# Using the Telemetry Console Extension

# Overview of the Telemetry Console Extension

The Telemetry Console Extension provides a set of visual tools you can use to directly manipulate objects to display telemetry information about configured Edge Server instances and RFID devices. The following sections provide a high level overview of its features and functionality:

- Displaying the Telemetry Console Extension
- Scope of the Telemetry Information Displayed
- Two Main Panels
- View Panel Overview
- Tabs Panel Overview
- Toolbar and Status Bar Overview
- Working with On-Screen Elements
- Displaying Tooltips for Controls, Views, Graphs, and Charts
- Creating Views, Graphs, and Charts: Main Steps
- Alternative Ways to Manipulate Objects

## Displaying the Telemetry Console Extension

When you launch the Edge Server Administration Console, the Console appears with three tabs, RFID Console, Alerts, and Telemetry, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1 Telemetry Console Extension Tab

By default, the RFID Console is initially selected on login, which shows the standard Edge Server Administration Console. Select Telemetry to display the Console extension.

These tabs are always present, so you can easily move back and forth between the primary Edge Server Administration Console pages and the Telemetry Console Extension.

Note: | All Telemetry Console Extension functionality occurs in the context of a Java applet. Each time you select the Telemetry tab, the applet is loaded.

Note: | When you select the RFID Console tab, the applet is unloaded, and you are returned to the Edge Server Administration Console context that existed before you displayed the Telemetry Console Extension. All activity related to the applet and the Telemetry Console Extension is terminated; for example, data collection stops.

## Scope of the Telemetry Information Displayed

You can display telemetry data (metrics) about any running Edge Server instances and RFID devices that are configured in the Edge Server Administration Console.

You can display metrics from different Edge Servers or readers in telemetry charts; typically, charts should contain similar metrics. Thus, a single chart can provide a comprehensive view of the performance and behavior of various Edge Servers or RFID devices. For example, you can create a chart for `tagsInField` for all the antennas configured for a reader. If one antenna is reading fewer tags, it could be due to bad positioning or perhaps, because the antenna is not functioning properly.

For more information, see Available Edge Server and Reader Telemetry Metrics.

## Two Main Panels

The Telemetry Console Extension has two panels, the Tabs panel and the View panel, plus a toolbar and a status bar, as shown in Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2 Telemetry Console Extension Panels

## View Panel Overview

A view is a collection of one or more charts which display real-time telemetry data, as shown in Figure 2-3 and Figure 2-4. Views are displayed in the View panel, on the right side of the Telemetry Console Extension page. The View panel displays a single view at a time.

Figure 2-3 A View Containing One Chart

Figure 2-4 A View Containing Three Charts

Each chart contains a legend, labels, and controls for identifying and displaying the data. A chart can display data from one or more data sources. The data sources include one or more metrics from one or more Edge Servers and readers.

Each data source is displayed as a distinct graph, which shows the values of data points over a time span. The relationship between views, charts, and graphs is shown in Figure 2-5.

In the figure, the view contains two charts, "Antenna1" and "ReadCycleTime," based on metrics data from an RFID Edge Server (SiteID/EdgeServerID@localhost:6060). The "Antenna1" chart contains three metrics graphs, "tagsInField," "readCycles," and "readCycleTime." The "ReadCycleTime" chart contains one metrics graph, "readCycleTime."

Figure 2-5 Relationships of Graphs to Charts and of Charts to Views

Note: | A chart can include graphs based on data from one or more Edge Servers.

## Tabs Panel Overview

The Tabs panel, on the left side of the page, contains tabs with controls for creating and modifying the views and charts that are displayed in the View panel, on the right.

The Tabs panel contains three tabs:

- Views contains controls for creating, modifying, and deleting views. See Working with Views.
- Metrics contains a tree of all known runtime metric types, instances, and attributes for the selected Edge Server. You can drag attributes onto a view to create one or more graphs that show the state of those attributes over time. See Working with Metrics Charts and Graphs.
- Properties contains two subtabs:

- Use the controls in the Selected Item Properties subtab to change the appearance of individual graphs and charts. See Setting Chart Properties and Setting Individual Graph Properties.
- Use the controls in the Global Properties subtab to set polling and display properties that apply to all active views. See Working with Charts and Graphs.

