# Creating dashboard panels with code **URL:** \ **Category:** Kibana\ **Tags:** lens, dashboard\ **Created:** [March 4, 2024, 7:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-dashboard-panels-with-code/354617 "2024-03-04T07:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![upizs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecb155/32.png) [@upizs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/upizs)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 7:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-dashboard-panels-with-code/354617/1 "2024-03-04T07:05:23Z")
Hello, I have created a rich dashboard of panels for visual reasons. However this dashboard is incomplete, I need to now copy paste this panels and repeat the process some 50+ more times to show all what we need. I have exported the dashboard and figured most part of panels code, but when I copy pasted 1 panels and edited it with accord parameter, after importing it back the Dashboard is blank. > **[{ "id": "b59867c8-bf9b-4dc2-b3bd-4ae619358697", "type": "dashboard", "n -...](https://pastebin.com/MV1XJu9r)** > > Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time. This is my edited code, for reading purposes there is only 1 panel and 1 more copy. I understand that there must be an issue ID's being the same. So I am now focusing on finding out the ids I need to change. But does anyone know an easier process for this? Has someone done this before and has a code they can share? Thank you ---
**Author:** ![jsanz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jsanz/32/53734_2.png) [@jsanz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsanz)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 10:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-dashboard-panels-with-code/354617/2 "2024-03-08T10:33:49Z")
There is no public API to interact with Kibana dashboards, but this is a topic actively being discussed, you can subscribe or provide any feedback here > > > tl:dr; Add a dedicated http REST CRUD API to manage Dashboards to support infra…-as-code use-cases. > > > \----- > > \*\*Current approach: using the saved object API\*\* > > Dashboards can be programmatically managed with the \[saved object API\](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/saved-objects-api.html). This is a general purpose API for all resource types in Kibana (e.g. Dashboards, individual visualizations, saved searches, etc...) supporting basic CRUD operations. > > A typical dashboard would consist of some dashboard metadata (title, description, layout, ...), and a collection of panels, each with panel specific contents (either by value or reference). > > For example: > \- \`optionsJson\`: options specific to a dashboard (e.g. border-width, ...) > \- \`panelsJson\`: each panel has a position and a content. The panel-content (\`embeddableConfig\`) is specific to the type of panel (e.g. a Lens visualization, a map, ...) > \`\`\` > { > "id": "730ea5e4-dc12-4b1c-aee4-a6af849be9be", > "type": "dashboard", > "namespaces": \[ > "default" > \], > "updated\_at": "2024-01-08T22:30:30.879Z", > "created\_at": "2024-01-08T22:30:30.879Z", > "version": "Wzg1LDdd", > "attributes": { > "version": 1, > "kibanaSavedObjectMeta": { > "searchSourceJSON": "{\\"query\\":{\\"query\\":\\"\\",\\"language\\":\\"kuery\\"},\\"filter\\":\[\]}" > }, > "description": "", > "timeRestore": false, > "optionsJSON": "{\\"useMargins\\":true,\\"syncColors\\":false,\\"syncCursor\\":true,\\"syncTooltips\\":false,\\"hidePanelTitles\\":false}", > "panelsJSON": "\[{\\"type\\":\\"lens\\",\\"gridData\\":{\\"x\\":0,\\"y\\":0,\\"w\\":24,\\"h\\":15,\\"i\\":\\"47acda3e-9f92-4220-b314-8c36f31a1551\\"},\\"panelIndex\\":\\"47acda3e-9f92-4220-b314-8c36f31a1551\\",\\"embeddableConfig\\":{\\"attributes\\":{\\"title\\":\\"\\",\\"visualizationType\\":\\"lnsXY\\",\\"type\\":\\"lens\\",\\"references\\":\[{\\"type