vC Ops Custom Dashboard Widget Interaction Reference

The past few posts have explored some capabilities of the Custom UI in vC Ops, including custom dashboards.  Please keep in mind that you don't need to use custom dashboards or the Custom UI to get a lot of benefit from vC Ops.  A lot of consideration went into the design and functionality of the vSphere UI and it is a very useful interface.  Before jumping into custom dashboards, take time to get familiar with the vSphere UI as it's very likely going to provide the vSphere admin with everything they need.

If you've worked with custom dashboards you may know that widgets can interact with each other.  That is to say, widgets can provide certain resource types to other widgets to display specific information on your dashboard and make it interactive.

The following matrices may be of use to you as a reference in creating widget interactions.  The first shows each widget as a provider and then describes the resource types the widget provides and which widgets can receive them.  The second matrix enumerates the resource types by receiving widget and then provider.


Thanks to the folks in Technical Marketing at VMware for allowing me to share this information.

Select "read more" below to see the matrices.

Providers -> Receivers Matrix
Providing Widget	Resource Type Provided	Receiving Widget
None	N/A	Application Overview
		Generic Scoreboard
		Heat Map
		Metric Weather Map
		Tag Selector
Alerts	Selected Resource  & Alerts	Resources
	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
Heat Map	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
Health Status	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Selector
		Metric Sparklines
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
Root Cause Ranking	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
Health Tree	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Selector
		Metric Sparklines
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
Advance Health Tree	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Selector
		Metric Sparklines
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
Generic Score Board	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
Health-Workload Score Board	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
VC Relationship (Planning)	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
VC Relationship	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Selector
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines
Resources	Selected Resource	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Configuration Overview
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Health Workload Scoreboard
		Mashup Charts
		Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Selector
		Metric Sparklines
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		VC Relationships
		VC Relationships (Planning)
Tag Selector	Selected Tag	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Application Detail
		Configuration Overview
		Geo
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Mashup Charts
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		Top-N Analysis
Application Overview	Selected Application	Advanced Health Tree
		Alerts
		Application Detail
		Configuration Overview
		Geo
		Health Status
		Health Tree
		Mashup Charts
		Resources
		Root Cause Ranking
		Top-N Analysis
Metric Selector	Selected Metric	Data Distribution Analysis
		Metric Graph
		Metric Graph (Rolling View)
		Metric Sparklines

Receivers -> Providers Matrix
Receiving Widget	Resource Type Provided	Receiving Widget
Advanced Health Tree	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Alerts	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Application Detail	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Application Overview	N/A	None
Configuration Overview	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Data Distribution Analysis	Selected Metric	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Root Cause Ranking
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Metric Selector
Generic Scoreboard	N/A	None
Geo	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Health Status	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Health Tree	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Health Workload Scoreboard	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
Heat Map	N/A	None
Mashup Charts	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Metric Graph	Selected Resource	Health Status
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Resources
	Selected Metric	Metric Selector
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Root Cause Ranking
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
Metric Graph (Rolling View)	Selected Resource	Health Status
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Resources
	Selected Metric	Metric Selector
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Root Cause Ranking
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
Metric Selector	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
Metric Sparklines	Selected Resource	Health Status
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Resources
	Selected Metric	Metric Selector
	Selected Resource & Metrics	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Root Cause Ranking
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
Metric Weather Map	N/A	None
Resources	Selected Resource  & Alerts	Alerts
	Selected Resource	Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Root Cause Ranking	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
Tag Selector	N/A	None
Top-N Analysis	Selected Tag	Tag Selector
	Selected Application	Application Overview
VC Relationships	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources
VC Relationships (Planning)	Selected Resource	Alerts
		Heat Map
		Health Status
		Root Cause Ranking
		Health Tree
		Advance Health Tree
		Generic Score Board
		Health-Workload Score Board
		VC Relationship (Planning)
		VC Relationship
		Resources