How do I add timeframes to dashboards?

What are timeframes?

To specify timeframes at the dashboard level and apply these to all relevant dashlets as you navigate around the UI

To exclude a dashlet from the timeframe that you have applied in the UI

To override the dashboard timeframe from the UI on a per-dashlet basis

To configure default timeframe values from the command line

What are timeframes?

From ENA v17.0 P05 upwards, there are three ways in which you can specify the timeframes for which data is displayed in your dashlets:

• at the time of building and creating your custom dashboards (which becomes the default for timeframe for that dashboard).
• in the UI, so that the timeframe follows you around as you navigate from dashboard to dashboard. This means you will not need to re-enter the timeframe value each time you change context or dashboard.
• on a per-dashlet basis in the UI. This overrides the dashboard timeframe, which means you can have individual dashlets reporting on different timeframes.

Note, timeframes only apply to specific dashlets - please see below for further details.

To specify timeframes at the dashboard level and apply these to all relevant dashlets as you navigate around the UI:

The timeframe field will be displayed in the top right of the browser on dashboards to which a timeframe is appropriate, i.e. if the dashboard contains at least one dashlet for which a timeframe can be applied, then the timeframe will be displayed in the top right of the browser.

1. Navigate to a dashboard containing at least one dashlet for which timeframes are applicable.
2. Click the timeframe. When you do so, all of the relevant dashlets in the dashboard for which the timeframe is applicable will be highlighted with a blue border.
   
   
   
   
3. Once you have clicked the timeframe, a dropdown menu of suggested timeframes will appear. Click the suggested timeframe you want from the list and it will be automatically applied, or click Custom to specify your own custom timeframe. Once you have specified your custom timeframe, click Apply and it will be applied.
   • You can set the custom timeframe to be across a previous range of time, between two time specified timeframes, or simply for all data.

Once you have specified a timeframe, it will apply to all relevant dashboards as you navigate through the UI until one of the following:

• you log out (and therefore end your session).
• you navigate back to a point in your browsing history where a different timeframe value was set.
• you manually change the value of the timeframe again. 

You can apply timeframes to the following dashlets:

• Chart dashlet
• Events List dashlet
• Flow Data dashlet
• Incidents List dashlet
• Key Info dashlet
• NBAR Application Traffic dashlet
• NBAR Blacklisted Traffic dashlet
• NBAR In/Out Coverage dashlet
• NBAR Port Info dashlet
• NBAR TopN Summary dashlet
• Service Summary dashlet
• Table dashlet
• TopN Summary dashlet
• Traceroute dashlet

To exclude a dashlet from the timeframe that you have applied in the UI:

It is possible to exclude individual dashlets from the timeframe that you have applied in the UI. This means that these individual dashlets will instead follow their default timeframes for that dashboard.

1. Navigate to the dashlet that you want to exclude from the timeframe and click the Overflow Menu.
2. Click Change Time Frame. The Set Time Frame form will slide in on the right.
   
   
   
   
3. Switch the Use Configured Timeline field from On to Off.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Done in the top right of the form to save your change, otherwise click Cancel.

To override the dashboard timeframe from the UI on a per-dashlet basis:

This follows the same method as excluding a dashlet from the timeframe that you have applied in the UI:

1. Navigate to the dashlet that you want to exclude from the dashboard timeframe and click the Overflow Menu.
2. Click Change Time Frame. The Set Time Frame form will slide in on the right.
3. Switch the Use Configured Timeline field from On to Off.
4. The fields below will now become editable.
   
   
   
   
5. Specify the type of timeframe you want to apply in the Time Frame field, either Previous, Range or All Data. If you select Previous or Range, you can then specify the times (/and dates).
6. Click Done in the top right of the form to save your change, otherwise click Cancel.

To configure default timeframe values from the command line:

The default out-of-the-box timeframe value is Last 24hrs. To change this from the command line to Last 12hrs, for example, you will need to edit the entuity.cfg file (in the Entuity etc directory) and then restart Entuity:

1. In the entuity.cfg file, add a section labelled [Dashboards] if it does not already exist.
2. Under this section, add the appropriate line for the parameter being changed, in this case:
   

   [Dashboards]
   parameterDefault.timeFrame=mode=PREVIOUS;previousUnit=HOURS;previousAmount=12

This default is the value that is applied and you will see after initial login when you have not set a custom value in the dashboard UI.