KnowNow Topic Modeler

This document covers the following topics:

Overview

The KnowNow Topic Modeler allows you to navigate through event topics and topic information. You can also manage topics, events, routes, access control, and filters on topics and routes.

Navigating Topic Space

The hierarchical structure of topics within a KnowNow Event Router is referred to as topic space. Topic Modeler allows you to navigate the topic space and examine topic properties and events with the Topic Explorer.

Topic Explorer

The Topic Explorer is located on the left-hand side of the screen and represents the topic space of a Router as an expandable tree of nodes, with the Router as the topmost node. A series of icons depict the various topics present on the Router. For more information on the icons, refer to Topic Explorer Icons.

Topic Explorer Icons

Topic Explorer Icons

Icon

Description

 

KnowNow Event Router

 

Topic

 

Journal Topic

 

Filter

Selecting Topics

To select a topic, click on the topic name in the Topic Explorer. The topic is highlighted in the tree, indicating it is the currently selected topic. To select a different topic, simply click the name of the new topic to be selected. Only one topic can be selected at a time.

Expanding and Collapsing Topics

Topics can be expanded to examine the subtopics within. To expand a topic, click on its icon to the left of the topic. The topic will "open" to display any subtopics within it. To collapse a topic, click on its icon again.

Topic Modeler Modes

Modes Overview

Topic Modeler provides the following four modes for working with topics:

·         Properties

·         Events

·         Routes

·         Filters

Topic Modeler Modes

You can access a mode by clicking the appropriate tab in the menu located above the main screen. Topic Modeler modes operate in the context of the currently selected topic. To work with a topic you must first select it from the Topic Explorer tree.

Properties Tab (default mode)

Use the Properties tab to view, edit, and delete the selected topic and its properties. You can also create new subtopics within the selected topic.

Events Tab

Use the Events tab to view, edit, and delete events within the selected topic. You can optionally clear all events from the topic here.

Routes Tab

Use the Routes tab to manage the routes from this topic to other locations. Routes depict how events flow between topics. A topic can have multiple routes.

Filters Tab

Use the Filters tab to attach and detach filters on a topic.

Working With Topics

Topic Modeler enables you to view, edit and delete topic and events using the tabbed Modes.

Viewing Topic Properties

To view the properties of a topic, select the topic from the Topic Explorer tree, then click the Properties tab. A table of that topic's properties should appear in the main screen.

Properties View Mode

The table of properties is organized into three columns:

Column Name

Description

Property Name

the name of the topic property.

Value

the property value.

Actions

the actions you can perform on the selected topic, currently Edit and Delete.

Editing A Topic Property

You can use the Properties table (Properties View Mode) to change the value of a topic property:

1.      Click the Edit button (Actions column) next to the topic you want to Edit. An editing field appears below the table.

2.      Edit the value of the property, as needed.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original values, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel your edits and return to the Properties table.

Adding A New Topic Property

You have the option of adding a new property to the selected topic.

To add a new topic property:

1.      Click the Add New Property button located above the property table. An editing field appears below the table.

2.      Enter the name and value of the property you wish to add.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original values, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel your changes and return to the Properties table.

 

Caution: Editing and adding topic properties can have unforeseen consequences. Therefore it is recommended that you use caution when editing and adding topic properties. For example, editing the value of the kn_id property will create a new topic with the new kn_id value and leave the original topic intact. Other properties such as kn_route_location are used by the Microservers and should not be edited without a full understanding of how they operate.

Deleting a Topic Property

To delete a topic property, click the Delete button next to it in the property table. To complete the action, click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

Once the topic has been deleted, its parent topic will become the selected topic. For example, if the topic " /what/sports/football " is deleted, the topic " /what/sports " becomes the selected topic.

Creating a Subtopic

The Properties tab also allows you the option of creating a subtopic within the currently selected topic.

To create a subtopic:

1.      Click the Create Subtopic button located above the property table. A topic entry dialog appears, replacing the property table.

2.      Enter the name of the subtopic you want to create in the first field.

3.      If desired, enter a value for the max queue size for the new subtopic. This value must be an integer. If you do not desire to specify a max queue size, leave this field blank.

4.      Enter a new value for topic expiration in the topic expires field. By default, the expiration value for the new subtopic is "infinity," meaning the topic never expires.