\\":\\"index-pattern\\",\\"id\\":\\"01d64a72-a702-4a41-8ba3-b87d45c40814\\",\\"name\\":\\"indexpattern-datasource-layer-d92f3431-88f6-455c-aecb-bb7c3ff82692\\"}\],\\"state\\":{\\"visualization\\":{\\"legend\\":{\\"isVisible\\":true,\\"position\\":\\"right\\"},\\"valueLabels\\":\\"hide\\",\\"fittingFunction\\":\\"None\\",\\"axisTitlesVisibilitySettings\\":{\\"x\\":true,\\"yLeft\\":true,\\"yRight\\":true},\\"tickLabelsVisibilitySettings\\":{\\"x\\":true,\\"yLeft\\":true,\\"yRight\\":true},\\"labelsOrientation\\":{\\"x\\":0,\\"yLeft\\":0,\\"yRight\\":0},\\"gridlinesVisibilitySettings\\":{\\"x\\":true,\\"yLeft\\":true,\\"yRight\\":true},\\"preferredSeriesType\\":\\"bar\_stacked\\",\\"layers\\":\[{\\"layerId\\":\\"d92f3431-88f6-455c-aecb-bb7c3ff82692\\",\\"accessors\\":\[\\"393ddff7-a95a-4572-90a8-1b5c73da8111\\"\],\\"position\\":\\"top\\",\\"seriesType\\":\\"bar\_stacked\\",\\"showGridlines\\":false,\\"layerType\\":\\"data\\",\\"xAccessor\\":\\"82884702-45e2-4657-86e3-7710517d038f\\"}\]},\\"query\\":{\\"query\\":\\"\\",\\"language\\":\\"kuery\\"},\\"filters\\":\[\],\\"datasourceStates\\":{\\"formBased\\":{\\"layers\\":{\\"d92f3431-88f6-455c-aecb-bb7c3ff82692\\":{\\"columns\\":{\\"82884702-45e2-4657-86e3-7710517d038f\\":{\\"label\\":\\"@timestamp\\",\\"dataType\\":\\"date\\",\\"operationType\\":\\"date\_histogram\\",\\"sourceField\\":\\"@timestamp\\",\\"isBucketed\\":true,\\"scale\\":\\"interval\\",\\"params\\":{\\"interval\\":\\"auto\\",\\"includeEmptyRows\\":true,\\"dropPartials\\":false}},\\"393ddff7-a95a-4572-90a8-1b5c73da8111\\":{\\"label\\":\\"Count of records\\",\\"dataType\\":\\"number\\",\\"operationType\\":\\"count\\",\\"isBucketed\\":false,\\"scale\\":\\"ratio\\",\\"sourceField\\":\\"\_\_\_records\_\_\_\\",\\"params\\":{\\"emptyAsNull\\":true}}},\\"columnOrder\\":\[\\"82884702-45e2-4657-86e3-7710517d038f\\",\\"393ddff7-a95a-4572-90a8-1b5c73da8111\\"\],\\"incompleteColumns\\":{},\\"sampling\\":1}}},\\"indexpattern\\":{\\"layers\\":{}},\\"textBased\\":{\\"layers\\":{}}},\\"internalReferences\\":\[\],\\"adHocDataViews\\":{}}},\\"enhancements\\":{}}}\]", > "title": "mydashboard" > }, > "references": \[ > { > "type": "index-pattern", > "id": "01d64a72-a702-4a41-8ba3-b87d45c40814", > "name": "47acda3e-9f92-4220-b314-8c36f31a1551:indexpattern-datasource-layer-d92f3431-88f6-455c-aecb-bb7c3ff82692" > } > \], > "managed": false, > "coreMigrationVersion": "8.8.0", > "typeMigrationVersion": "8.9.0" > } > \`\`\` > > \*\*\*Adoption\*\*\* > > Several tools provide dashboards-as-code integrations by using the Saved Object API. > > \- \[edctl\](https://github.com/elastic/edctl): manages Stack deployments. > \- \[Elastic Stack terraform provider\](https://github.com/elastic/terraform-provider-elasticstack): a dashboard integration is provided through the \[Saved object provider\](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/elastic/elasticstack/latest/docs/resources/kibana\_import\_saved\_objects) > \- \[Elastic Agent Integrations\](https://docs.elastic.co/en/integrations): Elastic Integrations include ready-made resources such as Dashboards, and imported with Agent into Kibana > > \*\*\*Limitations\*\*\* > > There are a number of limitations with using Saved Objects API. > > \*\*\*\*General limitations\*\*\*\* > \- \_It is deprecated (since 8.7)\_. The existing SO-API is a poor fit for a SAAS-product. > - It is difficult to evolve backward compatibility for all resource types with a single API. > - 1:1 correspondence of storage implementation details (ie. the shape of the SO object, how it persists inside Elasticsearch) and the API layer. > \- \_No OpenAPI documentation\_: The SO-API does not have a standardized documentation to generate client-code. > \- \_No domain specific validation\_: The SO apis do not validate individual content. The payload is a "bag of values", either as string or json. > \- \_No clear team ownership\_: