User interface manual

Part of the web interface to the right of the Menu tree is the Main screen. It consists of blocks that can be rearranged by dragging the top bar, or resized by the bottom-right handle. Each Block may have several modules, like Chart, Report, Signaling collector, etc. Combining blocks with different modules on the same screen will allow you to create flexible patterns. You may have a chart, a table, a report, an alert notification, and your customer/vendor rates all on one screen.

The Main screen consists of one or more blocks arranged in columns. Blocks are good if you want to work with different kinds of information on the same screen. However, you may stick to just one block per screen as well.

Blocks can be deleted with the cross icon at the top right corner, or added/edited through the Menu tree by clicking on the Pencil and choosing "Edit screen". See also Floating block.

Each Block on the screen will usually have several Modules, but only one will be shown at a time. The Modules will depend on the product and on the screen type. For example, VoIP statistics screens of the Monitoring and alerting have the following modules:

• Chart
• Table
• Report
• Alerts
• CDR
• DC (Disconnect codes)
• Calls

In order to change the Module in a block, one needs to click on a desired Module name in the Top menu of the block (icons at the top-right corner of the block).

If the Module needed is not currently visible, clicking on More... button will bring up the Module selection window where you may see all the modules, including the hidden ones. Green check-marks will control which modules will stay in the Top menu when they are not active.

The Top menu on top of each Block consists of the following items:

• The list of the modules.
• Module selection strip with the More... button to view complete list of modules.
• Help question mark to activate the Help mode, see more in Ways to get help.
• Pencil opens Block edit window to edit block name, type, and enabled parameters.
• Open/close button to show or hide the block contents.
• Maximize button to maximize the block for full-screen view, or get it back to normal view. Same effect can be achieved by double-clicking the top drag strip of the Block.
• Delete button deletes the block from the screen, unless it is the only one left.

Floating blocks will also have an additional Add icon to add (pin) the floating block to the main screen in case you wish to save the changes made in the block.

The Pencil sign in the Top menu of the Block brings up a window to edit block parameters:

• Block name - shown in the top left corner of the block.
• Block comment - shown when a mouse is over the block name.
• Block type - contains the list of block types identical to the Screen types which can be chosen in the Add/edit menu of the Menu tree. Each block type has a specific functional purpose (Monitoring, Rate management, etc.) and may have different default filters and column layouts so that only the infomation relevant to the block function is visible.

Floating blocks are opened on request on top of the main fixed blocks of the screen and provide a convenient way to quickly look up certain data, for instance, a chart with a parameter history of the object, rates of a Rate plan, or signaling packets of a call in CDRs.

Floating blocks are usually called via the In-cell menu (options like View in Chart), by double-clicking cells in certain tables, or by clicking the Action buttons. Floating blocks will be discarded once the web page is reloaded, and all the changes will be lost. If you wish to keep the changes - please pin the block to the Main screen through the plus sign on the Top menu of the block.

The menu on top of each table will vary depending on the product and the screen type, the most complete menu usually having:

• Filter sign with red X - clears all Filter fields over column names.
• E - Export table data.
• Horizontal scroll - toggle Horizontal scroll bar up and down.
• C - open Column selection window where one can choose which columns (parameters) to have in the table. Columns can be added/hidden or rearranged by dragging them up or down in the Column selection window.
• Save - save the current filter to keep it after you reload the page.
• Refresh - refresh table data.
• GO - start a request.
• Share - creates a shared web link to the information displayed at the current screen to send to your partners, see Shared links.

Out of all the tables in the interface, only the Chart and Alert tables of the VoIP Monitor product are refreshed automatically, for any other tables it is necessary to press the Refresh button if you belive the data in the DB has changed (either automatically by stats poller, logger, rate import, etc. or by other users).

Oftentimes it is convenient to filter or modify data in a table by preset criteria like interval, number of fetches rows, timezone, objects shown, grouping of parameters, etc. This purpose is served by various prameter strips. You may see an example in Interval strip or Row limit strip.

