CSV plugin

The CSV plugin allows you to visualize CSV data, which can either be read from a CSV file or entered manually.

Adding a data source

To add a data source, open the relevant workspace and then click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Add data source page. Adding from the data sources page

Before you start

1. Will SquaredUp need to connect to this data source via a relay agent?
2. Configure access to the CSV file
3. Configure the data source in SquaredUp

This 1 minute video shows how quick it is to add data from CSV.

You'll find more information below about permissions and a step-by-step guide.

Will SquaredUp need to connect to this data source via a relay agent?

This plugin is a hybrid plugin, meaning it can connect to either a cloud or an on-prem data source.

• If your data source is available on the internet, then you do not need to connect via a relay agent.
• If your data source is on a private network and is not publicly accessible, then you will need to configure a relay agent before you configure the plugin. See Deploying a relay agent.

If you have already created a relay agent in SquaredUp that can access this data source, then you can skip this step and choose Connect via relay agent when Configuring the data source.

Configuring access to a CSV file

CSV plugin (Cloud) - File on the internet Web URL - OneDrive

You can share a file on the internet, with no security, and specify a web URL in the tile config. For example, on OneDrive, you will need to set the link settings to work for Anyone. If this is not suitable security for the data you are using, you might want to consider the on-prem plugin which uses the relay agent to access the CSV in a secure location.

CSV plugin on-prem - File/folder - Windows

When configuring the data source, there are certain CSV locations you can specify (such as Windows File or Windows Folder) that use Access Control Lists (ACLs) to control which identities have access.

It is the identity of the relay agent that needs to be given permission to the folder, rather than the SquaredUp user.

The relay agent service uses the local system identity by default, but this may have been changed to NetworkService or a domain service account, for example for use with the SCOM tile.

For example, if you want to read a CSV from a Windows folder, you must give the system identity used by the relay agent permissions to your folder:

Configuring the data source

1. Display name:
   Enter a name for your data source. This helps you to identify this data source in the list of your data sources.

2. Connect via relay agent:
   If you are connecting to an on-prem data source, select this toggle so you can use a relay agent to connect securely.

   Then, select the Agent Group that contains the agent(s) you want to use. Agent groups are managed from Settings > Relay Agents.

   Note

   When selecting an agent group, be careful about mixing agent types. If you have a group composed of Linux and Windows agents, there could be potential issues when attempting to read a CSV file from a Windows based location on Linux, and vice versa.

3. Restrict access to this data source:
   Optionally, enable this toggle if you only want certain users/groups to have access to the data source, or those with the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.

4. Click Add to add the plugin.

Next steps

Once you've added a CSV data source, you can start creating dashboards to visualize your data.

Use the File data stream to use CSV data which is saved in a shared file, so that the tile updates when the CSV file is updated. Alternatively, use the Raw Text data stream to copy and paste the raw CSV data straight into the tile.

You may also like: Blog: Getting started with the CSV data source

Showing data on a tile using a CSV file

1. On a dashboard click + and then Data to add a new data tile.
2. Data Stream tab:
   Click on File.
   If File isn't listed then perhaps the data source was added for the organization but not this workspace. Click the Data Source menu > Add new data source and look through the data sources listed.
   If you still can't see the data source perhaps it doesn't exist at the organization level, so click the link at the bottom of the page to add a new data source.
   Click on the Objects tab (or click Next).
3. Objects tab:
   Click on the name you gave your Data Source to tick it.
   Click on the Parameters tab (or click Next).
4. Parameters tab
   Choose the CSV Location and enter the path:
   • Web URL:
     Enter the location of a CSV file shared on the internet.
     
     Note

     You can share a file on Onedrive, but you will need to set the link settings to work for Anyone, so you should consider whether this is suitable security for the data you are using.

     
     If you are using the on-prem plugin you will have further options:
   • Windows File (Windows Relay agent):
     Specify the Folder and File location of the CSV.
   • Windows Folder (Windows Relay agent):
     Specify the Folder location from which to get the most recently created CSV.
   • Linux File (Linux Relay agent):
     Specify the Folder and File location of the CSV.
   • Linux Folder (Linux Relay agent):
     Specify the Folder location from which to get the most recently created CSV.
5. Has Header Row:
   If your data uses the first row as the header tick the box.
6. Advanced Options:
   • Delimiter:
     If the delimiter is not automatically detected, you can specify the delimiter, such as a semicolon, here.
   • Skip Lines:
     Enter the number of lines in the file to skip before importing CSV data. This is useful in circumstances where the file includes some sort of intro text.
   • For Web URLs:

     Ignore certificate errors:
     If you activate this checkbox the data source will ignore certificate errors when accessing the server. This is useful if you have self-signed certificates.

