Topology Feature Availability

[Dhamo1107]

Hello,

We’re using the Petrosian version of ManageIQ in our application, and we rely on the topology feature to visualize components like VMs, clusters and hosts. We noticed that the topology views were removed in latest versions of ManageIQ (referencing PR 7946 and related issues like 7917, 7918 and 7919.

Could you provide more context on why the topology feature was removed? Additionally, are there any plans to reintroduce topology views in future releases, or perhaps as part of individual provider summary pages, as mentioned in the discussion?

Could you recommend the best approach to continue using the topology functionality in the Petrosian version?

Thanks for your help and insights!

[Dhamo1107]

Hi,

I added code from PR 7946 to implement topology in the Petrosian version. However, when I navigate to the topology page, I encounter an error related to the D3 library. The current version of D3 being used in the application is 4.4.1.

Could someone please assist me in resolving this error?

[Fryguy]

This is part of the problems I was referring to in https://github.com/orgs/ManageIQ/discussions/23255#discussioncomment-11293099. The topology pages were preventing us from upgrading other components that had security issues, because they were based on older technology that itself wasn't receiving updates anymore.

[Dhamo1107]

Hi @Fryguy and @agrare Do you have any idea on this!

[Dhamo1107]

Hi @Fryguy, @agrare, @jeffibm, do you have any insights on this?

[Fryguy]

Hi @Dhamo1107 - the topology pages were causing a lot of problems and were arguably less used than the list view. In our estimation based on customer usage, they were rarely if ever used in production. I'm sorry it was a feature you were using though!

The topology pages had multiple problems, namely performance, but more importantly is they were using components that had security issues and that were on older technologies that we are trying to remove entirely. We would like to bring it back in a new form as is described in ManageIQ/manageiq-ui-classic#7919, and we will need a new react-based component as well. If you have any ideas or research please feel free to add comments to ManageIQ/manageiq-ui-classic#7919 or create a PR.

[Dhamo1107]

Hi @Fryguy, Thank you for the insights! Based on your plan to move towards a React-based component, are there any libraries like react-topology or Vis.js that you recommend? Also, could you suggest the best libraries and explain the development flow for this feature? We would like to proceed with this approach!

[Fryguy]

I'll be honest, I'm not a UI/UX person, so I'm not sure on the best choice of technology here. react-topology looks interesting but my concern is that it's part of the patternfly library which we are trying to move away from in favor of carbon, however, if it can still be re-styled, that might be a possibility. Vis.js looks pretty generic, but again, if it can be style, that might be a possibility. I believe when @kavyanekkalapu was removing the old topology, she had a new component in mind - let me search my notes and see what I can find.

[Fryguy]

I can't find the original component, but there's also https://js.cytoscape.org/ and d3.js has components like https://observablehq.com/@d3/force-directed-tree. Here's some more examples: https://d3-graph-gallery.com/network.html

[Fryguy]

Note that it doesn't have to be react, per se, it just can't conflict with existing parts of the application. You could also just create a react component around some vanilla javascript, and we could use that.

[kavyanekkalapu]

@Fryguy, I just looked at Carbon Charts. I don't remember exactly how ManageIQ topology looked, but do check if this component can replace it: https://charts.carbondesignsystem.com/tree.

[Fryguy]

The manageiq topology was a topological graph (ball-and-stick style), but we could possibly go with a tree.