5.      Click the Save Topic button to save your changes. The property table is updated with the new value.

6.      Click the Reset button to start over.

7.       Click the Cancel button to cancel and return to the Properties table.

Deleting A Topic

To delete a topic from the Router, click the Delete Topic button. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete deletion of the topic, or click Cancel to abort.

 

Caution: Deleting a topic also deletes all events and subtopics within it. There is no way to undo a Delete Topic action, so use caution when deleting a topic in this way.

Working With Events

Topics can contain events which can be viewed and edited using the Topic Modeler. To view events in a topic, make sure you have a topic selected, then click the Events tab. Any events present within the topic will be displayed in a table such as the one shown in Events View Mode.

Events View Mode

The table of events is organized into the following three columns:

Column Name

Description

ID

the unique ID for this event.

Timestamp

a UNIX-style timestamp, indicating the date and time the event was created or last updated.

Actions

actions available to perform on this event. Currently you can view or delete the event.

The event table can be sorted by either the event ID or the event timestamp by clicking on the appropriate column header.

 

The table of events will automatically update in real-time when new events appear or are deleted from the selected topic. Be aware that there is currently no way to "lock" an event to prevent it from being edited, or to prevent more than one user from editing the same event simultaneously.

Viewing Event Properties

To view the properties of a particular event, click the View button next to the event you wish to view in the event table, see Events View Mode. A new table containing the properties of that event appears. For example, if you selected kn_route_topic_count and clicked the View button in the Actions column, the following table will appear.

The table of properties is organized into three columns:

Column Name

Description

Property Name

the name of the event property.

Value

the property value.

Actions

the actions you can perform on this property, currently Edit and Delete.

The event you selected for viewing is now highlighted in the event table.

Editing Event Properties

Working with event properties is similar to working with topic properties. For more on topic properties, see Editing A Topic Property.

To change the value of an event property:

1.       Click the Edit button next to it in the property table. An editing field appears.

2.      The heading shows the event you are editing. Edit the value of the event property in the edit field.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original values, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel the changes and return to the properties table.

Deleting Event Properties

To delete an event property, click the Delete button next to the event you wish to delete in the property table. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete the action, or click Cancel to abort.

Adding Event Properties

To add a new event property:

1.      Click the Add New Property button located above the property table. An editing field appears below the table.

2.      Enter the name and value of the property you wish to add.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original values, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel and return to the property table.

Deleting an Event

To delete an event in its entirety, click the Delete button (Actions column) next to it in the event table. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete the action, or click Cancel to abort.

 

Caution: The Delete action cannot be undone.

Clearing a Topic of Events

In addition to deleting individual events, a topic can be cleared of all events with one action. Clearing events is useful when a topic becomes overcrowded with events, or during testing when you need to start with an empty topic.

To clear all events from a topic:

1.      Click the Clear Topic button located above the event table.

2.      Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete the action. The topic will then be emptied of events.

3.       Or, click Cancel to abort. The topic will then be emptied of events.

 

Caution: The Clear Topic action cannot be undone.

Working With Routes

Routes depict the flow of events between topics. A topic can have several routes by which events flow from that topic to different locations, including KnowNow-powered applications, Microservers and other topics.

Route View Mode

To view the routes from a topic to other locations, first make sure that topic is selected, then click the Routes tab.

The route view mode presents a split-level depiction of routes from the selected topic. In the upper frame, the Route Flow Diagram depicts the existing routes as a node tree, with the currently selected topic as the root node. The lower frame presents a table of the existing routes. This is where you can edit or delete an existing route.

The Route Flow diagram

The Route Flow Diagram allows you to follow the flow of events from the currently selected topic into other locations. The topic nodes can be expanded to further follow the event flow. In this way, it is possible to follow the possible flow of events from this topic throughout the entire topic space.

Route Flow Diagram

To expand a topic and view routes off of it, click on the topic icon next to the topic name. Click the icon again to collapse it and hide routes beneath it.

The Route Flow Diagram only allows for inspection of event flow. To view or edit a particular route, you must select it from the route table in the lower half of the screen.

Viewing Route Properties

The table of routes is organized into the following three columns:

Column Name

Description

Route ID

the unique ID for the selected route.

Timestamp

a UNIX-style timestamp indicating the date and time the route was created or last updated.

Actions

the actions you can perform on this route, currently Edit and Delete.

To view the properties of a route, click the Edit button (Actions column) next to it in the route table. A new table that displays the properties of the selected route appears.

