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Use basic mode to specify data

October 2, 2019 by Suzanne Chiles Leave a Comment

Use the chart builder’s basic mode to create a chart without having to learn or use a query language. Basic mode guides you through the process. You can choose the source of the raw data, apply filters, and use other techniques to narrow the scope of the data in the chart.

We’ll be working with the example use case described in Specify your data to illustrate how to create a chart in basic mode.

Show All  
[show details]Step 1: Select the source of the data for a chart
Begin by specifying what data you want to view in your chart. Click in the View a chart with box to select the event type, an attribute, and a function to perform on the attribute.

You can use the event data dictionary to view information about an event type and its attributes on a single page. To see a tooltip with information about an event or attribute, hover over any term that has a dotted line underneath it.

Here are the results of using the event data dictionary to specify the data:

  • Event type. The Transaction event type measures a variety of data that describes what happens while a user is on a website, such as that user clicking on a button on a page.
  • Attribute. The name attribute stores information on all transactions.
  • Function. Select the unique_count function to get a count of all the transactions that occurred during the time frame.

Basic mode now shows the selection:

use-basic-step-one.png

one.newrelic.com [external link] > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified)

As you specify data, the chart updates to show you the results from the data you specified.

Based on the information specified so far, you can see a chart that shows the total number of transactions during the default time frame of 30 minutes. This total includes all transactions, whether the transaction was completed successfully or had errors.

crop-404-single-line.png

one.newrelic.com [external link] > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified)
[show details]Step 2: Filter the data
Your next step is to determine which of those transactions got a 404 page not found error. If you look at the event data dictionary for the Transaction event type, you’ll find this event also includes an attribute called httpResponseCode.

  • Narrow the results to show only those transactions where a page not found error occurred. Use the Narrow results to box to create this filter: httpResponseCode = 404 .
  • Because you want to be able to see the names of the apps that are resulting in the 404 errors, you use the Facet by box to see the results by appName (which is also an attribute for the Transaction event type). Faceting by appName updates the chart to break down the total number of 404 errors by the application names. This lets you know which apps are experiencing 404 errors.

Your chart now shows the line chart with a line for each app, each with its own color.

crop-basic-example-chart.png

one.newrelic.com [external link] > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified) > (filters and facets applied)
[show details]Step 3: Adjust time range and limits
You decide to focus on the five apps with the most page not found errors. The default value for the Limit field is 10, meaning that your chart will show the ten most relevant returns. You change that value to 5.

Customer support told you that they had been getting calls about these errors for a little over two hours. You decide to change the time range from the last 30 minutes to the last three hours so that you can view the errors during the time when the customers were calling support.

Now that you have the data set so that you are seeing exactly what you need, you can turn your attention to the appearance of the chart.

[show details]Step 4: Customize the chart
Because you are more interested in the total number of errors than a timeline view, you change the chart type to a bar chart.

cb-example-404-2-bar.png

one.newrelic.com > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified) > (filters and facets applied) > (time range and limit customized) > (chart type customized)

When you’re finished with your chart, you can add it to a dashboard or share it.

This table contains notes about using basic mode.

Item Description
Prompts You can start typing directly in an empty box; a list of items that match the information you type will display.
You can also click on an empty box to view a list of all of the items that are appropriate for the field, based on your earlier choices.
Saving a basic mode data specification Every time you run a query, that query is saved in the My recent queries dropdown in advanced (NRQL) mode [external link] .
Events Basic mode only supports data for one event and attribute.

If you want to use more than one event and/or attribute, use the SELECT statement in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Shortcuts Basic mode contains shortcuts that can display more complex events and attributes that aren’t generally supported, as in this example (which shows the tooltip for the shortcut).

crop-shortcut-tooltip.png

Example of the Response time histogram shortcut, showing a tooltip.
Tooltips Any time you see a dotted line under a term, you can hover over that term to see a tooltip with an explanation of the term.
Narrow by You can use more than one Narrow by definition in basic mode filter; the conditions will be joined by AND.

The WHERE clause in advanced (NRQL) allows OR in addition to AND.

If your query was started using basic mode and if you make changes to that query using advanced (NRQL) mode, you cannot return to basic mode to edit that query.

