User Guide
ChitChat is an application used to provide comments and documents to OBIEE objects such as dashboards, reports, and tables. After proper installation, the application is available to any dashboard that has a text area containing the appropriate html content (as found in the Installation Guide).
The application is, by default, hidden on an activated dashboard. To toggle the application between show/hide, click the grey activation icon.
In this document, the area commonly referred to as the side-panel, is the dark grey column located on the right-hand side of the application. The side-panel contains most of the application's options and buttons for a variety of functions the application can execute.
In this document, the area commonly referred to as the viewport, is the white column located on the left-hand side of the application. The viewport contains and displays comments and documents, as well as all modal windows to perform common actions, such as editing, deleting, etc.
ChitChat allows users to add comments to dashboards, reports, and table rows, in addition to replying to an existing comment.
To enable the addition of a comment, activate ChitChat by clicking on the activation icon. The Commentary mode of the application opens by default, or can be toggled on by clicking the top-most icon in the side-panel.
To add a comment to a dashboard, open ChitChat and click the "New" icon in the side-panel.
The viewport will change to a new window where you can type the content of the comment, and then click the green Submit button.
If successful, the application will automatically return to the viewport and reload the current comments.
To add a comment to a report, open the commentary tool. Use the mouse to hover over any report on the dashboard. A gray bar will appear at the bottom of the report. This gray bar will tell you how many comments are currently on the report. If there is at least one comment, the gray bar will report how long ago the most recent submission was.
Click this gray bar to select the report. The viewport of the commentary window will change to display the report's comments. Comments can be added to this report by proceeding as usual.
Click the Back icon to go back to the dashboard comments.
To add a comment to a table's row, open ChitChat. To open the commentary window, hover the mouse over the table. As your cursor moves over a row, that row will become highlighted in green. The highlighted row can be selected for commentary by clicking anywhere in the row.
Any rows that already contain comments will have a blue magnifying glass icon to the immediate right of the row. If a row containing comments is selected, comments will be displayed in the application's viewport.
Comments can be added to the table row by proceeding as usual. You can also click the Back icon to go back to the dashboard comments.
To add a reply to a chosen comment, click the Reply text under the comment.
To access additional options, click the Hamburger icon on a comment. An expanded options list will display, allowing for — from top to bottom — Reply, Share, Edit, Delete, and Close.
To edit a comment, click the Edit icon in the side-panel.
The comment will display in the viewport, along with a text box to edit the comment. o save the edited comment, click the green Save button. Click the back arrow to return the viewport to its previous state.
NOTE: Only a comment's original author, or an administrator, may edit a comment.
To delete a comment, click the Delete icon in the side-panel.
The comment will display in the viewport, along with a red button to delete the comment. To delete the comment, click the red Delete button. Click the back arrow to return the viewport to its previous state.
NOTE: Only a comment's original author, and administrators, may delete a comment.
ChitChat also allows users to add or import documentation to a dashboard. To open the documentation mode of the application, click the Documents icon in the side-panel.
To add a document to a dashboard, open ChitChat in the documentation mode. Click the New icon in the side-panel. The viewport will change to a new window.
Provide the title of the document at the top of the viewport. Titles for each document must be unique. Enter the content of the document into the editor, and click the green Submit button.
If successful, the application will automatically return to the viewport and reload the current documents.
When loading documents, the initial page will be the table of contents. To view a specific document, click its name in the table of contents. Alternatively, you can click the Hamburger icon of the item and click the View icon. The document will display in the viewport.
Click the `` icon to close the document.
To edit a document, click the Edit icon in the side-panel.
The document will display in the viewport, along with a WYSIWYG editor to modify the document. To save the modified document, click the green Save button. Click the back arrow to return the viewport to its previous state.
NOTE: Only a document's original author, and administrators, may edit a document.
To delete a document, click the Delete icon in the side-panel.
The document will display in the viewport, along with a red button to delete the document. To delete the document, click the red Delete button. Click the back arrow to return the viewport to its previous state.
NOTE: Only a document's original author, or administrators, may delete a document.
ChitChat allows integration with numerous external web services. These services allow users to push commentary content to external sources, or, in some cases, to pull content into the commentary tool. Multiple exports can also be executed simultaneously, however the examples below only show exports executed one at a time.
While in the Commentary mode of the tool, select the Hamburger icon on an item to expand the options menu. In the options menu, click the Share icon.
A list of applicable integrations will be displayed below the comment. Click the Email button below the comment to open the Email options. The viewport will allow the user to specify a recipient and subject for the comment. Both the subject line and email address must be filled in the form to successfully send an email.
After successfully sending an email from ChitChat, the comment is sent to the user, along with a link to the dashboard where the comment is located.
While in the Commentary mode of the tool, select the Hamburger icon on an item to expand the options menu. In the options menu, click the Share icon. A list of applicable integrations will be displayed below the comment. Click the Slack button below the comment to open the Slack options.
The viewport will allow the user to select a Slack user or Slack channel to send the comment to. You can send the comment to both a specific user and a channel by making a selection in both drop down menus.
The Slack message will contain both the chosen comment, along with a link to the dashboard where the comment is located.
While in the Commentary mode of the tool, select the Hamburger icon on an item to expand the options menu. In the options menu, click the Share icon. A list of applicable integrations will be displayed below the comment. Click the JIRA button below the comment to open the JIRA options.
The viewport will allow the user to select a project, the issue type, the issue priority, and a summary. Upon submission, an issue is created with the provided parameters.
The comment is created as an issue on the appropriate JIRA board, along with a link to the dashboard where the comment is located.
While in the Documentation mode of the tool, select the Hamburger icon on an item to expand the options menu. In the options menu, click the Share icon. Click the Confluence button below the comment to open the Confluence options.
The viewport allows the user to either pull or push to Confluence. Do NOT pull AND push simultaneously, or adverse results will occur. To pull from Confluence, specify the space and title of the document you wish to pull into the application. To push to Confluence, you must only specify the space you wish to push to. Upon submission, a document in Confluence is either created or pulled from.
This integration is bi-directional, meaning when the document is synced, any change in the document in either the commentary tool or Confluence will update the document in the other location as well.
While in the Commentary mode of the tool, select the Hamburger icon on an item to expand the options menu. In the options menu, click the Share icon. A list of applicable integrations will be displayed below the comment. Click the Chatter button below the comment to open the Chatter options.
The viewport will allow the user to select a Chatter user to send the comment to. Select the designated user from the dropdown list. When the user is found, click the Share button.
Users have the capability to filter out comments currently displayed in the viewport.
If the user clicks the Search button in the side-panel, a search field appears at the top of the viewport.
Type the search content in this field, and comments or documents will dynamically filter into and out of the currently displayed viewport. Items can be filtered by display name, author, and content.
Users have the capability to designate a display name for their profile and use an image as their profile image (the default image is the Rittman Mead logo).
If the user clicks the Profile button in the side-panel, the viewport changes to display the user's profile.
The user has the option to identify a display name to show other users, rather than their OBIEE username. The OBIEE username will still be displayed, but not have as much prominence.
The user also has the ability to select a field upload as a profile image. Click the Upload Profile Image link to upload an image file.
Click Save to record any changes.