Chapter 55. Page authoring

Pages, also known as perspectives, are collections of following components:

  • Core components
  • Navigational components
  • Reporting components

Also, a page can have none or any number of components. The Page Editor tool is used to edit the pages.

A page has either the Fluid style or the Page style. The Fluid style is a classical web page with a vertical scroll bar, when the page exceeds the available height. The Page style is a web page that will always fit to the windows height.

55.1. Creating pages

You can use the Pages perspective to create a page that consists of different types of components. After a page has been created and all the components in it defined, use the Page Editor to save, delete, rename, or copy pages as required.

The following procedure describes how to create a page and add the required components to it:

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. In the Pages panel, click New. Alternatively, click New Page on the Page Editor pane.
  3. In the New Page dialog box, enter a value in the Name field and select the required style.
  4. Click Ok. The new page opens in the Page Editor.
  5. In the Components pane, expand the components and drag the required component types to the editor canvass.
  6. After placing the components on the page, edit its properties from the Properties pane.
  7. Click Save and then click Save again.

55.2. Saving, deleting, renaming, or copying pages

After you have created and defined a page, use the Page Editor to save, delete, rename, or copy pages as required.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Select a page from the Pages panel. The page opens in the Page Editor.
  3. Perform the desired operation and select Save, Delete, Rename, or Copy from the upper right corner of the Page Editor.

Figure 55.1. Save, delete, rename, or copy pages

Save

55.3. Navigation tree

The Workbench navigation tree contains the entries that are displayed in Business Central’s Main menu. Changes to this navigation tree structure will be reflected in the Main menu on the Home page. Such mechanism can be used, for example, to publish new pages.

Also, additional navigation trees can be created. These custom trees can be used to configure the navigation components within a page. You cannot delete the Workbench tree from the Navigation panel but you can edit the Workbench tree hierarchy to suit your requirements. This feature helps users customize the Main menu of Business Central with new pages.

Note

The Workbench tree, which appears by default in the Navigation panel, is the main Menu of Business Central.

55.3.1. Creating a navigation tree

You can create as many custom navigation trees as required. A custom navigation tree differs from the default Workbench navigation tree in one aspect. The custom navigation trees can be deleted but the default tree can not be removed from Business Central. They can contain the default groups and entries from the Workbench tree as well as user created groups and trees.

Prerequisites

  • You have sufficient user permissions for creating a navigation tree.

Procedure

  1. Log in to Business Central and go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Select the Navigation panel and then click New.
  3. Enter the name of the new navigation tree and click the check mark icon or, press Enter.
  4. Click Save.

55.3.2. Editing a navigation tree

You can use the Navigation panel from the Pages perspective to edit the custom navigation trees. You can further customize the trees by adding groups, dividers, and page entries, deleting the specific entries of the tree, and reordering, renaming, or deleting them.

Prerequisites

  • You have sufficient user permissions for editing a navigation tree.

55.3.3. Adding groups, dividers, and page entries to a navigation tree

You can add groups, dividers, and page entries to a navigation tree.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Click the Navigation panel and then select the navigation tree you want to add the entries to.
  3. Click the gear icon of the tree and then select New Group, New Divider, or New Page.

  4. Enter the name of the new group or page and click the check mark icon or press Enter.

    Note

    Divider entries do not have a name property.

  5. Click Save.

55.3.4. Reordering a navigation tree

In the Navigation panel you can reorder the navigation trees as well as its entries.

Note

The reordering options of tree entries will differ according to their position in the tree hierarchy.

Reordering navigation trees

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Click the Navigation panel and then select the navigation tree you want to reorder.

  3. Click the gear icon of the tree and then move up or down as required.

    Note

    First and last entries of a navigation tree have only two reordering options available.

  4. Click Save.
Reordering the entries of a navigation tree

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Click the Navigation panel and then expand the navigation tree.
  3. Click the gear icon of the entry you want to reorder and then move up or down as required.
  4. Optional: Click Goto Page to view the selected page.
  5. Click Save.

55.3.5. Renaming a navigation tree

You can rename all navigation trees except the Workbench tree.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.

  2. Click the Navigation panel and then select the custom navigation tree you want to rename.

    Note

    To rename an entry of a tree, expand the tree and select the entry that you want to rename.

