Appfire Dashboard Hub app

Owned by
Robert Alexander Marshall
May 08, 2024
6 min read
1 Benefits | 2 Add the Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget to a page | 3 CQL to search and filter | 4 Document Workflow Charts gadget - chart types | 5 View type: Table | 6 Related pages
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Appfire Dashboard Hub is a visualization tool for your organization’s data, like metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). This data is displayed using gadgets, the small components that fetch data and render data appropriately as tables, graphs, and text. The Appfire Dashboard Hub app includes the Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget designed to create a dashboard using Comala Document Management workflow data.

Benefits

The Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget enables users to create customized charts and tables utilizing data from Comala Document Management and Confluence fields.

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It offers the ability to visualize and analyze

  • document lifecycles

  • workflow statuses

  • and other crucial metrics

This feature-rich tool facilitates informed decision-making and improves document management efficiency. It can enhance the overall visibility of your documentation and support improving compliance control across Confluence spaces.

Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget utilizes workflow essential fields: Workflow Name, Workflow State, Workflow State Change, Workflow Approver Assignee, Workflow Approvers, Workflow State Expiry, and workflow parameters.

Add the Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget to a page

You need to install Appfire Document Dashboard Hub v3.2.0 or later

Your source instance for the Comala workflow data may need to be added as a data source for the app if the Dashboard Hub app is installed in a different instance. This is done by installing the Dashboard Hub connector. The default data source is the instance where the Dashboard app is installed and needs no configuration.

To add the Dashboard Hub app Document Workflow Custom Charts gadget macro to your page:

From the Confluence editor toolbar,

  • Other macros

  • Search and select the Dashboard Hub gadget macro from the list

In the Add gadgets screen

  • filter by Comala Document Management

  • select Document Workflow Custom Charts

Configure the Document Workflow Custom Charts set up

  • uniquely Name your gadget

  • add CQL filter

  • Filter your workflow parameters using one or more workflow parameters

  • configure view for your report

    • Chart type

    • columns

The data source, by default, is the instance where the Dashboard Hub app is installed.

You can configure a Cloud site to be the data source.

Add multiple gadgets or choose the Dashboard Hub macro and add one or more gadgets to this dashboard.

CQL to search and filter

Queries rely on the Confluence Query Language (CQL) to formulate searches based on criteria such as page properties, labels, creators, and modification dates, facilitating the retrieval of relevant page data.

For example, to list all the pages (type = page) in the space “Teams in Space” (space = TIS) with the label space_mission (label = space_mission) you’ll type the following CQL query

space = TIS and type=page and label = space_mission

Have a look at the Atlassian CQL documentation to help create queries in Confluence

The Comala Document Management app provides several CQL fields that can be used to filter your search. Find all workflow CQL searchable fields listed in Comala Document Management CQL Rest API page together with the Atlassian Confluence CQL fields.

Fields

The Document Workflow Custom Fields gadget utilizes the following Comala Document Management workflow fields along with the Confluence fields: Title, Space, Type, Last Modifier, Last Modified Date, Labels, Creator, Created Date.

Comala Document Management built in fields

  • Workflow Name

  • Current State

  • State Start Date

  • State Started by

  • Final State

  • State Due date

  • Final Version Date

  • Pending Approvers

  • Finished Approvers

  • Last Final Version Approvers

  • Current Pending Approvals

  • Current Approved Approvals

  • Current Rejected Approvals

Comala Document Management workflow parameter fields

Workflow parameters are customizable placeholders that can be used for values such as reviewer names, content expiry durations, labels, categories, and departments. The workflow parameter holds a dynamic data value updated in several ways - by a user, the workflow, for a page, or a Confluence space.

A workflow parameter can be created with a set data type for the value

  • string

  • duration

  • user

  • group

  • list

CQL Examples

Write the following in the CQL input field:

1. Pages with a workflow and pending to approve by user Mike

awphasworkflow = "true" AND approvalassignee = "Mike"

2. Pages with a workflow already approved by user Mike

awphasworkflow = "true" AND approver = "Mike"

3. Pages with a workflow in the Rejected state

awphasworkflow = "true" AND state = "Rejected"

4. Pages that transitioned to the Approved state during the last month

state = "Approved" AND statechange >now("-1M")

5. Pages with a workflow named "Editor and staff approval workflow" that transitioned to the Ready state during the last month AND pending to approve by user cowens

awphasworkflow = "true" AND approvalassignee = "cowens" AND state = "Ready" AND workflowName = "Editor and staff approval workflow" AND statechange >now("-1M")

Comala Document Management field use is found in the following CQL filter examples

Document Workflow Charts gadget - chart types

Document workflow charts gadget supports several chart types.

Each chart can be customized: using colors; hiding segments; reordering segments, or displaying normalized data to support ease of comparison and data insights.

View type: Table

View the results of your CQL query as a table, where you can select which columns are displayed.

Group results

Group results by selected columns If you are familiar with the GROUP BY statement in SQL, you’ll quickly find interesting uses to group the results of your CQL. If you select to group the results by the previously selected columns, the result rows will be split into groups, based on their values. Thus, only one row is displayed for each group. The grouping of columns is typically combined with aggregations, which moves us to the next section, where we’ll see an example.

Aggregations

Aggregations are also common in the SQL domain. These functions get the values of grouped rows as the input of that function to return a calculated value. This gadget currently supports three functions: Count - returns the number of rows in that group; Min - returns the smallest value of the range of values of the group and Max - returns the largest value of the range of values of the group.

EXAMPLE For example, if we want to calculate how many pages with a workflow are in each space with the state Approved

  • use the following CQL

    • awphasworkflow = "true" AND state = "Approved"

    • add space as a column

    • enable group result

    • add an aggregation to count the number of pages.

 Other chart types include

Dashboard Hub for Confluence

Comala Document Management