Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.

Search for | Example | Results |
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A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |

Search for | Operator | Example |
---|---|---|
Two or more words in the same topic |
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Either word in a topic |
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Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
|
A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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Status Image Widgets
Use the Status Image widget to display an image depending on the value received for the Status Field or depending on a rule.
The Status Image shape is a group of shapes. Each shape in the group is an image, and each image has the shape data Switch Value defined. For example, the "error" image in the BVD Status Image shape has the Switch Value "red". BVD then selects the image to display depending on the values received in the data channel. You can choose the data field to use as input by selecting it in the Status Field (default: status
), or you can define an image selection rule. For example, if the result of the image selection rule is "red", the "error" image is displayed.
You can take a look at the Status Image shape in Visio by right-clicking the shape and selecting Group > Open Status Image.
Caution Never ungroup the Status Image shape.
The shape consists of the following four images:
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-
Make sure Visio is running in developer mode:
File > Options > Advanced > Run in developer mode
-
Drag the BVD Status Image shape to your drawing.
-
Right-click the Status Image shape and select Group > Open Status Image.
You are now inside the shape. You can start editing, deleting, or adding shapes as required.
-
If you add a new shape, you must add the shape data Switch Value to the shape:
-
Right-click the added shape and select Data > Define Shape Data.
-
Add a property with the name
opr_switch_value
of the typeString
. -
Set the value of the property to a value of the Status Field or one that can be selected by an Image Selection Rule.
-
After uploading the exported SVG file to BVD, select the data channel for your Status Image widget. Then either select a data field for the Status Field property or configure an image selection rule. You also need to set a default value for situations when no value is available or the value is not one of the defined switch values.
Widget properties:

The Data Channel property enables you to select the data stream over which you want to feed data into the widget. Before you can select a data stream, you must send data to BVD, addressed to the data channel you want to select for your widget.
Example
To show the rise and fall of the temperature in your store in New York City, select the following data channel for your widget:
The data received includes the following:
type: Temperature
element: Monitor
value: 20.9 status: #008000

The Status Field property enables you to select a data field in the received data that contains a switch value for the Status Image widget.
By default, BVD assumes that the data includes the data field status
and uses the values received for status
to update the color.
Note Image selection rules override the values received for the Status Field.
Default value: status
(providing switch values)
Example
The temperature data BVD is receiving from your New York City store already happens to include the status
data field, so you do not need to select it. Otherwise select the data field that contains your switch values.

The value set in Default Value is used when the data in the Status data field is empty or is not one of the defined switch values. For example, if status: blue
or if status: <empty>
, then the selected default value will be used by the Status Image widget.
You can only select one of the switch values defined in the Status Image widget.
The switch values of the BVD default Status Image widget are grey, red, green, and yellow.
Default: grey

The Image Selection Rule property enables you to determine the image to display depending on the outcome of a rule.
Note Image selection rules override the values received for the Status Field.
You can add multiple rules separated by semicolons:
Rule format: <rule>;<rule>;...
Rules can contain a value only; for example, the value green
in an image selection rule selects the switch value green
. Rules can also contain conditions that must be matched; for example, green:statusColor==verde
selects the switch value green
when the value of the data field statusColor
is verde
.
Rules are evaluated from left to right. When one condition is matched, no additional rules will be evaluated. If no rule matches, the default is applied; therefore, when you define a set of rules, always insert the default as the last rule.
Image selection rules have the following format:
<switch value>[:<property><operator><value>]
<switch value>
- Switch value assigned to an image in the Status Image shape. The switch values of the default Status Image shape are
green
,yellow
,red
, andgrey
. <property>
- The name of the data property to use to calculate the color.
<operator>
- The operation that is used to compare the current value of the property with the given value. For a list of operators, see Rule Operators.
<value>
- The value the operator works on.
Example
green:statusColor==verde;yellow:statusColor==amarillo;red:statusColor==rojo;grey
If the value of the data field statusColor is verde
, the image with the switch value green
is selected. The value amarillo
selects the image yellow
, rojo
selects red
, and the image grey
is displayed in all other cases.

The Visibility Rule property enables you show or hide the widget based on the outcome of a rule.
Tip You can also use the Status Visible Group widget to show or hide a widget. Use the group widget when you want to show or hide non-BVD shapes, or to show or hide a large number of shapes. Then it is easier to group the shapes with the Status Visible Group and set the visibility rule in the group widget. See also Status Visible Group.
Visibility rules have the following format:
<property><operator><value>
<property>
- The name of the data property to use to calculate the visibility.
<operator>
- The operation that is used to compare the current value of the property with the given value. For a list of operators, see Rule Operators.
<value>
- The value the operator works on.
Example
errors>=10
If the value of the data field errors
is greater than or equal to ten, the widget is shown in the dashboard. In all other cases, the widget is hidden.

The Hyperlink property enables you to link a widget to another dashboard or to a URL. When a user then clicks the widget, the linked dashboard or URL opens. Linked dashboards open in the current browser window, while external URLs open in a new window.
You can add variables to the URL in order to link widgets to specific content based on the data channel. Use the values assigned to the data fields, or use the variables from a dashboard template. You can also combine both types of variables in one URL.

Use the data fields of your received data as variables in the URL. Specify the data field names as variables. The data field names are replaced with their associated values when the dashboard is viewed. You can add data field variables to the URL in the format #{dataField_name}
.
https://example.com/#{dataField_name}
When the value associated with the variable changes, the URL changes accordingly.
Tip You can specify only the data field name, for example #{url}
, if the data field has a complete URL as value, for example https://example.com
.
Example
A company wants to link a widget to their website, searching for the host name specified in the data channel:
east
Host A
CPU load
NYC
They specify the following URL, which later replaces the query value with the value of the dimension host
:
https://example.com/q=#{host}
When viewing the dashboard, the dimension host
is replaced with its assigned value in the URL:https://example.com/q=Host+A
If the variable is not defined, the variable expression in the URL is replaced with an empty string.

You can add variables from dashboard templates to the URL. Variables are replaced with their assigned value when an instance is viewed. You can add variables to the URL in the format ${variable}
.
Example
A company uses a URL in a dashboard template to show the floor plan of their company location. They use different instances for each location and want to show the floor plan specific to each location.
The following URL replaces the query value with the value of the variable location
that is assigned to the instance:
https://example.com/office-locations/floor-plans?site=${location}
When viewing the instance with the assigned value Atlanta
, the floor plan for the company location in Atlanta is shown. The location
variable is replaced with Atlanta
in the URL: https://example.com/office-locations/floor-plans?site=Atlanta
If the variable is not defined or the template is converted back into a dashboard, the variable expression in the URL is replaced with an empty string.
For more information on templates and variables, see Manage templates.