Pattern Catalog UI Proposal #61
Description
Hello @ipbabble @mbaldessari,
Since our conversation last Validated Pattern Office Hours, I have been experimenting with both the Operator Framework and Dynamic Plugin capabilities of OpenShift. I'm ready to start building out a prototype.
Before I start, I'd like to review this high-level proposal to implement a pattern catalog based on this YAML file. Let me know what you think.
Proposed Changes
I would like to add two new custom k8s resources (and controller logic) to the operator:
PatternCatalogSource- This will contain the URL to the catalog Git repo
- Operator controller will look at this resource to create PatternManifests
PatternManifest- A catalog entry
- These will be created by the operator controller from looking at a PatternCatalogSource
(The names and ideas of these custom resources are based on OLM.)
In addition to the CRDs and controller logic, I am also proposing adding a Dynamic Console Plugin for the catalog UI. This will require adding a separate deployment to the Operator that will serve the catalog UI React components.
Use Cases
Here's three use cases I came up with.
Use Case 1: As an organization, I want to use the default Validated Patterns catalog hosted in a public Git repo.
The first use case can be achieved by creating a default PatternCatalogSource when the Operator is installed that points to a public catalog repo/YAML file.
Use Case 2: As an organization, I want to use a custom patterns catalog hosted in a public or private Git repo.
The second use case can be achieved by the admin deleting the default PatternCatalogSource after Operator installation. The admin can then create a custom PatternCatalogSource that points to their pattern Git repo/YAML file.
Use Case 3: As an admin, I want to be able to view and deploy patterns from a catalog UI in the OpenShift console.
The third use case uses the dynamic plugin to display a list of patterns (PatternManifests) to the admin. When the admin selects a pattern from the list, a Pattern CR is created based on data from the PatternManifest.
Unanswered Questions
These aren't pressing but will need to be figured out.
- Should a PatternCatalogSource point to a Git repo or to a YAML file directly?
- What type of dynamic plugin should this be?
- OpenShift has different places/interfaces the catalog can go under