Adding attributes to GNS3 nodes for dynamic config building

[julien-duponchelle]

Request from @plucena24

Would it be possible to add a feature in GNS3 that allows a user to add arbitrary key-value attributes to each node from the GUI? For example, select a group of nodes, right click, and set a field under each node's properties. The use case I was thinking of is allowing users to set attributes on groups of routers, such as "asn:100", or "ospf.area = 1", etc, and adding these values to the .gns3 file. A program can then parse the .gns3 file and build configs based on these user provided attributes.

[julien-duponchelle]

My suggestion is too add in the GNS3 file on each node a plugins dictionary and in the top level of the file for general keys. Each "plugins" could store his informations here. And each plugins will provide a file read by GNS3 (a json schema for example) allowing GNS3 to add a configuration menu when you click on a node or in the top menu.

A file sample with two plugins net.awesome.autoip, com.networkdigital.webexport.

{
  "revision": 3,
  "version": "1.3.7",
  "auto_start": false,
  "name": "ioutest",
  "type": "topology",
  "project_id": "2b71dc2b-2b5e-4457-9dda-43ffab5626bd",
  "plugins": {
       "net.awesome.autoip": {
          "iprange": "192.168.1.0/21"
       },
      "com.networkdigital.webexport": {
           "export_format": "html5",
          "javascript": true
     }
  },
  "topology": {
    "servers": [
      {
        "port": 8000,
        "local": false,
        "host": "172.16.43.43",
        "cloud": false,
        "vm": true,
        "id": 2
      }
    ],
    "nodes": [
      {
        "default_symbol": ":/symbols/router.normal.svg",
        "y": -100,
        "vm_id": "84a189da-a684-4e6a-bde4-99481d616f68",
        "x": -319,
        "type": "IOUDevice",
        "id": 1,
        "properties": {
          "nvram": 128,
          "name": "IOU1",
          "l1_keepalives": false,
          "ram": 256,
          "path": "i86bi-linux-l3-adventerprisek9-15.4.1T.bin",
          "ethernet_adapters": 2,
          "serial_adapters": 2,
          "console": 2000,
          "initial_config": "initial-config.cfg",
          "use_default_iou_values": true
        },
        "description": "IOU device",
        "server_id": 2,
        "hover_symbol": ":/symbols/router.selected.svg",
        "plugins": {
             "net.awesome.autoip": {
                  "ip": "192.168.1.2"
             }
         },
      }
    ]
  }
}

[julien-duponchelle]

Early design

[grossmj]

This would most likely be required to implement #23