  3. Click the edit icon of the tree or the tree entry.

  4. Enter the new name of the tree and click the check mark icon.

    Note

    You cannot rename divider entries.

  5. Click Save.

55.3.6. Deleting a navigation tree

You can delete any navigation tree except the Workbench tree from the Navigation panel of the Pages perspective.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. In the Navigation panel, select the navigation tree that you want to delete, then click the delete icon.
  3. Click Save.

55.3.7. Deleting the entries of a navigation tree

You can delete the entries of a navigation tree.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  2. Click the Navigation panel.
  3. Expand the tree that contains the entries you want delete.
  4. Click the delete icon of the entry.
  5. Click Save.

55.4. Components

A page contains different types of components. You can use the following component types in a page:

  • Core components: Used to specify custom HTML information or display existing pages. There are two types of core components.

Table 55.1. Core component sub-types

Core component sub-typesDescription

HTML

This component opens an HTML editor widget. This can be used to create HTML pages using text, images, tables, links, colors, and so on. You can customize the page as per your requirements.

Page

This component allows you to add previously created pages to a new dashboard. You can use this component to nest custom pages you have already created in your dashboard.

Note

Core components are not mandatory.

  • Navigation components: Used for navigating between pages. There are six types of navigation components.

Table 55.2. Navigation component sub-types

Navigation component sub-typesDescription

Target Div

This component is used by the Tab list, Menu bar, and the Tree navigator components to display their entries and keep track of the last item clicked.

Menu Bar

This component displays the entries of a navigation tree in the form of a menu bar. There is no limit to the number of levels supported by Business Central.

Tile Navigator

This component displays the navigation group in the form of tiles. Groups are displayed as folders but for single entries, its content is displayed instead when selected.

Tree

This component displays the entries in a vertical tree structure format.

Carousel

This component displays or cycles through the selected pages like a carousel or a slide show.

Tab List

This component displays selected menu pages as tabs at the top of the component.

Note

The target div setting is not needed for non-target div components such as Carousel or Tile navigator.

  • Reporting components: Used for displaying data from data sets (see Data sets authoring section) in the form of graphs, tables, maps, and so on. There are ten types of reporting components. The reporting components can be configured using the New Displayer widget, which has the following three tabs:

    • Type: Choose how to display custom data graphically.
    • Data: Choose a data set from the list of custom data sets that you had created from the Data Sets section available in the Settings menu.
    • Display: Edit and customize how the content is displayed by adding titles, changing colors, size, and so on.

55.4.1. Placing components on the page editor to create a page

To create pages, you must drag the components to the Editor canvas of the Pages perspective. After placing all of the required components on the page, click Save.

55.4.2. Using the Preview tab to preview pages

While creating or editing pages, click the Preview tab on the Page Editor to preview a page before saving it.

55.4.3. Component properties

The components used in a page have different properties associated with them. The Properties panel enables you to customize a component by editing the following properties:

  • Panel properties: Used to customize component panel properties such as Width, Height, and Background Color.
  • Margin properties: Used to customize component margin properties such as Top, Bottom, Left, and Right.
  • Padding properties: Used to customize component padding properties such as Top, Bottom, Left, and Right.
Note

HTML components also have additional text properties to customize component Alignment, Decoration, Color, Size, and Weight properties.

55.5. Heatmap components

In Business Central, you can add heatmap components to a page. Heatmap components are used to display heat information over a process diagram. The color on the process diagram nodes is related to the value you assign to each node and based on the assigned value, the color varies on a process diagram. If the assigned value is maximum, the heat intensifies and if a minimum value is assigned, then heat is not displayed on the process diagram.

You can export the heatmap components to Dashbuilder Runtime and retrieve the heat information from a KIE Server dataset. You can also create, edit, and build a dashboard using a heatmap component.

55.5.1. Creating heatmap components for a process

You can create heatmap components for a specific process in Business Central.

Prerequisites

  • KIE Server is deployed and connected to Business Central.
  • You have set the dashbuilder.components.enable system property to true in the standalone.xml file.
  • You have created a project with at least one business process asset in Business Central.
  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.
  • Sample process instances are created.

Procedure

  1. Create a new KIE Server dataset using the following steps:

    1. In Business Central, go to Admin → Data Sets.

      The Data Set Explorer page opens.