The table of properties is organized into three columns:

Column Name

Description

Property Name

the name of the selected route property

Value

the property value

Actions

the actions you can perform on this property. Currently, Edit and Delete.

Editing Route Properties

To change the value of a route property:

1.      Click the Edit button next to it in the property table. An editing field appears. Edit the value of the property, as needed, in this field.

2.      Click the Save button to save your edits. The route property table is updated with the new value.

3.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original value, before saving.

4.      Click the Cancel button to cancel and return to the route property table.

5.       Click the Delete button next to it in the property table to delete a route property. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete the action, or click Cancel to abort.

Add Route Properties

To add a new route property:

1.      Click the Add New Property button located above the route property table. An editing field appears below the table. Enter the name and value of the property you wish to add.

2.      Click the Attach Filter button located above the route property table if you want to attach a filter to the route. A list of available filters appears. Click the desired filter name to attach it. Refer to Working With Filters for more information on applying filters.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The route property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original values, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel and return to the route property table.

Deleting A Route

To delete a route completely, click the Delete button next to it in the route table. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to complete the action, or click Cancel to abort.

 

The Delete route action cannot be undone.

Creating A New Route

To create a new route:

1.      You must select a second topic as the "target" for events from the currently selected "source" topic. This "target" can be another topic, a journal topic, or even a topic on a different Router. Once the new route is established, events entering the "source" topic will flow into the "target" topic.

2.       Before you create a new route, first make sure a topic is selected (this will become the "source" topic) and then click the Create New Route button located above the route table. This will launch the New Route Dialog window.

Create Route Window

3.      The New Route Dialog window provides several options for selecting a "target" destination for the new route to be created. The following two options are available to select the "target" destination:

·         Enter the target destination manually in the text box provided, or

·         Browse and select a topic from the Topic Explorer on the right-hand side of the dialog window

Additionally, you can configure the Topic Explorer to browse with the current "source" as its root, or enter a completely different URL to browse from.

 

Browsing non-local URLs requires that you have the proper permissions to browse those locations.

4.      Once you have selected the "target" topic, click the Create Route button to create the route. The New Route Dialog window will close, and both the Route Flow Diagram and the route table are updated in real-time with the new route information.

5.       To cancel the creation of a route, click the Cancel button in the New Route Dialog window.

Working With Filters

Filters are modules installed on the Router; they provide event filtering capabilities for topics and routes. Currently, only one filter can be applied to a topic or route at one time. Applying a new filter to a topic replaces any existing filter already present on that topic.

Viewing Filters on a Topic

To see what filters are applied to a topic, make sure that topic is selected, then click the Filters tab. If a filter is present, the properties of that filter are displayed in a property table, such as the one shown below.

Filters View Mode

The table of filter properties is organized into three columns:

Column Name

Description

Property Name

the name of the event property. Currently, there are only two filter properties for each filter:

kn_filtername --the name of the filter

kn_filterparams --the parameters used by the filter, if any.

Value

the property value

Actions

the actions you can perform on this property. Currently, Edit.

Filter parameters are editable. For details on editing parameters, see Editing Filter Parameters.

The Available Filters List

If one or more filter modules have been installed on the Router, the filter names will appear in the Available Filters list. This list will be empty if no filter modules are installed.

Attaching a Filter

To attach a filter to the selected topic, click on the filter name in the Available Filters list. The filter is automatically attached to the topic, and the filter properties table is updated in real time.

 

Attaching a new filter will replace any existing filters already attached to the topic. Any filter parameters associated with the previous filter are also deleted.

Once a filter is attached to the topic, the filter properties are available for editing. For details on editing filter parameters, see Editing Filter Parameters.

Editing Filter Parameters

To edit the parameters of a topic filter:

1.      Click the Edit button next to it in the filter properties table. An editing field appears.

2.      Edit the value of the property in the text field.

3.      Click the Save button to save your changes. The filter property table is updated with the new value.

4.      Click the Reset button to revert to the original value, before saving.

5.       Click the Cancel button to cancel and return to the filter property table.

Detaching A Filter

To detach a filter from a topic, click the Detach Filter button located below the filter properties table. The filter is detached and the filter properties table is updated in real-time.

 

All brand names and product names used in this document are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright © KnowNow, Inc. All rights reserved.
Printed in the U.S.A.
Last updated: July 22, 2002