Add manual labels via UI and API

[marko-lisica]

Goal

User story
As a Client Platform Engineer (CPE),
I want to use the UI or an easy to use API to create and manage manual labels
so that I don't have to use fleetctl to create and manage labels.

Context

• Product designer: @marko-lisica

Changes

Product

• UI changes: Figma link
• REST API changes: API design: Add manual labels via UI and API #17670
• Permissions changes: Admins, Maintainers (global only), and GitOps users can add dynamic and manual labels.
• Changes to paid features or tiers: Available to Fleet Free and Fleet Premium

Engineering

• Database schema migrations: TODO
• Load testing: TODO

ℹ️  Please read this issue carefully and understand it. Pay special attention to UI wireframes, especially "dev notes".

QA

Risk assessment

• Requires load testing: TODO
• Risk level: Low / High TODO
• Risk description: TODO

Manual testing steps

1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Step 3

Testing notes

Confirmation

1. Engineer (@____): Added comment to user story confirming successful completion of QA.
2. QA (@____): Added comment to user story confirming successful completion of QA.

[noahtalerman]

This makes sense. Brining this request to feature fest.

[noahtalerman]

Hey @dherder heads up, this story was prioritized during feature fest.

Aiming to ship an improvement in the next 6 weeks.

[noahtalerman]

Hey @dherder and @marko-lisica heads up, I think we want to take a different direction w/ this story.

Instead of building on top of the existing fleetctl apply functionality for labels, I think we want to add a way to manage manual labels via the UI/API. User should be able to specify host by any host identifier.

Dave, I think let's try to get the customer's feedback on this approach once we have designs/wireframes.

I moved the original issue description here:

Problem

Currently, user can create manual label only by referencing hostname. Using only hostname to create label is fragile, as hostnames can change frequently. That can break automation based on the labels.

Potential solutions

Add way to use other host's identifiers to create manual label, such as uuid, id, serial_number

[noahtalerman]

Hey @marko-lisica looking good! I recorded a Loom video w/ my feedback here: https://www.loom.com/share/5225a3c03b114a26a5a6addbf8d61e89?sid=3433294f-f5de-44db-9259-3cc29ed6f471

[mikermcneil]

thoughts / first reactions:

• "manual" sounds hard
• "dynamic" is true, I wonder if "smart xyz" would remind folks of things they might be used to from other products. "intelligent" perhaps, though does that sound like some kind of spit-shine AI thing?

[noahtalerman]

thoughts / first reactions:

• "manual" sounds hard
• "dynamic" is true, I wonder if "smart xyz" would remind folks of things they might be used to from other products. "intelligent" perhaps, though does that sound like some kind of spit-shine AI thing?

We decided to stick w/ "manual" and "dynamic" because we're stuck w/ them. They're already in the API.

"smart xyz" would remind folks of things they might be used to from other products

@marko-lisica, Mike and I were thinking that we could add a description to the Add label page. What do you think?

Also, we got feedback from Mike that we should remove UUID and replace Private IP w/ Location (empty state if we don't have it) in the host selector.

When you get the chance can you please work w/ @ghernandez345 to bring those changes through expedited drafting?

[ghernandez345]

@noahtalerman do you mean replace the text "Private IP" with "Location"? something like this? I'm assuming the placeholder text in the input should say location too instead of private IP? or something like Search name, hostname, serial number, or location (private IP address)?

[noahtalerman]

@ghernandez345 my understanding is that Fleet uses a host's public IP to determine location.

Today, the GET /hosts/:id endpoint returns a geolocation object.

Do we have the field available in the relevant API endpoint for the manual label? If we don't then I think we can cut this column. Only use name, hostname, and serial number.

If we do have the geolocation object, can you search hosts by location in the relevant API? If not, I think we remove "location" from the text in the search input:

Also, what's the empty state for the "Location" column? Maybe we use "---"?

Heads up, I think many users will have empty locations (this is ok). Why? Location only appears if you have GeoIP configured.

cc @marko-lisica

[noahtalerman]

Hey @marko-lisica I left feedback on the UI changes in a Loom here.

Summary:

• Tweaked the help text at the top of the page
• Updated "SQL" to "Query" for the input name
• Can we come up w/ a simple example query to use as a placeholder for dynamic labels. This way, new users learn how to write queries for labels.

[noahtalerman]

FYI @ghernandez345 ^

[noahtalerman]

Hey @pintomi1989 and @dherder heads up, this customer/prospect request was shipped in 4.49 🤖

[rachaelshaw]

Created a fresh doc PR here from @marko-lisica's branch: #18716 (to avoid messing with PR open time KPI)

[rachaelshaw]

Doc changes are merged

[fleet-release]

Labels through UI, API,
Ease for Engineers, like spring rain,
Fleet grows, clear as day.