7. A suitable visualization is chosen, where possible, but at this point you might like to change the visualization used, see Visualization Settings.
   In the right hand pane you can also hide and sort columns,
   The Filter | Group | Sort and Columns sections can help you configure the visualization as you need.
8. Filter | Group | Sort tab:
   This taballows you to perform filtering, grouping and sorting operations on the data.
   
   Filtering

   Data can be filtered according to whether data in a column meets or does not meet specified text or numerical value conditions.

   Multiple filters

   You are able to add multiple filter conditions using the following operators:

   • AND: All conditions must be satisfied (e.g. Status-Equals-Closed ANDType-Equals-Question).
   • OR: Any condition can be satisfied (e.g. Status-Equals-Pending ORStatus-Equals-Closed).

   Available filters

   The following options are available when filtering data, which ones display depends on the column type.

   Option	Description
   Equals	Checks if the value of a field is the same as the specified value. For example,a Status of Active will return results where the status is Active.
   Not equals	Checks if the value of a field is not equal to the specified value. It returns true if the values are different. For example, a status of Active would return results where the category is notActive.
   Contains	Returns data if the specified value exists within the field value. For example, example: URL Contains projects will return results where the URL includes the word "projects" anywhere in the string.
   Doesn't contain	Returns data if the specified value doesn't exist within the field value. For example, example: URL Doesn't contain projects will return results where the URL doesn't include the word "projects" anywhere in the string.
   Less than	Checks if the value of a field is below the specified value. It is used for numerical or date values. For example, IncidentsLess than50 would return results where the number of incidents is below 50.
   Greater than	Checks if the value of a field is over a specified value. It is used for numerical or date values. For example, Incidents Greater than 50 would return results where the number of incidents is over 50.
   Is more than	Available when working with a date / time column. Checks if the value of a field is older than a given time period. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period, and whether to measure ago or from now. For example, Due Is more than 100 days from now will return results where the due date is later than the current day + 100 days. Similarly, Due Is more than 100 days ago will return results where the submitted date is earlier than the current day.
   Within last	Filter records that fall within a specific time range from before the current date and time. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period. For example, Submitted Within last 100 days will return results where the submitted date is between the current day and 100 days ago.
   Within next	Filter records that are within a specified time range after the current date and time. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period. For example, Event date Within next 7 days would return results where the event date is within the next week.
   Is empty	Returns all data without a date value. Useful for identifying records where data is missing.
   Is not empty	Returns all data with a date value.

   Grouping

   Use the grouping section to group and aggregate data columns.

   For example, for AWS cost data you might configure the following settings to display a table or bar chart of cost per label:

   • Group by:label
   • Aggregation type: Total
   • Aggregation column: Amount

   Which columns are available depends on the data stream you chose.

   Configuring grouping enables different visualizations to be displayed, such as bar chart and donut. For example, grouping tickets by channel allows you to show a donut of how many tickets were logged by email vs web form.

   Bucket by

   If you group by a time column, and further grouping is possible, the Bucket by dropdown appears. Use this field to control how the time data is grouped, for example by hour, day, month etc.

   Aggregation

   To aggregate your data, you must select an Aggregation type and a target Aggregation column. For example, if creating bar chart for an Azure Resource Group cost, you could configure the following settings:

   • Group by: Timestamp
   • Bucket by: Day
   • Aggregation type: Total
   • Aggregate column: Cost

   The following lists the available aggregation types.

   Aggregate	Description
   Total	Sums up all numerical values in a dataset, providing the overall total
   Average	Calculates the mean by dividing the total sum by the number of values
   Count	Determines the number of entries in a dataset, including duplicates
   Distinct Count	Counts only unique values, ignoring duplicates
   Max	Identifies the highest value in a dataset
   Median	Finds the middle value when data is sorted in ascending order
   Min	Identifies the lowest value in a dataset
   Mode	Determines the most frequently occurring value in a dataset

   Sorting

   The Sort section allows you to select one or more columns to sort your date by, in either ascending or descending order.

   While this sets the default sort order of data, but you can always click on a column heading to sort the data table on the fly.

   To sort by multiple columns, click Add sort by to add a new row of sort fields to the list. This allows you perform more complex sorts, such as sorting data by the data it was created, then sorting those results alphabetically.

   Enabling the Top toggle allows you to specify the top n rows of data to display.

