Controls visualization

The Controls visualization offers a range of interactive controls for easy dashboard manipulation.

They can be used to quickly reduce the data in a dashboard to a set range of values, allowing you to easily find the data you are looking for.

The following types are available:

  • Options list: Select data from a specific field in an index.

  • Options tree: Select nodes from a tree. The values must represent paths in a hierarchy, where each node in the path is separated by a delimiting character, such as a vertical bar. For example, |vehicle|car|midsize car.

  • Range slider: Select value ranges.

  • Date and time range: Specify dates or time ranges in the data.

Example

An analyst is interested in finding out about seed investments in companies that fall within the value range of 500,000 to 1,000,000 US dollars and that were made within a specific six-month period.

On the Investments dashboard, the analyst creates a new Controls visualization and, in the configuration screen, they add an Options list based on the round_code field. This allows them to select the seed round of investments during their analysis.

Next, they add a Range slider based on the raised_amount field. This allows them to filter the seed investments by a dollar value range.

Finally, they add a Date and time range control based on the funded_date field.

Now, with these controls available on the Investments dashboard, only the data that they want to investigate is displayed and their analysis is more streamlined as a result.

Creating a Controls visualization

Any number of controls can be added to one Controls visualization. This allows great flexibility, as each control is based on one field of an entity table; creating very effective filtering options in a dashboard.

  1. On the Controls tab, add one or more controls by selecting a control type from the dropdown menu and clicking +Add.

  2. On the Options tab, select one of the following checkboxes:

    • Update Siren filters on each change: By default, buttons appear in the visualization allowing you to apply or cancel your changes each time you use the controls. Select this checkbox to apply the filters instantaneously without using the buttons.

    • Use time filter: If your index contains time-based events and a time field is configured for the selected index pattern, this option uses that time filter to display only the values available within the specified time range.

    • Stack controls vertically: If you have multiple controls in the visualization, they will be stacked vertically instead of horizontally.

Input controls do not inherit the current dashboard filters, so they list all possible values, with one exception: If the Use time filter checkbox is selected, only values present in records within the specified time range will be available.

Configuring an Options list control

  1. On the Controls tab, specify a label for the control.

  2. Select the entity table or search that you want it to be based on.

  3. Optional: Select the Enable Multiselect checkbox to allow the user to select more than one option.

  4. Specify the size of the option list.

  5. Click Apply changes and either add another visualization or click Save and add it to the dashboard.

Configuring an Options tree control

  1. On the Controls tab, specify a label for the control.

  2. Select the entity table or search that you want it to be based on.

  3. Specify the field that you want it to be based on. To function correctly, the chosen field must have an Elasticsearch mapping of type text and be analyzed with a Path Hierarchy Tokenizer. Example settings and mappings:

    PUT test-index/
{
  "settings": {
    "index": {
      "analysis": {
        "analyzer": {
          "custom_taxonomy_analyzer": {
            "tokenizer": "custom_taxonomy_tokenizer"
          }
        },
        "tokenizer": {
          "custom_taxonomy_tokenizer": {
            "type": "path_hierarchy",
            "delimiter": "|"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "treefield": {
        "fields": {
          "tree": {
            "search_analyzer": "keyword",
            "fielddata": true,
            "analyzer": "custom_taxonomy_analyzer",
            "type": "text"
          }
        },
        "type": "keyword"
      }
    }
  }
}

    To allow aggregations, field_data must be true. To allow appropriate search analysis when Siren Investigate sets filters by using match_phrase, search_analyzer must be keyword.

  4. Specify the maximum node expansion. This is the maximum number of child nodes that will be displayed for an expanded node. If the node has more children than are currently displayed, it displays a warning.

  5. Specify the path separator. For example, for values that represent nodes within a hierarchy, such as "/vehicle/car/midsize car" enter a slash as a separator '/'.

  6. Optional: Deselect the Calculate expand icons checkbox to always display an expand icon on the children of expanded nodes, whether they have their own children or not. If your tree has a large number of children per node, this can improve expansion times.

  7. Click Apply changes and either add another visualization or click Save and add it to the dashboard.

In an Options tree, each node in the tree displays two counts for records that have the node’s path or the path of its descendants.

The first count considers the current dashboard filters (except for the control’s own filter), and the second count is the total - regardless of any filters.

Configuring a Range slider control

  1. On the Controls tab, specify a label for the control.

  2. Select the entity table or search that you want it to be based on.

  3. Specify the field that you want it to be based on.

  4. Specify the value of the step size. For example, a step size of 5 will allow you to slide the range bar up or down in multiples of 5.

  5. Specify how many decimal places to display in the numerical values.

  6. Optional: Select the Include Lower Bound checkbox to ensure that the results include the lowest available value. By default, the range allows greater than, but not equal to the lowest value.

  7. Optional: Select the Include Upper Bound checkbox to ensure that the results include the highest available value. By default, the range allows less than, but not equal to the highest value.

  8. Click Apply changes and either add another visualization or click Save and add it to your dashboard.

Configuring a Date and time range control

  1. On the Controls tab, specify a label for the control.

  2. Select the entity table or search that you want it to be based on.

  3. Specify the field that you want it to be based on.

  4. Specify whether to Include hours/minutes. If hours and minutes are not included, results will be displayed for any time within the chosen days.

  5. Specify whether to use a Date range or deselect this checkbox to use a single date.

  6. Specify the Time intervals to display when you apply the Include hours/minutes option. If Include hours/minutes is used without a Date range, the results will include the chosen time up to the duration of the Time intervals field. For example, if the time interval is configured to 20 minutes and 10.20AM is selected, the results will include 10.20AM to 10.40AM.

  7. Click Apply changes and either add another visualization or click Save and add it to your dashboard.