Root Panel Custom Properties

Custom Properties of the Dashboard Root Panel allow additional variables to be defined that will be part of the root context of the dashboard. This powerful feature gives a great deal of flexibility to engineers when creating dashboards. Custom Properties behave just like any other dashboard property, but can be defined with any desired format.

Two key use cases of custom properties are storing data to be used by multiple dashboard components, and passing data to the Implant container from the parent dashboard. The Implanting Dashboards tutorial explains how to use custom properties for testing and debugging Implant container behavior. The following will explain how to define Custom Properties in a more general case.

Custom properties of the Root Panel are defined in much the same way that other variables are defined. To define a Custom Property for a dashboard, follow these steps:

• Navigate to the Component Tree of the current dashboard

• Open the Properties Editor of the Root Panel

• Under the Basic Properties group, open the Custom Properties property of the Root Panel

• Define a Name, Table Format, Description, and Help Text for the property. For example:

• Click on the Format field, and define the desired format. For example:

  • Minimal Record Count as 1

  • Maximal Record Count as 1

  • Fields as shown in the following table. The remaining fields empty may be left empty.

• Click OK to save the Custom Properties

The value of Custom Properties can be retrieved in dashboard expressions using the form/ reference schema. Continuing the previous example, the value of the a field of exampleVariable could be retrieved using the following expression:

{form/:exampleVariable$a}

This expression can be decomposed as follows:

• form/ indicating the current dashboard

• : indicating the default context of the dashboard

• exampleVariable referencing the previously defined Custom Property

• $a is the standard reference syntax to return the data of the a field of exampleVariable

The value of the Custom Property can be edited manually in the properties editor of the Root Panel or via binding.

Setting the property value with the Properties Editor can be useful in a number of cases, such as experimenting with different default values or debugging dashboard behavior.

• Open the Root Panel Properties Editor

• Navigate to the “Custom Properties” tab

• Click on the desired Custom Property in order set its value

Setting the value of a Custom Property via binding is a way to automate changes to a Custom Property based on user input or other dynamic factors.

In order to change the value of a Custom Property with a binding, set the Binding Target to indicate the Custom Property to be changed. Continuing the above example, the Binding Target would be as follows:

form/:exampleVariable$a

Note that the object identified by the binding is the same as the expression reference used to retrieve the Custom Property value.

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