## Toolbar and Status Bar Overview

The toolbar and status bar are available at all times, regardless of which tab is displayed in the Tabs panel.

The toolbar is displayed directly above the Tabs and View panels. The buttons and icon in the toolbar are described in Table 2-1.

Table 2-1 Buttons and Icon in the Toolbar
Button or Icon | Description | Action
| Focus context | Click to change focus between the Tabs panel and the View panel.
| Save all modified views | Click to save all custom views. If no views have been modified since they were last saved, this button is disabled and is colored gray.
| Discard all unsaved view changes | Click to discard all changes you made to all views since you last saved them.
| Stop all active views | Click to stop all active views.
| Delete | Click to delete selected graph or chart.
| Status of data polling | Displays the status of the data poller: Green indicates that data is being retrieved from the server with no problem. Yellow indicates that there are some problems retrieving data from the server. Red indicates that no data is being retrieved from the server.

The status bar at the bottom of the page displays information about the selected item.

## Working with On-Screen Elements

The following terms are used to describe on-screen elements.

- Controls are the individual items on Telemetry Console Extension pages that you use to perform actions or view information, including buttons, tabs, text fields, sliders, and such.
- An enabled control is a control that is available for use. Disabled controls appear gray, which means they are not available in the current context. For example, if no changes have been made to any views, the Save All button is disabled.
- An item can be selected, have focus, or both. This distinction may not be obvious when you use the mouse, but there are tasks that you perform using the keyboard where you must understand the distinction, as described in Selecting Items and Giving Focus to Items Using the Keyboard.

## Displaying Tooltips for Controls, Views, Graphs, and Charts

You can display short messages, called tooltips, about several types of objects in the Telemetry Console Extension, by positioning the mouse pointer over the objects. To display a tooltip for an item, move the mouse pointer to point to the object, and pause. Do not click the mouse. After a momentary delay, a short message about the item is displayed.

In all areas of the Telemetry Console Extension, you can display tooltips for standard controls such as buttons, text fields, scrollbars, and such, which tell you what each control does. But you can also display details about the objects you use to display information, as described in Working with Charts and Graphs.

## Creating Views, Graphs, and Charts: Main Steps

To create a view and add charts and graphs:

1. From the Views tab, create or select a view. See Working with Views.
2. Select the Metrics tab.
3. In the Metrics tab, select the Edge Server for which you want to display telemetry data.
4. Drag items from the Metrics tab in the left panel to the active view in the right panel. Drop an item into a blank area in the view to create a new chart and graph, or drop it into an existing chart to add a new graph to the other graphs in the chart. See Working with Charts and Graphs and Working with Metrics Charts and Graphs.
5. Optionally, select the Properties tab, and use the tools on that tab to change the appearance of graphs and charts, then click Apply Changes. See Working with Charts and Graphs.
6. If you created a custom view, save the view. See Working with Views.

## Alternative Ways to Manipulate Objects

The Telemetry Console Extension is a graphical user interface with visual tools for manipulating objects to display telemetry data. Alternative interaction techniques are available for accomplishing many activities:

- Drag and drop and other direct manipulation with the mouse. For example, you can drag a metric from the Tabs panel to the View panel to create a new chart. Another direct manipulation technique is to Shift-drag across a graph in a chart to zoom in on the data.
- Right-click, then select from a context menu. You can right-click attributes in the Metrics tab and charts in the View panel to display context menus, from which you can select a command to act on the selected object. For example, you can right-click a metric in the Tabs panel, then choose Create New Chart to incorporate it into a new chart.
- Keyboard interaction. You can use the Tab key, the arrow keys, and the Enter key to select different tools and objects on the page and then perform actions on them. For more information, see Keyboard Reference.