Before we dig into the modules provided, let's look at the structure of XML itself and cover a couple of concepts.

The tag structure of an advanced XML document is essentially as follows:

view
module
param
...
module
...

The main concept of Splunk's XML structure is that the effects of modules flow downstream to child modules.

This is a vital concept to understand. The XML structure has almost nothing to do with layout and everything to do with the flow of data.

Let's look at the following simple example:

<view
template="dashboard.html">
<label>Chapter 9, Example 1</label>
<module
name="HiddenSearch"
layoutPanel="panel_row1_col1"
autoRun="True">
<param name="earliest">-99d</param>
<param name="search">error | top user</param>
<module name="SimpleResultsTable"></module>
</module>
</view>

This document produces the following sparse dashboard with one panel:

Let's look through this example line by line...