    2. Click New Data Set and select the Execution Server provider type.

      The Data Set Creation Wizard page opens.

    3. Enter the name of the dataset.
    4. Select the server configuration. The server configuration is available if the project is deployed.
    5. Select CUSTOM query target from the list.

    6. In the Query field, enter the following custom SQL query. 

      select
   pil.externalId,
   pil.processId,
    nid,
    nodetype,
    nodename,
    count(nid) as total_hits,
    avg(execution_time) as averageExecutionTime,
    min(execution_time) as minExecutionTime,
    max(execution_time) as maxExecutionTime
from(
        select
                max(log_date) as lastLog,
                processinstanceid as piid,
                nodeinstanceid as niid,
                nodeid as nid,
                nodetype,
                nodename,
                DATEDIFF(SECOND, min(log_date), max(log_date)) as execution_time
        from
                NodeInstanceLog
        group by
              processinstanceid,
               nodeinstanceid,
              nid
       order by lastLog
)
inner join
     ProcessInstanceLog pil on pil.processInstanceId = piid
group by
     pil.externalId,
     nid,
     nodename
    7. Complete the Data Set Creation Wizard and click Test.
    8. Click Save.
  2. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  3. In the Pages panel, click New.
  4. In the New Page dialog box, enter a value in the Name field and select the required style.

  5. Click OK.

    The new page opens in the Page Editor and you can see that the Heatmaps component is available under the Components panel.

  6. In the Components panel, expand the Heatmaps components and drag the Process Heatmap component type to the Page Editor.
  7. In the Displayer editor wizard, click Data tab and select the newly created KIE Server dataset.
  8. In the Data tab, select NID and AVERAGEEXECUTIONTIME from the Columns field.

  9. Click the Component Editor tab and enter the values for the mandatory fields including Server Template, Container ID, and Process Definition ID into the Component Properties field.

    Note

    To access the value of Server Template, go to Deploy → Execution Servers → Server Configurations. For the value of Container ID, go to Manage → Process Instances, you can click on the process instance you want to use and in the, Deployment corresponds to the Container ID and the Definition ID is the Process Definition ID.

  10. Click the Display tab and edit the value of Chart, Margins, Filter, Refresh, and Columns as per your requirements.

  11. Click +OK.

    Figure 55.2. Example process heatmap components

    process heatmap component

You can see the heat information on the process diagram.

55.5.2. Creating heatmap components for multiple processes

You can create heatmap components for multiple processes in Business Central.

Prerequisites

  • KIE Server is deployed and connected to Business Central.
  • You have set the dashbuilder.components.enable system property to true in the standalone.xml file.
  • You have created multiple projects in Business Central and it contains at least one business process asset.
  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.
  • Sample process instances are created.

Procedure

  1. Create a new KIE Server dataset using the following steps:

    1. In Business Central, go to Admin → Data Sets.

      The Data Set Explorer page opens.

    2. Click New Data Set and select the Execution Server provider type.

      The Data Set Creation Wizard page opens.

    3. Enter the name of the dataset.
    4. Select the server configuration. The server configuration is available if the project is deployed.
    5. Select CUSTOM query target from the list.

    6. In the Query field, enter the following custom SQL query. 

      select
   pil.externalId,
   pil.processId,
    nid,
    nodetype,
    nodename,
    count(nid) as total_hits,
    avg(execution_time) as averageExecutionTime,
    min(execution_time) as minExecutionTime,
    max(execution_time) as maxExecutionTime
from(
        select
                max(log_date) as lastLog,
                processinstanceid as piid,
                nodeinstanceid as niid,
                nodeid as nid,
                nodetype,
                nodename,
                DATEDIFF(SECOND, min(log_date), max(log_date)) as execution_time
        from
                NodeInstanceLog
        group by
              processinstanceid,
               nodeinstanceid,
              nid
       order by lastLog
)
inner join
     ProcessInstanceLog pil on pil.processInstanceId = piid
group by
     pil.externalId,
     nid,
     nodename
    7. Complete the Data Set Creation Wizard and click Test.
    8. Click Save.
  2. In Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.
  3. In the Pages panel, click New.
  4. In the New Page dialog box, enter a value in the Name field and select the required style.

  5. Click OK.

    The new page opens in the Page Editor and you can see that the Heatmaps component is available under the Components panel.