Some tables will have the second row of buttons to perform specific functions related to the table. Quite often these buttons will open an Options window where you would need to set some parameters before you perform an action. The parameters entered are saved per each user once the OK button is pressed.

Column layout of any table may be changed by pressing the C button in any Table menu or by Right-clicking any table header. The Column selection window that opens consists of the left and right panes that allow you to add/remove/rearrange columns in the edited table. The left table contains all columns available for this Module. Some tables with a lot of columns (Reports, CDRs) may have them organized in groups by column types and an IN/OUT direction for monitored parameters.

The right table holds currently chosen columns that will be displayed in the edited table header if you click the green OK button. You may move a separate column or a group of columnsit from the left table to the right one and vice versa by clicking the check box or double-clicking a row.

You can also choose several rows by Ctrl-clicking or dragging the mouse over them, and then move the records between the tables by the large left-right move buttons or by Right-clicking anywhere within the table and choosing Move left/right from a context menu.

The double arrows move ALL buttons will either add all columns to a table, or remove all of them, except for the fixed columns. The same effect is obtained if you click the top checkbox in the table headers.

The standard sorting and filtering mechanism is working in both tables and makes it very easy to find a column you need in a long list of columns.

There are six Up/Down buttons available on top of the right table that will allow you to manage the order of chosen columns in the edited table by moving columns up or down.

Each Module or configuration table has a different default set of columns that will be shown. You may quickly choose the columns that match your needs using the Apply preset Drop-down table on top of the Column selection window, and then refine your choice by adding/removing some extra columns, and rearranging them. Once you created the new layout, you may press the green OK button to save your changes, or close the window by the top red cross to cancel them. The new column layout will be applied to the edited table only, unless an optional flag Apply column layout to all tables of this type visible on current screen is set. With this flag on, the layout will be saved for all visible tables if they are of the same type, as the edited table. This is especially convenient when working with lots of small chart blocks in the Thumbnail mode.

You may create and save your own column presets through the Save to preset drop-down table. First, you may need to add a new preset and save its name in the same manner as you edit other config tables (see Config menu). After a new preset is created, you may choose it by cliking its checkbox, and the current column layout from the right table will be saved to this preset. You will then be able to apply this preset to other tables of this type in other Blocks.

Once a custom preset contains a column layout, this preset can be set as default for this table type. All such tables in all newly added screens will have these column in this order. Also, any existing tables that had the previous default preset will change to the new default preset. However, if a table had its layout edited and saved before, it will keep it. To see the effect of this change, one needs to reload the screen to pick up the new defaults.

Users with admin rights can create Global presets that are visible to all other users. This is a great way of sharing a convenient environment tailored to your business needs with others. For instance, you may want all users to have specific columns in a specific order in CDRs, and you may create a global preset and ask each user to apply it.

Table columns can also be re-positioned or removed by dragging and dropping them right in the header of the edited table: However, the Up/Down buttons described above give you a convenience of moving several selected columns at once.

Columns can be of a fixed width (when the information shown in them has fixed width as well) or can be resized by dragging at the gray/blue bar to the left of the column border. If re-sizable columns have never been user-resized, the bar will be gray, indicating that the column will be changing its size automatically as the whole Block is resized. Once the user resized the column manually, the bar will change to blue and the size of this column becomes fixed. The colors can differ depending on the chosen interface style. To get back to auto-resize column, one should Ctrl-click on the bar and drag it a bit.

To facilitate your interaction with tables, the system allows you to use the mouse scroll wheel for horizontal scroll (normally it scrolls vertically) in the following cases:

• If a table is short and has no vertical scroll bar at all.
• If your mouse is positioned over the table header or horizontal scroll bar while scrolling by wheel.
• If Shift is pressed while scrolling.