9. Columns tab:
   Column configuration

   SquaredUp automatically defines the metadata retrieved from data streams so the data is assigned the correct data type, however in some circumstances you may want to override this.

   For example, when retrieving data using the Web API plugin, scripting, or custom query data streams (such as Splunk Enterprise plugin), the assigned data type may not be quite correct or as you expect.

   Column settings

   Use the following options to format your columns.

   Option	Description
   Name	To rename a column, click the current Name value and enter a new one. Columns that can be renamed display the Rename column icon when hovered over.
   Type	Click on the row and then select an option from the Type dropdown to change the data type of the column. If any additional options are available to configure, the dropdown is expanded below.
   Value	Displays the original value of the column.
   Formatted	Displays the formatted value of the column.
   Add a copy of this column	Click to duplicate a column. The copied field displays Copy of [field name] above its Name.
   Remove this column	Click to delete a cloned column.

   Custom formatting

   Clicking on a row opens the Configure column window, where you can modify the column name and type. Additionally, you can also supply a format expression to manipulate how the column value is displayed.

   For example, you might want to attach a label to a value, combine multiple columns together or display the result of some other calculation.

   See Expressions for more.

   Custom columns

   Custom columns allow you to take any data stream and add completely new columns defined by you. You can provide a value expression when configuring the column to calculate the new column value by leveraging the available data.

   Note

   It is currently not possible to reference a custom column via an expression from inside another custom column.

   For example, you might want to create a new URL column by entering an expression that combines an address with a ticket ID, or to map data values in order to create state columns.

   To add a new custom column, click the Add button under the columns table and select the Custom option. A new column is then added to the list and the Configure column window opens.
   

   See Expressions for more.

   Comparison columns

   Comparison columns are used to compare two values, for example you may want to compare the number of tickets raised this month to the number of tickets raised last month. You can choose to show the value as an absolute change (for example, 12 more tickets) or as a percentage change (for example, a 28% increase).

   When a column has a Type of Number, the Add comparison

   button displays at the end of the row, which you can click to open the Add comparison window.

   
   From this window, if you have multiple columns with a Type of Number, you can create a comparison column by doing the following:

   1. Column A:
      Select the first column to compare against. Automatically populated with the column of which you clicked Add comparison
      .
   2. Column B:
      Select the second column to compare against.
   3. Output:
      Select how to display the comparison value. This value is displayed in the Preview field. Choose from:
      • Absolute: Show the numerical value of Column A - Column B.
      • Percentage: Show the ratio of Column B to Column A as a percent.
   4. Click Add to create the comparison.

   Additional options

   Some data types have advanced settings that can be configured in the options section, which is displayed whenever you change the data Type or by clicking expand

   next to the column Name.

   Option	Description
   Output Format	Enter a custom format to display date values as a string. Any specified output format is supported. For example, dd/mm/yy, dd/mm/yyyy or d/M/Y. Note By default, dates and times are displayed in your local timezone to ensure the data makes sense to you.
   Input Format	Enter the format that corresponds to the inputted date. For example, if your data has values such as 05/27/24 01:44 PM, then the Input Format should be set to dd/mm/yy hh:mm aa. Any input format is supported, however if you have a custom input format that is missing any time zone information, the input is always assumed to be UTC. Note This field is required if the data string for the column are not ISO-8601 formatted. For example, 2024-09-09T13:52:25.281Z.
   Currency	Select the currency to display the value in. This does not convert the currency value.
   Decimal Places	Formats the number of decimal places for a supported data type. Enter a value between 0 and 20.
   Link Text	Specify the text of the URL links in the column.
   Format as duration	Toggle between displaying the time value in minutes and seconds or seconds.
   Map Values to States	You can map the states you're getting back from your data to the states SquaredUp expects. SquaredUp expects the following values for states to be able to show Status Blocks in the correct matching color: success green warning yellow error red unknown gray If your data uses different values for states, you can map them to the values SquaredUp expects. Tip: Any state value that SquaredUp doesn't recognize gets automatically set to unknown. You can usually just leave out the unknown state from your mapping and just specify the other three states.

10. Optionally, configure Monitoring and KPIs.
11. When you have finished click Save.
    

Showing data on a tile using CSV Raw Text

1. On a dashboard click + and then Data to add a new data tile.
2. Data Stream tab:
   Click on Raw Text.
   If Raw Text isn't listed then perhaps the data source was added for the organization but not this workspace. Click the Data Source menu > Add new data source and look through the data sources listed.
   If you still can't see the data source perhaps it doesn't exist at the organization level, so click the link at the bottom of the page to add a new data source.
   Click on the Objects tab (or click Next).
3. Objects tab:
   Click on the name you gave your Data Source to tick it.
   Click on the Parameters tab (or click Next).
4. Parameters tab:
   • CSV Text:
     Paste your raw CSV data into the box.
     

