Common navigation, filtering and sorting options in WOCU
During the asset monitoring process, WOCU extracts and manages a large amount of data, useful for defining statuses, detecting incidents, generating reports, etc. This can result in information-heavy views or very extensive inventories and reports. So WOCU provides help functionalities during navigation, for constant guidance to the user, and options for filtering and sorting elements, useful for easy viewing, reading and analysis of data.
Note
All the options explained below perform mere querying, filtering and displaying of items without affecting the operation of any of them.
Each of the available functionalities is described below:
Search
The search bar is mainly located on screens that integrate panels and asset inventories (together with their corresponding data). It allows you to filter the information displayed and thus be able to visualise the data more easily in those cases where there are many elements.
This functionality allows a fairly free search, as it works with the first characters of the search term, even with several characters in between or at the end.
The search can be used to perform simple filters with items that have a similar name or the same initials. It will even display items that contain some information that matches the text string entered, so the search and filtering possibilities are very broad. Finally, to eliminate the search, simply delete the characters entered in the bar.
It is easy to know if the current list or inventory view has any search applied, thanks to the text that exists (usually) next to the search box, as it informs about the number of results shown for a given search: Show x results of N (Show x results of 1).
Show entries
This functionality consists of a selectable menu that allows the user to choose between a 200, 500 and 1000 entry view. To select the number of items to be displayed per page, select one of the number of menu entries that is most convenient.
To the right of the drop-down is a box indicating the number of entries displayed in relation to the total number of entries in the inventory: “Showing 1 to n of N entries”. Thanks to this text, the user can easily check if there is a filter applied, verifying that the total number of entries is being displayed.
Note
This functionality is complemented by the search option (Search), which allows filtering of the selected elements and the pagination option that facilitates browsing and reading of the data displayed here.
Asset selection view
This functionality shall also act as a manager of selected assets in the following inventories:
Once several elements have been selected in the previous lists, clicking on the Show entries functionality will display the following window from where it is possible to edit the set of selected assets.
This selection view consists of the following elements:
1. Title: indicating the selected asset types: Hosts, Services, BP Hosts or BP Services.
2. Selection table: the following columns are distinguished:
a) Asset Type: indicates the typology of the selected asset.
b) Asset Name: indicates the name by which the asset is known in WOCU. For services, the host with which it is associated shall be included in brackets.
c) Deselect action: by clicking on the cross of any row, the corresponding asset will be removed from the table and automatically deselected from the inventory.
3. Deselection buttons by type of asset:
a) Deselect All Hosts: removes all hosts from the selection list.
b) Deselect All Services: removes all services from the selection list.
c) Deselect All BP Hosts: removes all Business Process Hosts from the selection list.
d) Deselect All BP Services: removes all Business Process Services from the selection list.
e) Deselect All Assets: deletes all assets leaving the selection table empty.
f) Done: to confirm the action.
Ordering of elements
WOCU allows sorting of the table entries according to increasing or decreasing order of each of the inventory fields or panels.
The selected field will be highlighted (the up or down arrow will indicate whether the order is increasing or decreasing respectively). Clicking on one of the fields will select it to set the order of the displayed entries. Clicking again on a selected field will change the order from increasing to decreasing or vice versa.
This function is very useful for sorting hosts according to status type, sorting reports according to creation date or hosts according to the date of the last check. Therefore, the possibilities of this functionality are very broad.
Pagination and inventory browsing
Depending on the configuration of the Show entries option and the Search filter, the items displayed in the inventories will be arranged on different pages. The set of pages can be accessed via a menu at the bottom right of the inventory. This functionality facilitates the reading and navigation of the data displayed in large inventories.
The paging menu highlights the page on which the user is currently located and allows the user to navigate through the rest of the pages, from the following options:
First: go to the first of the inventory pages.
Previous: return to the previous page of the inventory.
Page number: allows you to jump to this page. If there are many landing pages, the first five pages and the last of the existing pages will be displayed first. Moving on within the target pages, the page before and after the current page (the page number in the box) as well as the first and the last of the target pages will be displayed. The ellipses (”…”) indicate in these cases the existence of further target pages outside the displayed range.
Next: advance to the next page of the inventory.
Last: Go to the last of the inventory pages.
Top button
An additional inventory display aid is the dynamic back to top button. When accessing listings with many entries and scrolling down the data, this button will appear at the bottom right. This option allows the user to return with a single click of the button to the top of the inventory without the need to scroll with the mouse.
Show/hide panels and filters
WOCU offers the option to show or hide filters and panels, leaving more space for viewing and reading the data and eliminating distractions for the user. This action is located at the top right of panels and views. Simply click on the icon and the panel or filters will be displayed or hidden.
It can be represented in different ways:
Identified by the icon of converging arrows when filters are visible, and arrows pointing to the ends when they are hidden.
Identified by a plus sign when the panel is hidden, and a minus sign when it is visible.
Data refresh
This option refreshes the data displayed on the screen. Clicking on the circular arrows icon will force an immediate refresh without waiting for the refresh programmed in User Preferences. In this way a real time view of data is obtained.