  6. In the Components panel, expand the Heatmaps components and drag the All Processes Heatmaps component type to the canvas.
  7. In the Displayer editor wizard, click Data tab and select the newly created KIE Server dataset.
  8. In the Data tab, select EXTERNALID, PROCESSID, NID, and AVERAGEEXECUTIONTIME from the Columns field.
  9. In the Process Selector box, select the Container and Process values as per your requirement.

  10. Click the Component Editor tab and enter the value in the Server Template (mandatory) field.

    Note

    To access the value of Server Template, go to Deploy → Execution Servers → Server Configurations.

  11. Click the Display tab and edit the value of Chart, Margins, Filter, Refresh, and Columns as per your requirements.

  12. Click +OK.

    Figure 55.3. Example multiple processes heatmap components

    all processes heatmap components

You can see the heat information on the process diagram.

55.5.3. Executing a heatmap component

You can execute the internal heatmap components locally, outside of Business Central for testing purpose only. The same API is used to create external components, which you can use to build your own components. For more information about external components, see Section 55.6, “External components”

To run the specific heatmap component, complete the following steps:

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Go to the appformer/dashbuilder/dashbuilder-shared/dashbuilder-js directory.

  2. Open the terminal in the dashbuilder-js directory and enter the following command: 

    yarn run init && yarn run build:fast

    You can see the following components are present in the dashbuilder-js/packages directory:

    • processes-heatmaps-component
    • process-heatmap-component
    • logo-component
    • heatmap-component

  3. Go to the dashbuilder-js/packages directory, open the desired heatmap component and enter the following command in the terminal: 

    yarn run start

  4. To access the component, enter http://localhost:9001/ in a web browser.

    The selected component is displayed on the web browser.

55.6. External components

In Business Central, you can add external components to a page. The components are disabled by default. To enable the external components, change the value of dashbuilder.components.enable system property to true.

The external component location is set and configured with the dashbuilder.components.dir system property. The default value of this system property is /tmp/dashbuilder/components. You must set the component under the components directory with a parent directory, which is used as the component ID. For example, if the component ID is mycomp and the component directory is /tmp/dashbuilder/components, then the component base directory is /tmp/dashbuilder/components/mycomp.

Business Central checks the manifest.json file in the components directory. The manifest.json must contain at least one name text parameter.

Table 55.3. manifest.json file descriptions

ParameterDescription

name

Name of the component displayed under Components section.

icon

Icon of the component displayed under Components section.

noData

A flag that indicates that the component does not require a data set.

parameters

The list of parameters are using ComponentParameter type. Supported parameter types include name, type, category, defaultValue, label, mandatory, and comboValues.

Sample manifest.json file

{
    "name": "Heat Map Experiment",
    "icon": "fa fa-bell-o",
    "parameters": [
        {
            "name": "svg",
            "type": "text",
            "defaultValue": "",
            "label": "SVG XML",
            "category": "SVG Content"
            "mandatory": true
        },
        {
            "name": "svgUrl",
            "type": "text",
            "defaultValue": "",
            "label": "SVG URL",
            "category": "SVG URL"
            "mandatory": true
        }
        ,
        {
            "name": "ksProcessId",
            "type": "text",
            "defaultValue": "",
            "label": "Process ID",
            "category": "Kie Server"
            "mandatory": true
        }
    ]
}

55.6.1. Creating external components

The following procedure describes how to create and add the external components to a page:

Procedure

  1. Set the component under components directory with a parent directory.

    For example, if the component ID is mycomp and the component directory is /tmp/dashbuilder/components, then the component base directory is /tmp/dashbuilder/components/mycomp.

  2. Create the manifest.json file in the component directory.
  3. Create index.html file with HTML content.
  4. In a terminal application, navigate to EAP_HOME/bin.

  5. To enable the external components, set the value of dashbuilder.components.enable system property to true: 

    $ ~/EAP_HOME/bin/standalone.sh -c standalone-full.xml
-Ddashbuilder.components.dir={component directory base path} -Ddashbuilder.components.enable=true

  6. Start Business Central, go to Menu → Design → Pages.

    External Components is available under Components pane.

  7. In the Components pane, expand the External Components and drag the required component types to the canvas.
  8. Click Save.