New plugin architecture: How to build?

[Dasko]

Hello,

We are currently switching to Elasticsearch/Kibana 7.9.1 and creating new plugins, following the new architecture.

We were already using our own plugins before, and were building them via the build command of the plugin-helpers.

As the new plugins no longer use a package.json file, is it still possible de generate an archive/a binary? Is it possible to create a ZIP archive with all the files and distribute it as is?

I haven't found any information on that topic, sorry

Cheers

[rudolf (Rudolf Meijering)]

Hi Dasko,

Our documentation is unfortunately still a bit scattered. To build a plugin distributable archive you can use the kibana plugin helpers (there's some documentation here: https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/packages/kbn-plugin-helpers)

1. Create a plugin with a kibana.json file inside kibana/plugins i.e. kibana/plugins/myplugin
2. cd kibana/plugins/myplugin
3. run node ../../scripts/plugin_helpers.js build

Feel free to reach out if you have any problems...

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

Hi Rudolf,
after build and install plugin for 7.9.1 Kibana don't start with error

FATAL  Error: Cannot find module '/usr/share/kibana/plugins/my_plugin'

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

and no index.js file in /usr/share/kibana/plugins/my_plugin and in my_plugin.zip

[Mikhail_Shustov]

@16318a22907f3cbfa04b It seems plugin_helpers build only legacy plugins in 7.9.
1.Could you update Kibana to 7.10?
2.Did you use plugin-generator to create my_plugin structure? If so, yarn build in /plugins/my_plugin will build a distributable version.
3.index.js is not required in/plugins/my_plugin folder.

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

1. I need plugin for 7.9.1
2. Yes, I use plugin-generator
3. I must use some dependency. Plugin-generator don't create package.json. So I had to create it manually. It looks like this

{
  "name": "my_plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "kibana": {
    "version": "7.9.1",
    "templateVersion": "1.0.0"
  },
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "scripts": {
    "kbn": "node ../../scripts/kbn.js",
    "build": "plugin-helpers build",
    "start": "node ../../scripts/kibana --dev",
    "lint:es": "node ../../scripts/eslint",
    "lint:sass": "node ../../scripts/sasslint",
    "lint": "yarn run lint:es && yarn run lint:sass"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@kbn/plugin-helpers": "link:../../packages/kbn-plugin-helpers"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@hapi/joi": "^17.1.1",
    "@types/hapi__joi": "^17.1.6",
    "pg": "^8.4.2",
    "typescript": "^4.0.5"
  }
}

file .kibana-plugin-helpers.json look like this

{
  "buildSourcePatterns": [
    "package.json",
    "yarn.lock",
    "tsconfig.json",
    "{public,server}/**/*",
    "kibana.json"
  ]
}

kibana.json as created by plugin-generator

{
  "id": "myPlugin",
  "version": "7.9.1",
  "server": true,
  "ui": true,
  "requiredPlugins": ["navigation"],
  "optionalPlugins": []
}

Now yarn build create plugin zip and I can install plugin. Kibana starts with plugin. I see it in the list on the console (cli) when kibana starts. Now no errors. But kibana don't work, I see red banner when connect to http.
With yarn start --oss everything work fine.
Maybe someone has an example of how to build a plugin with dependencies

[Mikhail_Shustov]

as it seems from kibana.json manifest file

{
  "id": "myPlugin",
  "version": "7.9.1",
  "server": true,
  "ui": true,
  "requiredPlugins": ["navigation"],
  "optionalPlugins": []
}

you are trying to build Kibana Platform plugin, but unfortunately plugin_helpers build only Legacy plugins in 7.9. You have to use this workaround https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/82466 or migrate Kibana to 7.10 where this problem has been fixed.

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

As I understand from what I read, the Kibana Platform plugin cannot use any additional nodejs modules. Is this correct? If this is incorrect, how and where should I specify dependencies?

[Mikhail_Shustov]

@16318a22907f3cbfa04b

As I understand from what I read, the Kibana Platform plugin cannot use any additional nodejs modules. Is this correct?

no, you are fine to use any modules. make sure you declared deps in your package.json and run yarn kbn bootstrap

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

I think I'm getting something wrong. If I can't use plugin-helpers, maybe I should do the build in some other way? Should I use node scripts/build_kibana_platform_plugins --dist? My plugin is made in a new format. What is the correct build sequence in this case?

[16318a22907f3cbfa04b (Evgenii Sokolov)]

Custom Plugins 7.7.0

Hi, I'm having a hard time understanding a few things regarding custom plugin development since I cannot seem to find enough documentation about it: How do I build a single plugin without having to build the entire kibana? (e.g. the custom plugin that would reside in the '/plugins' folder which is the default folder that the cmd 'node scripts/generate-plugin defaults you to); How can I add a dependency specially for my plugin (this was possible back in 7.3.0)? Is it possible for someone to po…

All right. I Should have looked here. Now everything is working. I will only add that the plugin archive should be done on Linux. On a Windows machine it turns out to be incorrect and there will be an error during installation Plugin installation was unsuccessful due to error "EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/share/kibana/plugins/.plugin.installing/package.json'"
No more problems.