Ability To Export Dashboard Widget Layouts

[mr1716]

NetBox version

v4.4.4

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

What this would do is have a way to save the desired Dashboard Widget format in a format that an admin could use to update the constants.py file. This would allow users to copy the exported format of the new dashboard layout to then write to the file, rather than having to change it manually after updating the UI.

Use case

When admins want to change the default dashboard widget layout to highlight different aspects than is the default, this would make it significantly faster to set the default dashboard.

Specific examples would be if I created a new plugin to capture BGP information and wanted to add a plugin to the Dashboard showing that BGP information, creating the widgets as a default isn’t the easiest thing to write or test. Being able to export the dashboard as I want and then copy/paste to the constants.py file would save time.

Database changes

None?

External dependencies

None??

[jnovinger]

We discussed this in our FR review meeting. A few implementation approaches came up:

1. Management command: outputs Python code ready for configuration.py
2. Copy from user: Admin UI option to set default dashboard to match a specific user's layout
3. Web UI export/import: If supporting export in the UI, should also support import

We've moved this to the backlog while we consider the best approach. The management command option seems most appropriate, to me, given the audience (admins) and operation frequency (occasional), but the UI-based approaches have appeal for discoverability.