Some of the content described in this article is available in Navigator versions 12.1 and greater.
For a quick overview of what's new or changed, visit the meshIQ Highlights page for a version-by-version breakdown.  

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Version 12.x and Later
Version 11.3 and Earlier

Version 12.x and Later

Custom properties are attributes that you can define for a variety of objects, then add to widgets. These user-defined attributes can be anything you want them to be. Your widgets can then be filtered and sorted by custom attributes, and multiple custom attributes can be added to each widget. 

Custom properties are displayed in the properties dialogs alongside other MQ attributes and can be used for many of the same capabilities. Common examples are application-specific tags and contacts. They can also be used for classification for both display and monitoring purposes. 

The following objects currently support custom attributes:

To learn how to add, display, and filter by custom attributes, continue reading below. 

Add a New Custom Attribute

To add a custom attribute:

1. Click an object in a widget.

2. From the Selected menu, select Properties.... The Properties dialog opens.
   

3. Go to the Custom Attributes tab and click the Add button.
   
4. In the Key field, enter the name of the attribute you are adding and its value for this object in the Value field. 
   
5. Click the Add button. The custom attribute is now added to this object and will be displayed in a new row.
   
6. Multiple custom attributes can be added.  Simply repeat the steps above to add additional attributes.
7. You can click Remove to delete the attribute from the list.
8. Click Ok to save, or you can Schedule the action to apply the changes at a later time (see Scheduling).

Display Custom Attributes

To display the custom attributes in your widgets, you will need to add them to your widget’s schema (see Schemas for more information). 

1. Click the Manage Widget Schemas button. The Manage Schemas dialog opens.
   
2. Select the desired schema and click Edit button.

You cannot edit the default schema. If you do not have any schemas other than the default, see Schemas for information on how to add a new schema.

3. In the Add/Edit Schema dialog, select Custom Attributes from the filter drop-down to display all custom attributes available for this widget.

4. From the left side of the dialog, select the custom attributes you want to add to the schema and click the right arrow button (or click the double right arrow button to add all custom attributes).

   Alternatively, click and hold the drag icon next to an attribute, then drag and drop it into the schema.
   

5. You can specify to sort the widget by the custom attribute field. 
   
6. When you finish, click Save in this dialog, and then click Save in the Manage Schemas dialog. The widget updates to display the custom attribute fields and their values.
   

Filter by Custom Attributes

Use the Search (Filter by) field in the top-left corner of the widget to display only the rows that match the entered custom attribute value.

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Version 11.3 and Earlier

Custom properties are attributes that you can define for a variety of objects, then add to viewlets. These user-defined attributes can be anything you want them to be. Your viewlets can then be filtered and sorted by custom attributes, and multiple custom attributes can be added to each viewlet. 

Custom properties are displayed in the properties dialogs alongside other MQ attributes and can be used for many of the same capabilities. Common examples are application-specific tags and contacts. They can also be used for classification for both display and monitoring purposes. 

The following objects currently support custom attributes:

From version 11.2.4 onward, you can add custom attributes for ActiveMQ objects such as Manager, Broker, Queue, Topic, and Consumer.

Example: Credit Queues

In the example below, three custom properties have been added: the application name, a profile option for the queue, and the primary contact. 

This allows you to create custom views such as this one to show information about the Credit queues.

This view uses the application name as a filter and uses a custom schema to show the contact information and other custom properties.

To learn how to add, display, and filter by custom attributes, continue reading below. 

Add a New Custom Attribute

To add a custom attribute:

1. Click an object in a viewlet.

2. Select Properties from the action pop-up menu (Selected menu from v11.2 onwards) of a queue manager or queue. The Properties window opens. 

   Properties options in version 11.1 and earlier	Properties options in version 11.2 and later

3. Go to the Custom Attributes tab and click the Add button.
   
4. In the Key field, enter the name of the attribute you are adding and its value for this object in the Value field. 
   
5. Click the Add button. The custom attribute is now added to this object and will be displayed in a new row.
   
6. Multiple custom attributes can be added.  Simply repeat the steps above to add additional attributes.
7. You can click Remove to delete the attribute from the list.
8. Click OK to save, or you can Schedule the action to apply the changes at a later time (see Scheduling).

Display Custom Attributes

To display the custom attributes in your viewlets, you will need to add them to your viewlet’s schema (see Schemas for more information). 

1. Click the Manage Viewlet Schemas button. The Manage Schemas screen opens.
   Manage Viewlet Schemas button in version 11.0 and earlier
   
   Manage Viewlet Schemas button in version 11.1
   
2. Select the desired schema and click Edit.  

You cannot edit the default schema. If you do not have any schemas other than the default, see Schemas for information on how to add a new schema.

3. On the Edit Schema screen, select Custom attributes from the filter drop-down to display all custom attributes that exist for this viewlet. 
4. From the left side of the screen select the custom attributes you want to add to the schema and click the Add button (or click Add all to add all of the custom attributes). 
   
5. You can specify to sort the viewlet by the custom attribute field. 
   
6. Click OK when finished on this screen and then on the Manage Schemas screen. Your viewlet will now display the custom attribute fields and their values.
   

Filter by Custom Attributes

You can use the Filter by field located at the top of the viewlet to display only rows containing the custom attribute value entered.

You can also use custom attributes when creating new viewlets. See Attribute Filter for more information.