Kibana: Visualization Plugin Infrastructure

[Vineeth-Mohan]

There is some visualizations , I would like to add to Kibana panels.
Though i can code it to the existing code base , I need a plugin point to do this.
So that up-gradation and other operations are seemless.

[spalger]

This would be a great addition to Kibana, and something we would like to offer at some point in Kibana 4

[sahilthapar]

:+1:

[AlexIoannides]

+1

[aaronleesmith]

What is the status on standardizing and documenting the plugin infrastructure present in Kibana 4.0?

[ssoto]

:+1:

[mrdavidlaing]

We're interested in knowing how "stable" the plugin infrastructure is too

[aaronleesmith]

:+1: , again :).

[gthorsen]

+1

[jmcomets]

:+1: where is this documented ?

[ssoto]

Plugin documentation is here: :-1:
https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/master/src/kibana/plugins/README.txt

[jmcomets]

Yes and it's explicitly written "don't write custom plugins" since it is purposely undocumented and may disappear in the future. Should I take your comment as an approval to write one ?

[spalger]

@jmcomets @ssoto We _are_ moving forward with plugins, but the API is continuously evolving and may be replaced at any time.

If you were you write a plugin, then update Kibana, it is very likely that the plugin would no longer work.

[kompa3]

What about adding an iframe visualization that points to a custom url? Kibana could give the data points to render in the body of a HTTP PUT request. I do not know if it is a very optimized solution for performance, but it would enable lots of custom visualizations making it easier to integrate with the awesome query and filter operations of Kibana.

[aaronleesmith]

I'm sure what they're thinking is something more native to the Kibana environment. If it's anything like what is being used internally a plugin would define itself according to some protocol and then be able to inject its functionality wherever visualizations are served and modified.

The iframe approach might be a nice band-aid, but wouldn't suffice long term.

Development on this cannot come quickly enough. We are clamoring to integrate our custom Kibana 3 panels into Kibana 4 as visualizations.

[agonen]

and update on this thread ?

[chenryn]

https://github.com/chenryn/kibana4/commit/4e0bcbeb4c8fd94807c3a0b1df2ac6f56634f9a5 I'd try to write a sankey vis, but the webpage always crash, is here anyone farmilar with js can help me?

[Tawel]

@spalger Any updates on this?
I too want to be able to create a custom panel for my project, and found no tutorials or documentation online.
I am a bit familiar with Banana (which is a fork of Kibana) and know that to create custom panels there requires only to create 3 files (the code of the panel) and add them to the panels directory.
Is it similar here in Kibana? Is it even possible?
Thanks

[spalger]

@Tawel I don't really have any updates, development still continues.

[cheebo]

+1
Now I work with ElasticSearch and Kibana everyday and I have a lot of requests for tasks that need custom plugins / custom visualizations.

[telune]

+1
This is something that is highly desired in my company. Right now we are struggling with a timeline visualization (ref #1333 ), but the possibility of creating custom visualizations natively integrated with the rest of Kibana's internals would be awesome.

[deepakas]

+1 I am looking at building a word cloud chart as part of Kibana similar to the one implemented here. http://birdwatch.matthiasnehlsen.com/

[acommendador]

+1

[JuanCarniglia]

So far I have been able to create a visualization, but have a lot of issues regarding the actual Elasticsearch querying. I'll doing the whole shebang in the View, and that is just plain bad. It would be really great to have like a step by step guide of how to create a Visualization.

[chenryn]

@JuanCarniglia seems one visualization in kibana got the aggData already, no need to create a query by yourself.

[mikabuka]

Very nice tutorial from Tim Roes - Writing Kibana 4 Plugins - Exactly what you need..An extension point for adding new visualizations.

[phamnamkhanh]

+1 it would be really helpful

[JuanCarniglia]

I have created some visualizations (all here: https://github.com/JuanCarniglia). I am now in the process of updating gulp files to ES6… which is proving painfully slow). Also currently writing a tutorial on all this.

In the meantime I invite you to look at them and let me know what you think!

Quick update: Now writing visualizations for Kibana 4.1 to 4.5 (soon going to 5.0). If anyone need some hints or tips, mail me, I'm getting the hang of it. Glad to help.

[ksilin]

+1

[JuanCarniglia]

I updated some of the visualizations and added a couple more. I also found the way to query external (or same ES) from a visualization (what I actually solve by adding a front-less Plugin to kibana). If anyone is interested, I am yet to publish this code, but will real soon.

[timroes]

We have recently introduced the following resources regarding developing of visualizations:

• Webinar: Developing Kibana Visualization - This also provides some sample visualization.
• Developing Visualizations in Docs

The docs will also be updated and extended in the future.