* docs: add links and updates to whats new 7.0
* Apply suggestions from code review
Co-authored-by: Jessica <4947705+jessabe@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Carl Bergquist <carl@grafana.com>
* Update docs/sources/guides/whats-new-in-v7-0.md
Co-authored-by: Jessica <4947705+jessabe@users.noreply.github.com>
* docs: link for time zones in what's new
* Backend plugins update
Co-authored-by: Jessica <4947705+jessabe@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Carl Bergquist <carl@grafana.com>
Co-authored-by: Marcus Efraimsson <marcus.efraimsson@gmail.com>
- [**Time zones** Time zone support]({{< relref "#time-zone-support" >}})
## New panel editor
## New panel editor and unified data model
We redesigned the UI for editing panels. We separated panel display settings to a right-hand side pane that you can collapse or expand depending on what your focus is on. With this change we are also introducing our new unified option model and UI for defining data configuration and display options. This unified data configuration system powers a consistent UI for setting data options across visualizations and making all data display settings data-driven and overridable.
We have redesigned the UI for editing panels. The first visible change is that we have separated panel display settings to a right-hand side pane that you can collapse or expand depending on what your focus is on. With this change we are also introducing our new unified option model and UI for defining data configuration and display options. This unified data configuration system powers a consistent UI for setting data options across visualizations, as well as making all data display settings data driven and overridable.
This new option architecture and UI will make all panels have a consistent set of options and behaviors for attributes like unit, min, max, thresholds, links, decimals. Not only that but all these options will share a consistent UI for specifying override rules and is extensible for custom panel specific options.
In previous versions of Grafana, each visualization had slightly different ways to define their options. One immediate benefit is after setting options like units or thresholds in a panel, you can seamlessly switch between visualization types and keep those options. This will bring increased of ease of use and more consistency for users and plugin developers.
We have yet to migrate all core panels to this new architecture so in 7.0 there will be some inconsistencies in the UI between panels. This will be fixed soon in future releases as we update all the core panels and help the community update the community panel plugins.
Learn more about this feature in [Panel editor]({{< relref "../panels/panel-editor.md" >}}).
@ -52,12 +58,18 @@ In the future we will add more workflows and integrations so that correlating be
## Transformations
Not just visualizing data from anywhere, in Grafana 7.0 you can transform them, too. By chaining a simple set of point and click transformations users will be able join, pivot, filter, re-name and calculate to get the results they need. Perfect for operations across queries or data sources missing essential data transformations.
The data you want to visualize can come from many different places and it is usually not in exactly the right form. Users can now transform non-time series data into tables (e.g., JSON files or even simple lookup tables) in seconds without any customization or additional overhead. They can then combine non-time series data with any other data in Grafana; data from an external database or a panel that already exists in one of their current dashboards.
By chaining a simple set of point and click [transformations]({{< relref "../panels/transformations.md" >}}), users will be able join, pivot, filter, re-name and do calculations to get the results they need. Perfect for operations across queries or data sources missing essential data transformations.
[Transformations]({{< relref "../panels/transformations.md" >}}) also adds the ability to do maths across queries. Lots of data sources do not support this natively so being able to do it in Grafana is a powerful feature.
Transformations and maths across queries. The data you want to visualize can come from many different places and it is usually not in exactly the right form. The new transformations feature allows you to rename fields, join separate time series together and more - data munging. Usually this requires writing code but this new feature lets you do it in the Grafana UI instead. It also lets you do maths across queries. Lots of data sources do not support this natively so being able to do it in Grafana is a killer feature. For users, with large dashboards or with heavy queries, being able to reuse the query result from one panel in another panel can be a huge performance gain.
For users with large dashboards or with heavy queries, being able to reuse the query result from one panel in another panel can be a huge performance gain for slow queries (e.g log or sql queries). From the data source menu in the query editor, you can choose the `--dashboard--` option and then choose the query result from another panel on the same dashboard.
The [Google Sheets data source](https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/grafana-googlesheets-datasource) that was published a few weeks ago works really well together with the transformations feature.
We are also introducing a new shared data model for both time series and table data that we call [DataFrame]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/data-frames/#data-frames" >}}). A DataFrame is like a table with columns but we refer to columns as fields. A time series is a DataFrame with two fields (time & value).
**Transformations shipping in 7.0**
- **Reduce:** Reduce all rows or data points to a single value using a function like max, min, mean or last.
@ -110,7 +122,7 @@ Grafana 7.0 adds logging support to one of our most popular cloud provider data
## Plugins platform
The platform for plugins has been completely re-imagined and provides ready-made components and tooling to help both inexperienced and experienced developers get up and running more quickly. The tooling, documentation and new components will improve plugin quality and reduce long-term maintenance. We are seeing already that a a high quality plugin with the Grafana look and feel can be written in much fewer lines of code than previously.
