Using custom components within an app template for historical graphs in page views

Nice video. Very helpful.

If I understand your issue correctly, you've added additional component monitors that you'd like to see charts added to the Application Details view. It would seem you added these component monitors at the Application/Node level, and not at the template level. This is the reason it's not available from the pull down list. The reason being is, that application views are shared among all servers that have the application template applied. When a component monitor is added/removed/modified at the template level, all nodes that have this template applied are updated unless inheritance is blocked at the application level. Component monitors that are added at the application level are not shared amongst the other nodes that share this application template.

The video below should demonstrate this. 

http://screencast.com/t/sfqx8Kww

That video was perfect! I think I now know what I need to do. But the biggest question is, will I lose the already accumulate historical data on those monitors once I change them to template based? If so, could I build a report of that trend data so we can reference it after the switch?

There is no way to save the historical data in the process of deleting and recreating the component monitors at the template level. You can however export the raw data through the web interface to Excel format, or even export chart data by clicking on "Export to PDF".

More advanced data export options are available through the Report Writer. 

Once I recreate the components in the "edit application template", I need to delete the components under the "edit application" section, correct?

Side note: I tried to add all the components to the template - spent over an hour doing it - and when I hit submit, my session had timed out and I lost all my work. I fixed the login/timeout issue and thought I was golden to do it all over again. This time I did all of that work and when I hit submit I got a "website error" (see attached). I don't know what I have to do for the additions to be successful? Add only a few at a time and hope it doesn't error out?

There's certainly nothing more frustrating than spending hours creating something, and then losing it when you go to save. I suggest you safe often and if this persists, open a case with support so we can troubleshoot the issue further.