individual teams should own the API layer for their resources > > > \*\*\*\*Dashboard specific limitations\*\*\*\* > \- \_absence of higher level dashboard-specific operation\_: e.g. add/remove panels, ... > \- \_string content requires additional parsing\_: this gets specifically tricky when nesting contents (e.g. dashboard panels may have stringified contents too (e.g. maps)) > \- \_string content has very poor readability\_: this is important when resources are checked in under version control (e.g. git), and users want to be able to easily identify changes across versions > - sorting keys would reduce visual clutter in diffs (https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/167537) > - using an unmapped field would provide better readability and ergonomics (ie indented Json is quite readable) (https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/167824) > > > \----- > > \*\*Proposal\*\* > > Introduce a dedicated REST API to perform Dashboard CRUD, and higher level, domain specific operations. > > \*\*\*Incremental approach\*\*\* > > Given the scope of the work, we would propose an incremental approach of delivery. Below a rough ordering of priority. > > \*\*\*\*1) Extract basic functionality\*\*\*\* > > CRUD for dashboards > > This is similar to the current SO, support, but > \- ensures explicit backward compatibility > \- removes stringified json > \- adds OpenAPI spec > > for example: > \`\`\` > PUT http://kibanaproject/{spaceid?}/dashboard/{id} > Accept: application/json > Content-Type: application/json > elastic-version: 2024-01-01 > { > options: { ...} > panels: \[ > { layout: ..., content: ...}, > { layout: ..., content: ...}, > \] > } > \`\`\` > > \*\*\*\*2) Add content validation\*\*\*\* > > Add content validation for Dashboard contents > > \*\*\*\*3) Fully type panels\*\*\*\* > > Fully type API to include all panels as a first level object. > > \*\*\*\*Scope limits\*\*\*\* > > To limit scope, consider only: > \- by-value panels > \- limit full typing to select widget-types: Lens, Maps, Saved Search, and exclude legacy (e.g. agg-based visualizations) > \- no versioning of dashboards. Dashboard versioning would still be outside of Kibana (e.g. github) > > \----- > > \*\*Comparisons\*\* > > Similar functionality already exists. > > \*\*\*Internal comparisons\*\*\* > > Several other resource types in Kibana already have a dedicated http API. They support basic CRUD, but also domain specific operations. > > \- \[Cases\](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/cases-api.html): beyond CRUD, this also provide higher level operations like CRUD for comments, manipulating individual properties, ... > \- \[Alerts\](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/alerting-apis.html): beyond CRUD, also provides higher level operations like enable/disable alerts, ... > \- \[DataViews\](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/data-views-api.html): beyond CRUD, also provides higher level operations like updating individual fields, ... > > \*\*\*External comparisons\*\*\* > > Peer products also provide dedicated http APIs to manage dashboards. > > \- \[DataDog\](https://docs.datadoghq.com/api/latest/dashboards/): fully typed aPI for Dasbhoard CRUD, including its individual widgets (~ "panels") > \- \[Grafana\](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developers/http\_api/dashboard/): this also includes versioning (something considered out-of-scope here) > > \----- > > \*\*Describe a specific use case for the feature:\*\* > > Infa-as-code use-cases and machine integrations like Terraform providers, Ansible, ... ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 10:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-dashboard-panels-with-code/354617/3 "2024-04-05T10:34:49Z")
Closed on April 5, 2024, 10:34am UTC This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.