   • Has Header Row:
     If your data uses the first row as the header tick the box.
   • Advanced Options:
     If the delimiter, i.e. comma, is not automatically detected, you can specify the delimiter, such as a semicolon, here.
5. A suitable visualization is chosen, where possible, but at this point you might like to change the visualization used, see Visualization Settings.
   In the right hand pane you can also hide and sort columns,
   The Filter | Group | Sort and Columns sections can help you configure the visualization as you need.
6. Filter | Group | Sort tab:
   This tab allows you to perform filtering, grouping and sorting operations on the data.
   
   Filtering

   Data can be filtered according to whether data in a column meets or does not meet specified text or numerical value conditions.

   Multiple filters

   You are able to add multiple filter conditions using the following operators:

   • AND: All conditions must be satisfied (e.g. Status-Equals-Closed ANDType-Equals-Question).
   • OR: Any condition can be satisfied (e.g. Status-Equals-Pending ORStatus-Equals-Closed).

   Available filters

   The following options are available when filtering data, which ones display depends on the column type.

   Option	Description
   Equals	Checks if the value of a field is the same as the specified value. For example,a Status of Active will return results where the status is Active.
   Not equals	Checks if the value of a field is not equal to the specified value. It returns true if the values are different. For example, a status of Active would return results where the category is notActive.
   Contains	Returns data if the specified value exists within the field value. For example, example: URL Contains projects will return results where the URL includes the word "projects" anywhere in the string.
   Doesn't contain	Returns data if the specified value doesn't exist within the field value. For example, example: URL Doesn't contain projects will return results where the URL doesn't include the word "projects" anywhere in the string.
   Less than	Checks if the value of a field is below the specified value. It is used for numerical or date values. For example, IncidentsLess than50 would return results where the number of incidents is below 50.
   Greater than	Checks if the value of a field is over a specified value. It is used for numerical or date values. For example, Incidents Greater than 50 would return results where the number of incidents is over 50.
   Is more than	Available when working with a date / time column. Checks if the value of a field is older than a given time period. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period, and whether to measure ago or from now. For example, Due Is more than 100 days from now will return results where the due date is later than the current day + 100 days. Similarly, Due Is more than 100 days ago will return results where the submitted date is earlier than the current day.
   Within last	Filter records that fall within a specific time range from before the current date and time. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period. For example, Submitted Within last 100 days will return results where the submitted date is between the current day and 100 days ago.
   Within next	Filter records that are within a specified time range after the current date and time. You must additionally specify a time quantity and period. For example, Event date Within next 7 days would return results where the event date is within the next week.
   Is empty	Returns all data without a date value. Useful for identifying records where data is missing.
   Is not empty	Returns all data with a date value.

   Grouping

   Use the grouping section to group and aggregate data columns.

   For example, for AWS cost data you might configure the following settings to display a table or bar chart of cost per label:

   • Group by:label
   • Aggregation type: Total
   • Aggregation column: Amount

   Which columns are available depends on the data stream you chose.

   Configuring grouping enables different visualizations to be displayed, such as bar chart and donut. For example, grouping tickets by channel allows you to show a donut of how many tickets were logged by email vs web form.

   Bucket by

   If you group by a time column, and further grouping is possible, the Bucket by dropdown appears. Use this field to control how the time data is grouped, for example by hour, day, month etc.

   Aggregation

   To aggregate your data, you must select an Aggregation type and a target Aggregation column. For example, if creating bar chart for an Azure Resource Group cost, you could configure the following settings:

   • Group by: Timestamp
   • Bucket by: Day
   • Aggregation type: Total
   • Aggregate column: Cost

   The following lists the available aggregation types.

   Aggregate	Description
   Total	Sums up all numerical values in a dataset, providing the overall total
   Average	Calculates the mean by dividing the total sum by the number of values
   Count	Determines the number of entries in a dataset, including duplicates
   Distinct Count	Counts only unique values, ignoring duplicates
   Max	Identifies the highest value in a dataset
   Median	Finds the middle value when data is sorted in ascending order
   Min	Identifies the lowest value in a dataset
   Mode	Determines the most frequently occurring value in a dataset

   Sorting

   The Sort section allows you to select one or more columns to sort your date by, in either ascending or descending order.

   While this sets the default sort order of data, but you can always click on a column heading to sort the data table on the fly.

