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 |
|
|
Either word in a topic |
|
|
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
|
|
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
|
A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
|
Text Value Widgets
Use the Text Value widget to display values or to color text. Text attributes like font, alignment, and rotation are not updated.
For example, you could use the text value widget to display the current temperature in your store in New York City. As temperature measurements arrive, the number changes reflecting the current temperature measured in the store. Additionally, you could configure the text value widget to change the color of the value displayed depending on the current temperature:
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

Select one or more data fields in the data that BVD received through the data channel to display in your widget.

Sparkline, line, and area charts as well as status image and text value widgets support only one data field.
For single data fields, BVD assumes that the data includes the data field value
and uses the values received for value
in the widget.
Default: value

Multiple area, bar, and donut charts support multiple data fields. Select a data field for each area, bar, or slice in the chart. If you select more than four data fields, BVD automatically chooses the colors of the additional fields.
Donut charts only. If you select only one data field for a donut chart, a second one will be automatically generated based on the max value. For details, see Max Value.
Example Donut Chart
The donut chart in the OMi sample dashboard displays the five data fields representing the number of events per severity, resulting in a donut with five slices:

Use the Number Format property to format or manipulate the values displayed below the charts.
Number format works as documented here: http://numeraljs.com/
Number format respects the current locale for formatting.
Example
'$0,0.00'
This example changes the number 1000.234 to the string $1,000.23.

The Coloring Rule property enables you to determine the color to display depending on the outcome of a rule.
You can add multiple coloring rules separated by semicolons:
Rule format: <rule>;<rule>;...
Coloring rules can contain a value only; for example, the value #008000
in a coloring rule colors the widget green. Rules can also contain conditions that must be matched; for example, #008000:temperature<60
colors a widget green when the value of the data field temperature
is less than 60.
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.
Coloring rules have the following format:
<color>[:<property><operator><value>]
<color>
- RGB color code; for example,
#000000
. <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
#AABBCC:temperature<60;#7FFF00:temperature<30;#00ff00
If the value of the data field temperature
is less than 60, the color #AABBCC is used. If the value is less than 30, the color #7FFF00 is used. In all other cases, #00ff00 is used as the color.

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.