the display name. This resolves ambiguity if two scenarios or DataViews have the same display name. This change is backwards compatible.
New dashboards panels options
The dashboards panels layout definition file, panels.ini, has been enhanced to provide more flexibility when creating multi-panel displays. This includes the ability to have resizeable panels.
Enhanced tree control
The tree control lets you create a rich and compact visual presentation of hierarchical data, often in a multi-panel application for display navigation. With Apama 5.0, the tree control also lets you use this type of display when the number of nodes in the tree is dynamically changing or when the state of a node changes. For more information, see Building Dashboard Clients.
Fx objects removed
Builder's Fx tab has been removed. You must eliminate Fx objects from any dashboards that use them. In most cases replacement visualizations are available for Fx objects.
Data Server status table change
The Data Server status table now contains an additional column,
Config, that contains a string identifying the Data Server version. See
Dashboard data tables.
New and changed dashboard functions
The functions listed below have been added or changed. For more information, see the Dashboard Function Reference.
Concatenate Columns
Delta And Rate Rows
Ensure Columns
Ensure Timestamp Column
Format Table Columns
Group By Time
Group By Time And Unique Values
Group By Unique Values
Join Outer
Rename Columns
Table Contains Values
Validate Substitutions
New Custom command
The new set substitution command provides a way to set substitution values without going through a drilldown (via the original Drill Down or Set Substitution system command).
To use this command, right click the command property and select System. In the Define System Command dialog, in the Command Type combination box, select Execute Custom Command. Type Apama_SetSub1.0 in the Command Name: text box.
In the Command Value: field, enter the string:
Sub=Value[;Sub=Value...]
For example, to set $MySub1 to value1 and $MySub2 to value2, enter this command value:
MySub1=value1;MySub2=value2
Note that the $ is removed from the substitution name.
New and changed visualization objects
The following visualization objects have been added or changed:
Button control: The
borderWidth property has been removed.
Indicator objects: All of the indicators previously on the
Indicators tab of the Object Palette have been replaced with the following four new indicators:
obj_ind_discrete (supports three discrete comparisons),
obj_ind_limits (supports two high and two low thresholds),
obj_ind_multi (supports an unlimited number of comparison values; for each comparison, you can specify whether the value property must be equal to, not equal to, greater than, or less than the comparison value),
obj_ind_panel (a panel of three indicator lights; each indicator light supports a discrete comparison). For all indicators, attach the value property to data, and set up your comparisons using the properties in the
Alert category. The old indicators in existing displays will continue to work as they did before.
Objects with
image properties: Builder now includes a library of images that you can use on any object that supports images. You can also define a custom image library. To access the images, edit the
image property on an object. Instead of entering an image name, click on the
... button, which brings up a dialog with a tree on the left. A preview of the selected image appears in the pane to the right. Note that you can still simply type your image name into the
image property field instead of using the dialog. You can access the same image editor dialog from the
Image Name field in the
Background Properties dialog, as well as when editing images in the
filterProperties property on the table object.
Text entry field, text area, and password field: These objects have been enhanced so that when their value is longer than the control can display, the beginning of the string is displayed instead of the end. (This was already true for Display Server (thin client) deployments; the enhancement applies to other Web-base deployments, as well as Viewer and Builder.)
Numeric text entry controls: These objects have been enhanced to support a new validation option for blank entries. To enable this feature, select the
validateBlankValuesFlag. If selected and the user enters a blank string, the
actionCommand will not execute and the
invalidInputVarToSet and
invalidInputMsgVarToSet will be updated to indicate an invalid entry.
Slider control: A new property,
axisDirection, allows you to set the axis direction of the scale to the following:
Bottom to Top (vertical orientation with the minimum on the bottom and the maximum on top),
Left to Right (horizontal orientation with the minimum on the left and the maximum on the right),
Top to Bottom (vertical orientation with the minimum on the top and the maximum on the bottom), and
Right to Left (horizontal orientation with the minimum on the right and the maximum on the left). Another new property,
fgColor, sets the tick mark color. You can either select a color or accept the default color. The
fgColor is only applied when the control is enabled, so tick marks on sliders in the main Builder window will not use it (preview your display to see the
fgColor applied). This change does not apply to Display Server (thin client) deployments, whose sliders do not have tick marks.
Date chooser control: This is enhanced to support three new properties:
fgColor (the font color of the text entry area; default is black),
validColor (the font color to use while editing in the text entry area if the entered value is using the correct format; default is green), and
invalidColor (the font color used during and after editing in the text entry area if the entered value is not using the correct format; default is red).
validColor and
invalidColor are not supported in Display Server (thin client) deployments.
MIGRATION NOTES
The Dashboard Builder's Fx tab has been removed and Fx widgets are no longer available. You need to replace Fx objects in Apama project dashboards with equivalent visualization objects. Fx widgets in existing dashboard files will be ignored by dashboard processes.
Apama installations no longer include the Apache Tomcat application server. Apama dashboards can be deployed to these supported application server containers:
Apache Tomcat
WebSphere
WebLogic
For an up-to-date listing of supported application servers, see the Software AG Knowledge Center in Empower at
https://empower.softwareag.com/KnowledgeCenter/default.asp.
The Apama Web "Login" and "Menu" applications have been removed. For supported application servers, this logic needs to be implemented by the user.
