Operations and Analytics Consoles

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Overview

Configure the way the client works with the MobileFirst Analytics Server, configure and view a wide range of reports using the Operations and Analytics Consoles.

IBM MobileFirst Analytics Console

From the MobileFirst Analytics Console, view and configure the Analytics reports. Manage alerts and view client logs.

You can open the Analytics Console from the MobileFirst Operations Console by clicking the Analytics Console link in the top-right navigation bar.

Analytics console button

After navigating to the Analytics Console, the default Dashboard panel appears. If a client application has already sent logs and analytics data to the server, the relevant reports are populated. The Apps and Infrastructure can be chosen from the navigation bar.

Analytics console

Dashboard

In the Dashboard panel, you can review collected analytics data related to application crashes, application sessions, and server processing time. Additionally you can create custom charts as well as manage alerts.

Apps

In the Apps panel, you can review in-depth analytics data related to usage and devices (such as total device and app sessions, active users, app usage, new devices, model usage and operating system), as well as crash-related data. Search through client logs for specific apps and devices (Apps → Client Log Search).

Infrastructure

In the Infrastructure panel you can review analytics data related to: session processing time, average request size, server requests, network requests, adapters response time, procedure response time, and size and adapters usage, as well as push notifications data such as notification requests and per mediator. You can also search through server logs.

Learn more in the Analytics Workflows tutorial.

Note: The client/server log Search and Export data functionality does not invoke an action on mouse click event when the date filter is modified, as observed in recent versions of Chrome browser. This behaviour is caused due to a problem with the Chrome browser and also due to a known limitation. This issue does not occur in other browsers and in Chrome browser versions prior to v54.0.2840.71. In the most recent versions of Chrome browser, users can work around this issue by setting the date required and then refresh the page before clicking on the Search/Export button or can hit the Enter/Return key to perform the selected action.

Analytics features

App Analytics

From the Apps → Usage and Devices tab, you can view App Session charts and App Usage charts to find out which app is being used most frequently by your users.

Built-in Analytics

When you use the MobileFirst client SDK together with the MobileFirst Server, analytics data automatically gets collected for any request that your app makes to the MobileFirst Server. From Dashboard → Overview view basic device metadata that gets collected and reported to the MobileFirst Analytics Server.

Custom Analytics

You can have your app send custom data and create custom charts for your custom data.

Learn how to send custom analytics in the Analytics API tutorial.

Custom charts

Custom charts allow you to visualize the collected analytics data in your analytics data store as charts that are not available by default in the Analytics Console (Dashboard → Custom Charts). This visualization feature is a powerful way to analyze business-critical data.

Learn how to create custom charts in the Creating Custom Charts tutorial.

Manage alerts

Alerts provide a proactive means to monitor the health of your mobile apps without having to check the MobileFirst Analytics Console regularly.

From the Dashboard → Alert Management tab, you can configure thresholds which, if exceeded, trigger alerts to notify administrators. You can visualize the triggered alerts on the console or handle them by using a custom web hook. A custom web hook allows you to control who is notified when an alert is triggered, and how.

Learn how to manage alerts in the Manage Alerts tutorial.

Monitor app crashes

App crashes are visualized on the Analytics Console (Apps → Crashes), where you can quickly view crashes and act on them accordingly. Crash logs are collected on the device by default and sent to the server once the application is running again. When crash logs are sent to the analytics server, they automatically populate the crash charts.

Monitor server and network data

The Analytics Console monitors network data when it is sent to the Analytics Server, and allows the user to query this information in different ways (Infrastructure → Servers and Networks).

Collect, search, and report on client logs

Client logs can be sent to the server and included in analytics reports.

To include logging information in a report:

  1. From the Analytics Console, choose the Dashboard → Custom Charts tab.

  2. Choose Client Logs from the Event Type pull-down menu.

For more information on Custom Charts, see Creating Custom Charts.

Logging data can be filtered. Log filters can be configured and saved on the Analytics Server, and then retrieved by client applications.

For information on configuring log filters, see Client log searches tutorial.

For more information on sending logs from the client, see Client log collection.

Capture and view In-App User Feedback

Using the In-App User Feedback feature users of your applications can take screenshots of the the application, annotate them with markers and comments that describe their feedback and opinion about the application. User feedback captured and sent from mobile devices is aggregated by the Mobile Foundation Analytics Service and presented on the Analytics Console for Application Owners and Developers to review, gather insights and take actions if necessary.

Learn more about viewing in In-App User Feedback tutorial.

IBM MobileFirst Operations Console

Configure and administer the Analytics Server with the MobileFirst Operations Console.

If you are in the Analytics Console, access the MobileFirst Operations Console by clicking the Operations Console button in the top navigation bar.

Collect analytics data from additional logger packages

By default, only logging from the package com.worklight is sent to analytics. In order to add logging from additional packages see Forwarding logs to the Analytics Server.

Enable/disable Analytics support

The collection of data for analysis by the Analytics server is enabled by default. You can disable it, for example to save processing time.

  1. In the navigation sidebar, click on Runtime settings. To avoid inadvertent changes, runtime properties are displayed in read-only mode.
  2. To make the settings editable, click the Edit button. If you logged in with a role other than administrator or deployer, the Edit button is not visible because you are not allowed to modify runtime properties.
  3. From the Data collection enabled drop-down menu, select false to disable data collection.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Click the Read Only button to lock the properties again.

Enable or disable analytics support in the console

Role-based access control

Content in the Analytics Console is restricted by predefined security roles.
The Analytics Console displays different content based on the security role of the logged-in user. The following table shows the security roles and their access to the Analytics Console.

Role Role name Viewing Access Editing Access
Administrator analytics_administrator Everything. Everything.
Infrastructure analytics_infrastructure Everything. Everything.
Developer analytics_developer Everything except for the Administration pages. Everything.
Support analytics_support Everything except for the Administration pages. Everything.
Business analytics_business Everything except for the Administration and Infrastructure pages. Everything.

For information on setting up roles, see Configuring user authentication for MobileFirst Server administration.

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Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.
Last modified on October 30, 2019