Analyze

1. Introduction

Analyze is a tool designed to see what is happening within the interfaces you build. If you implement the Analyze Wiretap component, the message is automatically registered in the Analyze database.

How does this work?

How Analyze records a message

A message reaches the Analyze Wiretap component, which copies it onto an ActiveMQ queue. That copy is made on the flow thread itself, so it costs your flow the time it takes to copy the message. Everything after it does not: the queue is drained separately and written to the database you configured, and you see the result in the Analyze screens. A storage problem also cannot fail your message. If the queue is full or the write fails, the wiretap logs the failure and the message carries on through your flow.

2. Start with Analyze

Log into your ConnectPlaza® environment and select the Analyze tab. Analyze always works against one agent at a time, so the first screen you see is Agent Selection.

The Agent Selection screen

Double-click the row for your agent, or select the arrow Select agent at the end of it.

The arrow is disabled for an agent that is not currently connected. This screen is the one place that shows you which of your agents Analyze can reach.

After you select your agent, the following screen appears.

The Trace overview that Analyze opens on

You can switch to another agent at any time using the agent name in the upper corner of the screen. Switch selected agent

Analyze opens on the Trace overview. The side menu offers the other ways of looking at the same traffic.

The Analyze side menu

  • Traces - every message the Analyze Wiretaps stored, newest first.

  • Compare Messages - the messages you have picked out to compare side by side. The badge shows how many are currently selected.

  • Exports - the export files you have requested, ready to download.

  • Business entities - a group holding Overview, Definitions, Pipelines, Agent Mappings and Deployments.

Traces are representations of the raw data of your messages, as the Analyze Wiretaps recorded it. Business entities are a different view of the same traffic: the business meaning extracted from it. Which one you want depends on the question you are asking, and Analyze concepts explains the difference and the model behind it.

The Business entities screens are described from Business entities onwards. Traces, message details and comparing are described in Traces, messages and comparing.

At the bottom of the menu you see your account details. Press Account menu to open a drop down menu, where you can reach your account settings or select Sign out.

3. Settings

You also see some buttons at the top right of the screen, including a search box.

The buttons at the top right of the screen

These controls are on every Analyze screen.

Button Description

Switch selected agent

Switch selected agent. Every Analyze screen belongs to one agent, so changing it here reloads the screen against the other agent’s data.

More actions

More actions, which offers Export as…​ to export as CSV, EXCEL or XML. What is exported follows the filters that are applied, not any selection you made: on the Trace overview you get the traces the current filters return, and inside a trace you get all of that trace’s messages. The export is prepared in the background and collected from the Exports screen as a .zip file.

Refresh results

Refresh results. Re-runs the current query and reloads the rows, using the filters that are already applied. Use it to pick up messages that arrived since you last searched.

Go to documentation

Go to documentation, which opens these pages.

Toggle filters

Toggle filters, which shows or hides the filter panel. The selected From and To dates stay visible above the results either way The selected date range

Search box

Filters the rows that are already loaded on screen, as you type. It is not a database search: rows on other pages, and rows outside the date window, are never matched. To search the stored data, use the filter panel and press Apply filters.

Refresh results in this toolbar is not the same control as Refresh filters in the filter panel. Refresh results reloads the rows; Refresh filters reloads the values offered in the filter dropdowns. See Filter options.

4. Filter options

The results on screen can be filtered. Make sure the filter toggle is on, so that you can see the filter options.

The filter panel

Every dropdown below is filled from the values your Analyze database has actually seen, so a name only appears once a message has passed through it.

Field(s) Description

The From and To date fields

The start and end of the period to search. Both the date and the time can be picked from a calendar or a clock, or typed in directly.
By default From is yesterday at 00:00:00 and To is the current time plus one hour.

Interface

The interface the message passed through.

Flow

The flow within that interface.

ComponentType

Which wiretap point recorded the message. The Business entities overview calls this same dimension Wiretap.

Sender

The Sender configured on the Analyze Wiretap component. Set it in Constructor if you want to filter on it.

Service

The Service configured on the Analyze Wiretap component, likewise.

4.1. Applying, clearing and refreshing

Three buttons sit under the filter fields, and they do not do what their names might suggest.

Button What it does

Apply filters

Runs the search. Nothing you change in the panel affects the results until you press this, and pressing it always runs the query again, even when you have changed nothing.

Clear filters

Empties the Interface, Flow, ComponentType, Sender and Service fields and removes the chips above the results. It leaves the From and To dates untouched, and it does not re-run the search, so the grid keeps showing the previous query’s rows until you press Apply filters.

Refresh filters

Reloads the values offered in the dropdowns. Use it when a newly deployed flow or a new sender is missing from a list. It does not touch the results.

Above the results you see a chip for each filter that is in force. The chips describe the query that was run, not what the panel currently shows, so if the two disagree it means you have changed the panel and not yet pressed Apply filters. Clear filters is the one case where the chips go away before the grid does: the chips disappear immediately while the rows below them are still the previous query’s.

An empty result grid is far more often the date window than a missing message. Because From starts at yesterday 00:00, anything older falls outside the search. Widen From and press Apply filters before concluding a message was never recorded.

5. The result set

The columns of the result grid

Field Description

Comparison count column

The number of messages in this trace that you have selected for comparison. The badge appears only when at least one is selected.

Start

Start time of the trace

Duration

Total duration time of the complete flow

First step

First step (wiretap) in the flow

Latest step

Last step (wiretap) in the flow

Steps

Total steps (wiretaps) in the flow

Items per page
The items per page selector

The selection box to select the number of items per page