Tips and tricks

Advanced menu

In Sightglass Mobile:

To access the secret menu in the app, open the menu, and click on the image at the top 4 times. When Debug mode is enabled, this menu will stay open.

This shows the “Advanced Menu” at the bottom, offering a variety of options that are not meant to be used by general users.

  • Metrics - Examples of the all of the metrics, and many of the metric options. You can use these for reference, or as a starting off point with the metric sandbox.
  • Insights - Examples of the different types of insights that are possible.
  • Icons - Examples of all the icons available for use in the app.
  • Debug Mode.
  • Preview Mode.

In Sightglass Browser:

To access the secret menu in the browser, click on the user menu icon 3 times. The third time, there will be a new menu item, “Advanced Settings”. This exposes-

Metric Sandbox

The metric sandbox is a helpful tool for you to work with your metrics and instantly see the results. It is only available in the browser version when debug mode is enabled.

To create a new metric, open Metrics in the Advanced Menu, and find a metric similar to what you want to do. Click on the edit button, and enter the sandbox.

To edit or troubleshoot an existing metric, enable Debug mode, navigate to the metric in your solution, and click on the edit button.

The sandbox has three parts:

  • Definition: the metric configuration object
  • Attributes: the attributes passed from the data_source(s). If you are using multiple data_sources, attributes from the non-primary data_source will be shown as data_source_id::attribute_id.
  • Metric preview: the metric that is created using the definition and attributes.

Editing a metric definition in the sandbox will not update it in your solution. You will need to manually copy the changes into your solution, save, and republish.

You can add and change attributes in the sandbox, but again, these changes will need to be translated into the data_source configuration.

You can link to specific examples metrics in the sandbox using the link shown on the page. This isn’t available for any user-created metrics, and will not store any changes you make in the editor.

It’s recommended that you set your “On launch” setting to “Show solution list” to prevent a solution from loading and replacing the metric sandbox.

Debug Mode

When you are actively creating or updating an app, it’s encouraged to have Debug mode enabled in the Advanced Menu. This will alert you to issues with your solution that may be difficult to find otherwise.

Some issues that debug mode attempts to catch:

  • Missing attributes
  • Invalid sentiments
  • String values in charts
  • Multiple rows loaded in an AtomDetail view when just one should be loaded

Preview Mode

There are times you may wish to preview a solution before publishing. To do so, save your tool configurations, and then go to the Browser version. Enable “Preview Mode” in the Advanced Menu. Load the solution as normal, and your changes should be visible.

Important caveats:

  • This is only available in the browser.
  • This is only available while on premise or connected to the VPN.
  • This only shows changes in the tool configuration. Data will come from the release that is set to current in the published version.