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1. Template Variables

Template variables allow you to quickly change the search criteria of charts by defining a set of variables in the current dashboard and referencing these variables in the chart's search conditions. This way, you can view the corresponding dashboard by only changing the variable values, without needing to create multiple identical visualization panels just because of different search conditions.

1.1 Managing Template Variables

Template variables can be managed uniformly through the Template Variable List.

As shown in the figure below, the template variable list supports operations such as ① Add, ② Delete, and ③ Modify. You can also enter any string in the ⑤ Search Bar and adjust the display mode of the ④ Column Width, such as evenly distributing column width or allocating column width based on content.

00-Template Variable List

1.2 Creating Template Variables

When you need to build some quick search conditions for the current dashboard, you can Create Template Variables to achieve this. For example, when building an Application Observability Dashboard, you may need to quickly view the dashboards of different applications, so you can create a template variable for the application search condition.

Step 1: Click the ① Settings button on the dashboard details page and select ② Manage Template Variables.

01-Step 1

Step 2: Click the ③ Create Template Variable button in the template variable list popup.

02-Step 2

Step 3: Create the template variable as needed. The DeepFlow platform provides three types of template variables: Dropdown, Text Input, and Group. Detailed descriptions can be found in the corresponding sections below.

03-Step 3

1.2.1 Dropdown

Dropdown type template variables change the search conditions through a dropdown menu. Currently, this type of template variable supports the resource and xx_enum types of Tags in the DeepFlow platform database.

• Note: For a description of the DeepFlow platform database, see the subsequent sections.

04-Dropdown

• ① Query Type: Different data transmission methods
  • Query by ID: Supports ID-based queries
  • Query by Name: Supports string-based queries
• ② Value Range: Supports setting the value range of template variables in two ways: Static Values and Dynamic Values
  • Static Values: The value range is fixed after being referenced
  • Dynamic Values: Compared to static values, the value range of dynamic values can be influenced by Static Values or Value Tag. For usage details, refer to the [Creation and Reference] section
  • ③ Data Source: Determines the data table where the template variable values are located
  • ④ Value Tag: Determines the Tag corresponding to the template variable values
  • ⑤ Value Range: Selects the values corresponding to the template variable
• ⑥ Selection Mode: Changes the search conditions through a dropdown menu, default is single selection
  • Multi-select: Check Multi-select to switch to multi-select mode
  • Select All: Check Select All to include an All option in the candidates, selecting all values of the current template variable
• How to Reference: When adding query conditions in the chart's search bar, enter the Tag, and the established template variables with the same Tag will appear as candidates in the dropdown menu. For usage details, refer to the [Creation and Reference] section

1.2.1.1 Creation and Reference

Next, we will demonstrate how to create and reference Static Template Variables and Dynamic Template Variables, and how to link dynamic and static template variables.

• First, create a static template variable named K8s Namespace for pod_ns, with a value range of deepflow-ebpf-istio-demo, deepflow-otel-grpc-demo, deepflow-telegraf-demo.

05-Create Static Template Variable

• Next, create a dynamic template variable named K8s Workload for pod_group, with a value range of pod_ns = K8s Namespace, meaning the dropdown candidates for pod_group will change based on the selection of pod_ns.

06-Create Dynamic Template Variable

• Then, select the query condition pod_group = K8s Workload and reference the template variable in the chart's search conditions.

07-Template Variable Reference

• Finally, you can quickly switch the referenced template variables at the top of the dashboard. Different selections for K8s Namespace will result in different candidates for K8s Workload.

08-Use Template Variable

09-Switch Template Variable

1.2.2 Text Input

Text input type template variables change the search conditions by entering a string.

10-Text Input

Text input type template variables can be referenced by any Tag or Operator that can be directly entered. The form in which they appear in the search conditions is similar to that of Dropdown type template variables.

• ① Tag Reference: Supports int, int_enum, string, ip, mac types. Tags of these data types support all operators.

11-Tag Reference

• ② Operator Reference: Supports :, !:, =~, !~ types. These types support all Tag types.

12-Operator Reference

1.2.3 Group

Group type template variables change the grouping through a dropdown menu. For example, when you need to drill down data layer by layer from K8s Cluster -> K8s Namespace -> K8s Container Service -> K8s Workload -> K8s Container POD, you can create this type of template variable.

13-Group

• Value Range: Currently, all Tags in the DeepFlow platform database can be used as values for this type of template variable.
  • ①: Determines the data table where the template variable values are located
  • ②: Selects the values corresponding to the template variable
• Selection Mode: For detailed description, see the Dropdown type template variable description
  • Note: The main group cannot reference template variables in Multi-select or Select All mode

Group type template variables can only be referenced by groupings in search conditions. They appear as candidates in the grouping dropdown menu.

14-Group Reference