Any additional changes may only be made in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Use your charts

October 2, 2019 by Suzanne Chiles Leave a Comment

Once created, you can customize the appearance of your chart to best present the data. You can share a chart in different formats and add a chart to a new or existing dashboard.

Change the appearance of your chart

When you run your query in advanced (NRQL) mode or view your chart while using basic mode to specify data, chart builder analyzes your data and applies a chart type that fits your data.

You can select another chart type that you prefer — your chart should tell the story that you want to communicate. Some chart types may not be available due to the nature of the data you specified.

To change the appearance of your chart, use the Chart type menu to the right of the current chart. Each type in the list has a tooltip with information about using that type.

crop-cb-chart-menu-tooltip.png
Example of the Chart type menu, showing a tooltip.

Share your chart

You can share your chart with others. You have several options that allow you to share a chart.

Get chart link

Available for all chart types.

Use Get chart link to create an embeddable chart link that can be added to a webpage.

crop-cb-save-embed-link.png
Example of embeddable link to a chart

Embeddables can be used in both internal and external websites.

If you create a web page that has a link to a chart or dashboard in regular text, search engines will use and present the link URL in search results. Those search results with the link URL would persist, even after the link or the entire page is removed from your website, potentially exposing proprietary information.

You can revoke an embeddable in Insights. When you revoke an embeddable, it is removed and will no longer appear on any web page.

To revoke an embeddable with Insights:

  1. Go to insights.newrelic.com > Manage Data > Embeddables.
  2. Locate the embeddable to revoke on the page.
  3. Click the delete [trash-o icon] icon to remove the embeddable.

The embeddable is revoked and the chart will no longer be available at its URL.

Get as image

Available for all chart types.

Use Get as image to produce an image in the .png format. When you select Get as image, a new tab or window opens with the chart image, which you can save.

Export CSV

Available for the table chart type only.

Table charts can exported in a comma-separated-value text file, where they can be added to an application such as a spreadsheet.

When you select Export CSV, the file is automatically downloaded to the download folder for your browser. Depending on the applications you use, the table may also display in a spreadsheet.

Copy JSON

Available for the JSON chart type only.

Use Copy JSON to copy the contents of the JSON so you paste the contents into a text file. The JSON can be used to add the data to a program, for example.

To share JSON:

  1. Click the Share menu on the top-right corner of your chart.
  2. Select Copy JSON.
  3. Paste the JSON text into a text file that you can share.

Add your chart to a dashboard

You can add charts to a new or existing dashboard.

To add a chart to an existing dashboard:

  1. Click the icon.
  2. Optionally, use the Widget title field to add a title for your chart.
  3. Select Existing dashboard.
  4. If needed, use Search dashboards to locate the dashboard you want to use.
  5. Select a dashboard.
  6. Click Add to dashboard.

To add a chart to a new dashboard:

  1. Click the icon.
  2. Optionally, use the Widget title field to add a title for your chart.
  3. Select New dashboard.
  4. Enter a name for the new dashboard.
  5. Select the permissions to apply to the dashboard.
  6. Click Add to dashboard.

Use advanced (NRQL) mode to specify data

October 2, 2019 by Suzanne Chiles Leave a Comment

While basic mode is an excellent choice for creating charts without needing to know how to write queries, working in advanced (NRQL) mode offers more power and additional features.

Any data specified in basic mode can be written as an NRQL query in advanced (NRQL) mode.

To see what your basic mode data specification looks like as an NRQL query, click the Advanced (NRQL) inline-advanced-nrql.png link from the basic page.

cb-example-404-2-nrql.png

Example of an advanced (NRQL) query.

Compare advanced (NRQL) mode query with basic mode specification

When you switch from basic mode to advanced (NRQL) mode, the query you see produces the exact same chart as the basic data specification.

If your query was started using basic mode and if you make changes to that query using advanced (NRQL) mode, you cannot return to basic mode to edit that query.

Any additional changes may only be made in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Use this table to understand how basic mode specifications correspond to the equivalent NRQL query.

