Relations / Refs (SkySpark)

Owned by Charles Patton Jr (Unlicensed)
Nov 29, 2017
3 min read

"Relations" or "references" are the backbone of SkySpark navigation hierarchies, and they allow for the navigation scheme of Periscope to be automatically created within the dashboard's user interface. They also enable context-sensitive views, viewlets, date ranges and more, which streamlines workflow and drastically reduces the setup time for dashboard displays. Best practices call for points, sites and equips to all be tagged before proceeding with the reference tagging. 

Creating Refs


Establishing relationships is easy if using the Builder app that comes with SkySpark since creating new Equips, Points, etc already contain the appropriate references. When creating new equips, points in this fashion you'll notice that the newly created item will have a siteRef and/or equipRef tag already populated.

Batch editing is also possible from this app view. As an example, let's say you have points underneath RTU-1 but you want to move them to a different equip.


  • Start out by holding down CTRL and clicking each item you wish to modify.
  • SkySpark will alert you to the fact that you are batch editing with a notification at the top of the window
  • Check the box of the tag(s) you wish to batch-modify

 

  • Change the value(s) to the desired value and then click the Save button that becomes enabled at the top of the screen

Creating entirely new relationships is also equally possible by adding a new Ref type tag like so:

After adding a ref tag (making sure to end with "Ref" when naming), you will be able to point that Ref to your intended record. In our example with districtRef note that we would need at least one other record with a district marker tag for SkySpark to detect it.

Determining the Proper Refs

Which type of Ref tag you need to add depends on the relationship between the data and its target. Typically, you would add the following Refs to acheive a Site > Equip > Point hierarchy structure:

  • equipRef: point to equip 

  • siteRef: point to site AND equip to site

Additional information on the proper Ref tags can be found in the Project Haystack documentation on structure. If completed properly, Periscope should now be ready to use and should be able to automate navigation and context-based views for the user, assuming the user selects the desired hierarchy structure in Periscope's General Settings. To learn more about creating custom hierarchies outside of a typical site > equip > point structure, click here.