Export window is activated by pressing the E button in the Table menu or the corresponding item of the In-cell menu. This feature will allow you to analyze data or build reports in external applications like Excel. You may pre-filter data on screen according to your needs before doing the export. Since data is already in the browser memory, and it is not desirable to request it from the DB again (especially in case of CDR queries over a long period of time) - the export is provided through copy-paste, as it is not possible to save a file from the browser once the data has arrived.

You may choose the field separators with which the data will be presented, then copy the pre-selected data, and simply paste it into Excel, or a text editor to create a .csv file. These buttons control the output:

• CSV format - chooses Comma as the field separator.
• "Paste to Excel" format - chooses Tab as the field separator, and adds ="" to long numbers and dates to preserve the way they would be displayed in Excel.

Two additional check boxes are available:

• Column names as headers - adds the column names on top of the contents.
• Column descriptions as headers - adds the column descriptions on top of the contents.

It is possible to use Alt-drag in tables to choose only the columns that you want to export. Alt-Ctrl-drag allows to choose non-adjacent columns.

When one right-clicks a table cell, the In-cell menu will appear. Its contents will vary by the module and even the table column, the most complete menu being in the CDR-like modules of the VoIP Monitoring and Alerting product:

• Add to filter - allows to add the cell value to the filter of the column.
• Clear filter - clears the filter of the column.
• Show/hide children - the same action as clicking on the plus sign of an object in the Table and Report modules.
• View in Chart - opens a Floating block with a Chart module with corresponding filters enabled. The same can be achieved by means of double clicking on the cell.
• View in Table - opens a Floating block with a Table module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in Report - opens a Floating block with a Report module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in CDRs - opens a Floating block with a CDR module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in CDRs, all legs - opens a Floating block with a CDR module with all legs of a call filtered out, including all hunt attempts. This feature only works for the switches that have a field like "Conference ID" to tie different legs of one call together.
• View in CDRbill - opens a Floating block with a CDRbill module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in Calls opens a Floating block with a Calls module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in Traffic logs - opens a Floating block with a Signaling logs module with corresponding filters enabled.
• View in Call flow - opens 2 Floating blocks: with a Signaling logs module and with a corresponding Call flow.
• View in Call flow, all legs - opens 2 Floating blocks: with a Signaling logs module with all legs of the call displayed and with a corresponding Call flow. Up to 20 legs can be shown on the same Call flow.
• Export to Excel - calls an Export window similar to pressing the E button in Table menu.
• Select cell contents - allows to select the cell contents for further copying. The same can be done by the mouse dragging.
• Select col contents - opens a new window with the contents of the column for further copying.
• Auto highlight - works in CDRs to color connected calls in green, and calls with SIP codes 487 or H.323 16 without duration in red (such codes are critical for most carriers as they indicate that the customer waited for too long for a call to be connected, or heard an announcement and ended the call).
• Remove all highlights
• Highlight color palette

Config and rate management tables have a different in-cell menu. Please refer to In-cell edit menu.

Config, rate management, and some other tables have an In-cell edit menu, invoked by right-click, that provides the following editing features:

• Add record
• Clone record
• Edit cell - to edit just the current cell the click was on.
• Edit selected rows - to edit all rows that were selected by mouse dragging before this menu was called.
• Group Edit selected rows - opens a current column in all selected rows for group editing, when you may replace the values in all cells at once.
• Group Edit all filtered rows - allows you to replace all entries in the DB filtered by the current filters. Please be careful, you may not see all records you are changing on screen.
• Delete selected rows - deleted all rows selected before this menu was called.
• Delete all filtered rows - allows you to delete all entries in the DB filtered by the current filters. Please be careful, you may not see all records you are deleting on screen.
• Add to filter - allows to add the cell value to the filter of the column.
• Clear filter - clears the filter of the column.
• Export to Excel - calls an Export window similar to pressing the E button in Table menu.
• Select cell contents - allows to select the cell contents for further copying. The same can be done by the mouse dragging.
• Select col contents - opens a new window with the contents of the column for further copying.
• Remove highlight
• Highlight color palette

The drop-down table is a handy way to quickly jump to a child table containing various data used in the parent table. The advantage over a simple dropbox is that you may filter the items to quickly find the very item you need for the parent table, and see other options for the items (for instance, a description). To select a value for the parent table, simply click a checkbox next to the required record. If the parent table can contain only one value, the window will be closed and the required entity will be entered into the field from which the window was evoked. If the parent table allows several values, the drop-down table is multichoice and you will need to close it manually after you chose all the values by clicking outside of it.

