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Dashboard redirect, search improvements, and tree view updates in Business Variable 2.2.0

Daria Volkova
Creative Director at Volkov Labs, Grafana Champion

We are happy to announce the release of the Variable panel 2.2.0. This release includes the following updates:

  • Added dashboard redirect option.
  • Search usability improvements:
    • Added clean filter value button.
    • Added a new option Always Visible Search.
  • TreeView usability improvements:
    • Added group rename functionality(edit button).
    • Expanded action area to expand a treeview node.
  • Updated Safari layout and alignment for favorites.
  • Added compatibility with Grafana 10.2.1.
Grafana Catalog

The plugin was updated in the Grafana Plugins catalog on November 21, 2023.

Business Variable panel 2.2.0 for Grafana.

Dashboard redirect option

This feature allows opening the corresponding dashboard to a variable value. It is useful, for instance, if a variable panel displays a list of some devices where every device requires a specific dashboard.

When a user selects a device in the variable panel, the corresponding dashboard opens. With that, the dashboard switch is not obvious for the users. For them, it might seem they stay in one place.

Let us review, how to make it work.

Map dashboard variables

Create two dashboard variables. One to retrieve all devices needed. The second is to contain one dashboard_id at a time following the device from the first variable.

Create a dashboard/variable mapping example.
Create a dashboard/variable mapping example.

Dashboards

Create specific device dashboards with an identical variable panel on each dashboard.

Create specific device dashboards with an identical variable panel.
Create specific device dashboards with an identical variable panel.

Variable panel

Configure the variable panel. Specify a value for the new parameter Dashboard.

New parameter - dashboard for redirection.
New parameter - dashboard for redirection.

After the above-presented configuration, the variable panel switches dashboards when a user selects a device. A sleek transition makes the user experience smooth and pleasant.

Search usability

Two features make the search user experience better.

Clean filter value button

It is a small, but very nice improvement. Once you start typing in the search text field, you can remove all entered symbols by using an X button appearing at the far-right corner of the search text.

Clean filter value button is a new feature.
Clean filter value button is a new feature.

Always Visible Search option

The ability to hide a search text area can be taken away from users by using a new option Always Visible search.

When it is Disabled, the funnel icon is shown on the dashboard. By clicking on the funnel icon, users can alternate between hiding and showing the search text area.

When it is Enabled, the funnel icon is hidden and with that users are not capable of hiding the search text area.

Always visible search is a new feature.
Always visible search is a new feature.

Tree View improvements

Group rename

Now you can rename a group in the TreeView layout.

Always visible search is a new feature.
Always visible search is a new feature.

Expand by clicking anywhere

Before this feature, in order to expand the tree node, you had to be very precise and aim exactly at the arrow next to the name. After this release, clicking anywhere on the whole row with the name expands the tree node.

Expand by clicking anywhere on the name row.
Expand by clicking anywhere on the name row.

Updated Safari layout

In the Safari web browser, the positioning of star icons indicating the favorites is now aligned in the same style as in all other browsers.

The position of the star icons indicating favorites is styled in the same manner as for all other browsers.
The position of the star icons indicating favorites is styled in the same manner as for all other browsers.

Getting Started

The Business Variable panel can be installed from the Grafana Catalog or utilizing the Grafana command line tool.

Install Business Suite plugins in Cloud, OSS, Enterprise. Getting started with the Business Suite.

For the latter, please use the following command.

grafana cli plugins install volkovlabs-variable-panel

Tutorial

This video reviews the latest features introduced in Business Variable 3.0.0.

Daria demonstrates many new options for the Minimize mode, such as

  • allow empty value,
  • allow custom values,
  • maximum visible values.

For the Table mode, she explains how to display total and selected counts. Further, Daria introduces a Slider mode and touches upon the TreeView layout improvements and advanced features.

New features and updates in Business Variable 3.0.0.

For the all plugin options overview, please refer the other video.

Variable Panel for Grafana. New features and updates in 2.3.1.

We have many other tutorials that you can find helpful. You can review all related to this plugin tutorials here.

Release Notes

Features / Enhancements in 2.2.0

  • Add dashboard redirect option (#92)
  • Update ESLint configuration and sort imports (#93)
  • Update Safari layout for favorites (#97)
  • Update to Grafana 10.2.1 (#98)
  • Add clean filter value button (#99)

Features / Enhancements in 2.1.0

  • Add an option for an always-visible search filter (#83)
  • Add Group rename functionality (#84)
  • Add selecting fields from data frames without RefId (#85)
  • Add toggle expanded row state by clicking on the label (#86)

Bugfixes in 2.1.0

  • Update the deselection of All variable value which is not defined in the URL (#87)
  • Removed ability to add group to favorites (#88)

Always happy to hear from you

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