homelab-dashboard

OpenShift console plugin template

This project is a minimal template for writing a new OpenShift Console dynamic plugin.

Openshift console plugins allow you to extend the OpenShift web console at runtime, adding custom pages and other extensions. They are based on webpack module federation. Plugins are registered with console using the ConsolePlugin custom resource and enabled in the console operator config by a cluster administrator.

The main branch of this repository contains an example plugin which works with the latest version. To see an example of a plugin which works with an older version, visit the appropriate release-4.x branch.

Node.js and yarn are required to build and run the example. To run OpenShift console in a container, either Docker or podman 3.2.0+ and oc are required.

Getting started

[!IMPORTANT] To use this template, DO NOT FORK THIS REPOSITORY! Click Use this template, then select Create a new repository to create a new repository.

Forking this repository for purposes outside of contributing to this repository will cause issues, as users cannot have more than one fork of a template repository at a time. This could prevent future users from forking and contributing to your plugin.

Your fork would also behave like a template repository, which might be confusing for contributiors, because it is not possible for repositories generated from a template repository to contribute back to the template.

After cloning your instantiated repository, you must update the plugin metadata, such as the plugin name in the consolePlugin declaration of package.json.

"consolePlugin": {
  "name": "console-plugin-template",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "displayName": "My Plugin",
  "description": "Enjoy this shiny, new console plugin!",
  "exposedModules": {
    "ExamplePage": "./components/ExamplePage"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@console/pluginAPI": "*"
  }
}

The template adds a single example page in the Home navigation section. The extension is declared in the console-extensions.json file and the React component is declared in src/components/ExamplePage.tsx.

You can run the plugin using a local development environment or build an image to deploy it to a cluster.

Development

Option 1: Local

In one terminal window, run:

1. yarn install
2. yarn run start

In another terminal window, run:

1. oc login (requires oc and an OpenShift cluster)
2. yarn run start-console (requires Docker or podman 3.2.0+)

This will run the OpenShift console in a container connected to the cluster you've logged into. The plugin HTTP server runs on port 9001 with CORS enabled. Navigate to http://localhost:9000/example to see the running plugin.

Running start-console with Apple silicon and podman

If you are using podman on a Mac with Apple silicon, yarn run start-console might fail since it runs an amd64 image. You can workaround the problem with qemu-user-static by running these commands:

podman machine ssh
sudo -i
rpm-ostree install qemu-user-static
systemctl reboot

Option 2: Docker + VSCode Remote Container

Make sure the Remote Containers extension is installed. This method uses Docker Compose where one container is the OpenShift console and the second container is the plugin. It requires that you have access to an existing OpenShift cluster. After the initial build, the cached containers will help you start developing in seconds.

1. Create a dev.env file inside the .devcontainer folder with the correct values for your cluster:

   OC_PLUGIN_NAME=console-plugin-template
   OC_URL=https://api.example.com:6443
   OC_USER=kubeadmin
   OC_PASS=<password>
   

2. (Ctrl+Shift+P) => Remote Containers: Open Folder in Container...

3. yarn run start

4. Navigate to http://localhost:9000/example

Docker image

Before you can deploy your plugin on a cluster, you must build an image and push it to an image registry.

1. Build the image:

   docker build -t quay.io/my-repository/my-plugin:latest .
   

2. Run the image:

   docker run -it --rm -d -p 9001:80 quay.io/my-repository/my-plugin:latest
   

3. Push the image:

   docker push quay.io/my-repository/my-plugin:latest
   

NOTE: If you have a Mac with Apple silicon, you will need to add the flag --platform=linux/amd64 when building the image to target the correct platform to run in-cluster.

Deployment on cluster

A Helm chart is available to deploy the plugin to an OpenShift environment.

The following Helm parameters are required:

plugin.image: The location of the image containing the plugin that was previously pushed

Additional parameters can be specified if desired. Consult the chart values file for the full set of supported parameters.

Installing the Helm Chart

Install the chart using the name of the plugin as the Helm release name into a new namespace or an existing namespace as specified by the plugin_console-plugin-template parameter and providing the location of the image within the plugin.image parameter by using the following command:

helm upgrade -i  my-plugin charts/openshift-console-plugin -n my-namespace --create-namespace --set plugin.image=my-plugin-image-location

NOTE: When deploying on OpenShift 4.10, it is recommended to add the parameter --set plugin.securityContext.enabled=false which will omit configurations related to Pod Security.

NOTE: When defining i18n namespace, adhere plugin__<name-of-the-plugin> format. The name of the plugin should be extracted from the consolePlugin declaration within the package.json file.

i18n

The plugin template demonstrates how you can translate messages in with react-i18next. The i18n namespace must match the name of the ConsolePlugin resource with the plugin__ prefix to avoid naming conflicts. For example, the plugin template uses the plugin__console-plugin-template namespace. You can use the useTranslation hook with this namespace as follows:

const Header: React.FC = () => {
  const { t } = useTranslation('plugin__console-plugin-template');
  return <h1>{t('Hello, World!')}</h1>;
};

For labels in console-extensions.json, you can use the format %plugin__console-plugin-template~My Label%. Console will replace the value with the message for the current language from the plugin__console-plugin-template namespace. For example:

  {
    "type": "console.navigation/section",
    "properties": {
      "id": "admin-demo-section",
      "perspective": "admin",
      "name": "%plugin__console-plugin-template~Plugin Template%"
    }
  }

Running yarn i18n updates the JSON files in the locales folder of the plugin template when adding or changing messages.

Linting

This project adds prettier, eslint, and stylelint. Linting can be run with yarn run lint.

The stylelint config disallows defining colors since these cause problems with dark mode. Use PatternFly semantic tokens for colors instead.

The stylelint config also disallows naked element selectors like table and .pf- or .co- prefixed classes. This prevents plugins from accidentally overwriting default console styles, breaking the layout of existing pages. The best practice is to prefix your CSS class names with your plugin name to avoid conflicts. Please don't disable these rules without understanding how they can break console styles!

References

• Console Plugin SDK README
• Customization Plugin Example
• Dynamic Plugin Enhancement Proposal