To set this In basic mode, you enter … In advanced (NRQL) mode, you write …
The event type, attribute, and function on that attribute View a chart with Transaction : Name : unique_count SELECT uniqueCount(name) FROM Transaction
Narrowing your results to show only those transactions with a 404 page not found error Narrow results to httpResponseCode='404' WHERE httpResponseCode = '404'
Enable a preliminary timeline view not needed in basic mode TIMESERIES — enables line chart type (required for initial chart view)
To see a separate value for each application with a 404 error Facet by appName FACET `appName`
To view the five applications with the most 404 errors

Limit 5 — default value is 10

LIMIT 5
To view errors over the last three hours Select Last 3 hrs — converted to seconds in NRQL query SINCE 10800 seconds ago
To enhance the results of sampling transaction data This feature is run automatically in basic mode EXTRAPOLATE

Notes about advanced (NRQL) mode

Queries written directly in NRQL can be more complex than queries written in basic mode. The NRQL documentation contains both reference information and query examples. This table identifies some items to keep in mind.

Item Description
Prompts For each statement or function in your query, you can view a list of valid options, with tooltips.

crop-prompt-nrql.png

Example of a prompt in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Events You can use multiple event types in an NRQL query.
Attributes You can use multiple attributes per event type in an NRQL query.
View previous queries Once you run an NRQL query, use the My recent queries dropdown to view up the last 1,000 queries that you ran. The dropdown has a search box to help you find your query.
Working with basic mode and NRQL If you start creating a chart using basic mode and then switch to advanced (NRQL), be aware that if you make any changes to the NRQL query, you will lose those changes in basic mode.
Autocompleter

The chart builder’s autocompleter will display events and attributes reported within the last 60 minutes. An example of this is a process that runs once a day, such as a standard system health check that kicks off every morning at 6:00 AM. If you attempt to query the event at 7:05 AM, the event and subsequent attributes will not be visible in the autocomplete dropdown.

These events and attributes are still queryable by typing the exact string.

Specify data for a chart

October 2, 2019 by Suzanne Chiles Leave a Comment

Use the chart builder’s basic mode to create a chart without having to learn or use a query language. Basic mode guides you through the process. You can choose the source of the raw data, apply filters, and use other techniques to narrow the scope of the data in the chart.

We’ll be working with the example use case described in Specify your data to illustrate how to create a chart in basic mode.

Step 1: Select the source of the data for a chart

Begin by specifying what data you want to view in your chart. Click in the View a chart with box to select the event type, an attribute, and a function to perform on the attribute.

You can use the event data dictionary to view information about an event type and its attributes on a single page. To see a tooltip with information about an event or attribute, hover over any term that has a dotted line underneath it.

Here are the results of using the event data dictionary to specify the data:

  • Event type. The Transaction event type measures a variety of data that describes what happens while a user is on a website, such as that user clicking on a button on a page.
  • Attribute. The name attribute stores information on all transactions.
  • Function. Select the unique_count function to get a count of all the transactions that occurred during the time frame.

Basic mode now shows the selection:

use-basic-step-one.png

one.newrelic.com > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified)

As you specify data, the chart updates to show you the results from the data you specified.

Based on the information specified so far, you can see a chart that shows the total number of transactions during the default time frame of 30 minutes. This total includes all transactions, whether the transaction was completed successfully or had errors.

crop-404-single-line.png

one.newrelic.com > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified)

Step 2: Filter the data

Your next step is to determine which of those transactions got a 404 page not found error. If you look at the event data dictionary for the Transaction event type, you’ll find this event also includes an attribute called httpResponseCode.

  • Narrow the results to show only those transactions where a page not found error occurred. Use the Narrow results to box to create this filter: httpResponseCode = 404 .
  • Because you want to be able to see the names of the apps that are resulting in the 404 errors, you use the Facet by box to see the results by appName (which is also an attribute for the Transaction event type). Faceting by appName updates the chart to break down the total number of 404 errors by the application names. This lets you know which apps are experiencing 404 errors.

Your chart now shows the line chart with a line for each app, each with its own color.

crop-basic-example-chart.png

one.newrelic.com > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified) > (filters and facets applied)

Step 3: Adjust time range and limits

You decide to focus on the five apps with the most page not found errors. The default value for the Limit field is 10, meaning that your chart will show the ten most relevant returns. You change that value to 5.

Customer support told you that they had been getting calls about these errors for a little over two hours. You decide to change the time range from the last 30 minutes to the last three hours so that you can view the errors during the time when the customers were calling support.

