Skip to main content

Include dashboards with a plugin

This guide explains how to add pre-configured dashboards into app and data source Grafana plugins. By integrating pre-configured dashboards into your plugin, you can provide your users with a ready-to-use template, freeing them from having to build a dashboard from scratch.

We'll walk you through the process of bundling dashboards into plugins. The process involves creating a dashboard, adding it to your plugin, and then importing it into the plugin. You can also optionally add navigation links to make it easier for users to discover all its features.

Step 1: Create a dashboard​

Start by creating the dashboard you want to bundle with your plugin. The development environment provided by create-plugin can aid with creating and testings dashboards. The following steps provide instructions for both data source and app plugins, including tips for crafting an effective dashboard.

Build a dashboard for a data source plugin​

Export the dashboard​

In this step, we export the dashboard to a JSON file so it can be placed in a file along with your plugin source code:

  1. Open your dashboard within Grafana.
  2. Click the Share icon at the top-left of the dashboard.
  3. Click Export.
  4. Select Export for sharing externally, and then click Save to file.

Exporting with this option replaces direct data source references with placeholders. This ensures the dashboard can make use of the user's data source instance when imported.

Build a dashboard for an app plugin​

Set up a data source variable​

To facilitate user customization, create a dashboard data source variable. This allows users to link their own data source instances easily once imported.

  1. Create a data source variable by choosing the data source variable type and give it a name.
    Data source variable
    Data source variable
  2. Select the data source variable as the data source for each panel that you create.
    Data source selection
    Data source selection

Export the dashboard​

  1. Go to your dashboard in the Grafana application.
  2. Click the Share icon at the top-left of the dashboard.
  3. Click Export, and then click Save to file.
  4. Open the dashboard JSON file in your code editor and set its id property to null.

Step 2: Add the dashboard to your plugin​

  1. Create a dashboards folder within the src directory of your plugin project.

  2. Move your exported dashboard JSON file into the new dashboards folder.

    myorg-myplugin-datasource/
    └── src/
        ├── dashboards/
        │   └── overview.json
        ├── module.ts
        └── plugin.json

  3. Update your plugin.json file to include a reference to the new dashboard resource, specifying the relative path to the dashboard file within the src folder.

    src/plugin.json
    {
      "includes": [
        {
          "name": "overview",
          "path": "dashboards/overview.json",
          "type": "dashboard"
        }
      ]
    }
    info

    Ensure the path is relative to the src directory. This is necessary for the plugin to correctly reference the dashboard JSON file from the dist directory once you build the frontend.

  4. After adding the dashboard to your plugin, rebuild the plugin and restart Grafana to apply the new configuration.

Step 3: Import the dashboard into your plugin​

To test your newly created dashboard, import the dashboard:

Import a dashboard into a data source plugin​

  1. Create or edit an existing instance of your data source.
  2. Click Dashboards to list all included dashboards.
  3. Click Import next to the dashboard you want to import. The dashboard is imported into your plugin.

Import a dashboard into an app plugin​

App dashboards are automatically discovered by the Grafana server and imported when the server starts.

An app plugin can enhance user navigation by adding a navigation link in plugin.json. The path of the include should reference the bundled dashboard uid property.

src/plugin.json
{
  "includes": [
    {
      "name": "My App Dashboard",
      "path": "dashboards/overview.json",
      "type": "dashboard"
    },
    {
      "addToNav": true,
      "name": "My App Dashboard",
      "path": "d/ffb13c35-2f2f-4f36-99b1-bde7244e8de3",
      "type": "page"
    }
  ]
}

Conclusion​

By bundling dashboards with your plugin, you can significantly improve the user onboarding experience. Pre-configured dashboards eliminate the need for users to set up common variables, panels, or queries from scratch. This can greatly enhance user satisfaction and efficiency!