   To sort by multiple columns, click Add sort by to add a new row of sort fields to the list. This allows you perform more complex sorts, such as sorting data by the data it was created, then sorting those results alphabetically.

   Enabling the Top toggle allows you to specify the top n rows of data to display.

7. Columns tab:
   Column configuration

   SquaredUp automatically defines the metadata retrieved from data streams so the data is assigned the correct data type, however in some circumstances you may want to override this.

   For example, when retrieving data using the Web API plugin, scripting, or custom query data streams (such as Splunk Enterprise plugin), the assigned data type may not be quite correct or as you expect.

   Column settings

   Use the following options to format your columns.

   Option	Description
   Name	To rename a column, click the current Name value and enter a new one. Columns that can be renamed display the Rename column icon when hovered over.
   Type	Click on the row and then select an option from the Type dropdown to change the data type of the column. If any additional options are available to configure, the dropdown is expanded below.
   Value	Displays the original value of the column.
   Formatted	Displays the formatted value of the column.
   Add a copy of this column	Click to duplicate a column. The copied field displays Copy of [field name] above its Name.
   Remove this column	Click to delete a cloned column.

   Custom formatting

   Clicking on a row opens the Configure column window, where you can modify the column name and type. Additionally, you can also supply a format expression to manipulate how the column value is displayed.

   For example, you might want to attach a label to a value, combine multiple columns together or display the result of some other calculation.

   See Expressions for more.

   Custom columns

   Custom columns allow you to take any data stream and add completely new columns defined by you. You can provide a value expression when configuring the column to calculate the new column value by leveraging the available data.

   Note

   It is currently not possible to reference a custom column via an expression from inside another custom column.

   For example, you might want to create a new URL column by entering an expression that combines an address with a ticket ID, or to map data values in order to create state columns.

   To add a new custom column, click the Add button under the columns table and select the Custom option. A new column is then added to the list and the Configure column window opens.
   

   See Expressions for more.

   Comparison columns

   Comparison columns are used to compare two values, for example you may want to compare the number of tickets raised this month to the number of tickets raised last month. You can choose to show the value as an absolute change (for example, 12 more tickets) or as a percentage change (for example, a 28% increase).

   When a column has a Type of Number, the Add comparison

   button displays at the end of the row, which you can click to open the Add comparison window.

   
   From this window, if you have multiple columns with a Type of Number, you can create a comparison column by doing the following:

   1. Column A:
      Select the first column to compare against. Automatically populated with the column of which you clicked Add comparison
      .
   2. Column B:
      Select the second column to compare against.
   3. Output:
      Select how to display the comparison value. This value is displayed in the Preview field. Choose from:
      • Absolute: Show the numerical value of Column A - Column B.
      • Percentage: Show the ratio of Column B to Column A as a percent.
   4. Click Add to create the comparison.

   Additional options

   Some data types have advanced settings that can be configured in the options section, which is displayed whenever you change the data Type or by clicking expand

   next to the column Name.

   Option	Description
   Output Format	Enter a custom format to display date values as a string. Any specified output format is supported. For example, dd/mm/yy, dd/mm/yyyy or d/M/Y. Note By default, dates and times are displayed in your local timezone to ensure the data makes sense to you.
   Input Format	Enter the format that corresponds to the inputted date. For example, if your data has values such as 05/27/24 01:44 PM, then the Input Format should be set to dd/mm/yy hh:mm aa. Any input format is supported, however if you have a custom input format that is missing any time zone information, the input is always assumed to be UTC. Note This field is required if the data string for the column are not ISO-8601 formatted. For example, 2024-09-09T13:52:25.281Z.
   Currency	Select the currency to display the value in. This does not convert the currency value.
   Decimal Places	Formats the number of decimal places for a supported data type. Enter a value between 0 and 20.
   Link Text	Specify the text of the URL links in the column.
   Format as duration	Toggle between displaying the time value in minutes and seconds or seconds.
   Map Values to States	You can map the states you're getting back from your data to the states SquaredUp expects. SquaredUp expects the following values for states to be able to show Status Blocks in the correct matching color: success green warning yellow error red unknown gray If your data uses different values for states, you can map them to the values SquaredUp expects. Tip: Any state value that SquaredUp doesn't recognize gets automatically set to unknown. You can usually just leave out the unknown state from your mapping and just specify the other three states.

8. Optionally, configure Monitoring and KPIs.
9. When you have finished click Save.

Data streams

You can use these data streams to create new tiles to show data, or if there are preconfigured dashboards installed you can copy or edit those.

The following data streams are installed with this plugin.

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