Now that you have the data set so that you are seeing exactly what you need, you can turn your attention to the appearance of the chart.

Step 4: Customize the chart

Because you are more interested in the total number of errors than a timeline view, you change the chart type to a bar chart.

cb-example-404-2-bar.png

one.newrelic.com > Chart builder > Basic > (event and attribute specified) > (filters and facets applied) > (time range and limit customized) > (chart type customized)

When you’re finished with your chart, you can add it to a dashboard or share it.

This table contains notes about using basic mode.

Item Description
Prompts You can start typing directly in an empty box; a list of items that match the information you type will display.
You can also click on an empty box to view a list of all of the items that are appropriate for the field, based on your earlier choices.
Saving a basic mode data specification Every time you run a query, that query is saved in the My recent queries dropdown in advanced (NRQL) mode.
Events

Basic mode only supports data for one event and attribute.

If you want to use more than one event and/or attribute, use the SELECT statement in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Shortcuts

Basic mode contains shortcuts that can display more complex events and attributes that aren’t generally supported, as in this example (which shows the tooltip for the shortcut).

crop-shortcut-tooltip.png

Example of the Response time histogram shortcut, showing a tooltip.

Tooltips Any time you see a dotted line under a term, you can hover over that term to see a tooltip with an explanation of the term.
Narrow by

You can use more than one Narrow by definition in basic mode filter; the conditions will be joined by AND.

The WHERE clause in advanced (NRQL) allows OR in addition to AND.

If your query was started using basic mode and if you make changes to that query using advanced (NRQL) mode, you cannot return to basic mode to edit that query.

Any additional changes may only be made in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Introduction to chart builder

October 2, 2019 by Suzanne Chiles

The workflow for creating a chart is easy.

  • Specify your data
  • Customize your chart
  • Share your chart

Specify your data

Chart builder offers two methods for specifying the data you want to see in a chart: basic mode and advanced (NRQL) mode.

Use basic mode

You may, for example, be asked for information about how many cities outside of the United States are accessing the shopping site for your company. Basic mode guides you through the process of:

  • Choosing your data source. In basic mode, you’ll start by selecting an event and then choosing the attribute that corresponds to the information to show in your chart.
  • Specifying  the data for your chart using filtering. You can narrow the results and choose an attribute to facet by.
  • Selecting the time range to present in the chart. You can select a time range from the menu or use the custom option to create your own time range.
Example of data defined using basic mode
Basic mode guides you through the process to specify data for a chart.

See Use basic mode to specify data for more information about this feature.

Use advanced (NRQL) mode

With the advanced (NRQL) mode you can create your own queries using the NRQL query language. NRQL queries may be simple or complex, depending on what data you want to use and how to display it in your chart. This example of the advanced mode shows the NRQL query with the same data as used in basic mode.

Example of data defined using advanced (NRQL) mode
Use advanced (NRQL) to write a query that specifies data for a chart.

See Use advanced (NRQL) mode to specify data for more information about using this feature.

You can switch between basic and advanced modes while defining your data, whether you want to customize some of the values or just to learn about how NRQL queries are structured using the data you specified in basic mode.

If your query was started using basic mode and if you make changes to that query using advanced (NRQL) mode, you cannot return to basic mode to edit that query. Any additional changes may only be done in advanced (NRQL) mode.

Once you have specified the data you want to view, your chart is ready to view. Your query will automatically run in basic mode as you make changes to the inputs. If using advanced (NRQL) mode, run your query.

Customize your chart

Based on the data you specified, chart builder selects the chart type that displays your results most effectively. However, you can choose from other available chart types to present your data in the visual format that you want to use.

In this example, you run a query to get information about the response time of your application.

Chart builder uses the Line chart type for the results.
Example of the line chart type.

Chart builder uses the line chart type to display the data. Chart builder also lists other options for displaying your data. This example shows the area chart type:

Data shown with area chart type
Example of the area chart type.

Depending on your data, not all chart types will be appropriate for your data. For example, for the chart we’ve been viewing, the pie chart type would not present the information in a meaningful way.

Share your chart

To share a chart: select Share. Available share options include:

Image

Description IMAGE

 

Link

Description IMAGE

 

Comma-separated value

Description IMAGE

 

JSON

Description IMAGE

 

 

Use your charts has detailed information about sharing charts.

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