Shared Links are an advanced, yet easy-to-use method of sharing information from the 5gVision with your partners. This feature allows you to take a snapshot of the currently displayed charts, tables, reports, CDRs or traffic logs and share it with any outside party, even if they do not have 5gVision installed.

This option provides a number of exclusive benefits:

• Interactivity - the most common way people share data they see on their screens is by taking screenshots. Still screenshots, however, can give only a "frozen" copy of information while a shared link will direct your partners to a screen with all 5gVision capabilities available to you. A shared link allows your partners to control the amount of data they would like to see at any given time. They may zoom the charts in and out, hide some parameters or objects, scroll charts, tables and logs, and revert any changes they made back. Sharing traffic logs lets your partners view Call flows, inspect individual packets, and export a log in whole or in part.
• Security - the data you share gets uploaded to the shared link server in the form of a text file. Your partner has no access to the actual DB with pertinent information and is limited to the values and parameters you have made available to them. The link address is randomly generated and thus can not be guessed at by simply searching through the variants. Additional security is achieved by using HTTPS connection to the link server.
• Always a correct time - if you have ever struggled to understand when exactly a call connected if you are in GMT-6, you partner is in GMT+3 and your switch is on GMT+0, then shared links are a solution for you. Powered by the same features as 5gVision itself, the shared link will present all data in your partner's timezone by default, further allowing to change timezones or zoom to a specific period - the time will always stay correct. Moreover, unlike a fixed screenshot, your partners will see the chart you shared in a correct time scale. If you shared a chart today, and your partners open a link tomorrow, they will see the chart correctly placed on the time line, ending at exactly the time you created the link.
• Persisting highlights - highlighting the desired data for your partners is a built-in feature with shared links. Color-mark the required rows and this marking will be present in the shared link. Now you may simply say "I highlighted all the problem records in red" to your partners.

Using links is easy and uncomplicated. On the desired screen, simply click the Share button and the system will provide you with a link to the displayed module in a pop-up window. Copy this link and communicate it to your partner. Your partner will see exactly the same information you saw at the moment of sharing. When your partner opens a link, the system displays a screen very similar to the original module but limited only to the information you decided to share. You partner may perform all the viewing operations in the link (like zooming in, changing scale and interval, comparing to previous periods, inspecting all log packets, etc.) but adding new Objects, parameters, intervals, or any other info to the screen is not possible.

If the Shared Link screen content has been altered and the rollback to the original view is required, please click the Refresh button.

Links are valid for 15 days.

Working with tables in config screens is much like working with other tables in the interface. But there is a significant difference: these tables are editable and have an additional table menu:

• Add icon will add new rows to the table.
• Edit icon will activate the whole row for editing. You can select several rows by dragging a mouse or Ctrl-clicking rows and edit them at the same time. To exit the edit mode please press Cancel or Save. To edit a cell you may simply double click it. The small icons over the edited cell will help you to Save or Cancel the changes without excess mouse movement.
• Delete icon will delete selected rows from the table. To select rows - simply drag the mouse, or Ctrl-click for multiple selections. It is also possible to delete rows one by one by the red delete icon appearing at the leftmost ID column.
• Green Save button will save changes to the table.
• Red Cancel button will discard the changes.

Please remember that the standard Table menu blue Save icon is saving table filters, not contents. You need to use the green Save button for contents.