The [platform for plugins]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/" >}}) has been completely re-imagined and provides ready-made components and tooling to help both inexperienced and experienced developers get up and running more quickly. The tooling, documentation, and new components will improve plugin quality and reduce long-term maintenance. We are already seeing that a high quality plugin with the Grafana look and feel can be written in much fewer lines of code than previously.
Learn more about developing plugins in the new framework in [Build a plugin]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/_index.md" >}}).
@ -126,12 +138,14 @@ With [@grafana/toolkit](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@grafana/toolkit) we are d
### Support for backend plugins
Grafana now officially supports backend plugins and the first type of plugin to be introduced is a backend component for data source plugins. You can optionally add a backend component to your data source plugin and implement the query logic there to automatically enable alerting in Grafana for your plugin. In the 7.0 release, we provide a Go SDK to build plugins and you can generate a plugin scaffold to help you get started using the [`@grafana/toolkit`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@grafana/toolkit).
Grafana now officially supports [backend plugins]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/backend/_index.md" >}}) and the first type of plugin to be introduced is a backend component for data source plugins. You can optionally add a backend component to your data source plugin and implement the query logic there to automatically enable alerting in Grafana for your plugin. In the 7.0 release, we introduce the [Grafana Plugin SDK for Go]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/backend/grafana-plugin-sdk-for-go.md" >}}) that enables and simplifies building a backend plugin in [Go](https://golang.org/).
Plugins can be monitored with the new metrics and health check capabilities. The new Resources capability means backend components can return non-time series data like JSON or static resources like images and opens up Grafana for new use cases.
With this release, we are deprecating the unofficial first version of backend plugins which will be removed in a future release.
To learn more, start with the [overview]({{< relref "../developers/plugins/backend/_index.md" >}}). Next, in this [tutorial](https://grafana.com/tutorials/build-a-data-source-backend-plugin/) you'll learn how to build a backend for a data source plugin and enable it for use with [Grafaba Alerting]({{< relref "../alerting/alerts-overview.md" >}}). Make sure to keep an eye out for additional documentation and tutorials that will be published after the Grafana v7.0 release.
## New tutorials
To help you get started with Grafana, we’ve launched a brand new tutorials platform. We’ll continue to expand the platform with more tutorials, but here are some of the ones you can try out now:
@ -171,7 +185,13 @@ It was released as a beta feature in Grafana 6.7. The feedback has been really p
## Time zone support
You can now override the time zone used to display date and time values in a dashboard. One benefit of this is that you can specify the local time zone of the service or system that you are monitoring which can be helpful when monitoring a system or service that operates across several time zones.
You can now override the [time zone]({{< relref "../reference/timerange/#time-zone-options" >}}) used to display date and time values in a dashboard. One benefit of this is that you can specify the local time zone of the service or system that you are monitoring which can be helpful when monitoring a system or service that operates across several time zones.
## Alerting and deep linking for Azure Log Analytics
The Azure Monitor data source supports multiple Azure services. Log Analytics queries in the data source now have alerting support too (Azure Monitor and Application Insights already had alerting support).
A new feature is [deep linking from the graph panel to the Log Analytics query editor in the Azure Portal]({{< relref "../features/datasources/azuremonitor/#deep-linking-from-grafana-panels-to-the-log-analytics-query-editor-in-azure-portal" >}}). Click on a time series in the panel to see a context menu with a link to View in Azure Portal. Clicking that link opens the Azure Log Analytics query editor in the Azure Portal and runs the query from the Grafana panel.
## Grafana Enterprise
@ -190,7 +210,7 @@ This includes problems like:
### Usage insights and Presence indicator
This release includes a series of features that build on our new usage analytics engine. Features like improved dashboard search to sort dashboards by usage and errors. When a user opens a dashboard, they will see a presence indicator of who else is viewing the same dashboard. And finally open a dashboard usage stats drawer to view recent dashboard usage.
This release includes a series of features that build on our new usage analytics engine. This “Grafana about Grafana” feature will help our large customers get better insight into the behavior and utilization of their users, dashboards, and data sources. The improved [dashboard search]({{< relref "../enterprise/usage-insights/#improved-dashboard-search" >}}) allows you to sort dashboards by usage and errors. When a user opens a dashboard, they will see a [presence indicator]({{< relref "../enterprise/usage-insights/#presence-indicator" >}}) of who else is viewing the same dashboard. And finally [Dashboard insights]({{< relref "../enterprise/usage-insights/#dashboard-insights" >}}) allows you to view recent dashboard usage.
Daniel Lee
5 years ago
committed by