Template variables on Ad-hoc variable

joaquin · May 11, 2018, 9:31pm

Hi community,

I was playing with variables and I’ve tried to use a regular template variable on a ad-hoc variable in the following way:

Note: Let’s take for example: https://play.grafana.org/d/000000014/elasticsearch-metrics

I create the following variables:

$host: {“find”: “terms”, “field”: “@hostname”}
$Filters: (regular Ad-hoc filter, already present in the dashboard)

If then I add a new filter

@hostname = $host

The query doesn’t work, looking at the Query Inspector I can see that the value of $Filters gets replaced but not correctly:

... {"match_phrase":{"@hostname":{"query":"{server 20}"}}} ...

I was going through the code and I noticed that the issue seems to be on this line:

github.com

grafana/grafana/blob/master/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts#L275


    payload += esQuery + '\n';
    sentTargets.push(target);
  }


  if (sentTargets.length === 0) {
    return this.$q.when([]);
  }


  payload = payload.replace(/\$timeFrom/g, options.range.from.valueOf());
  payload = payload.replace(/\$timeTo/g, options.range.to.valueOf());
  payload = this.templateSrv.replace(payload, options.scopedVars);


  return this.post('_msearch', payload).then(function(res) {
    return new ElasticResponse(sentTargets, res).getTimeSeries();
  });
}


getFields(query) {
  return this.get('/_mapping').then(function(result) {
    var typeMap = {
      float: 'number',

That line replaces variables in a “generic” way and since value is an Array it surrounds it by curly braces and separates by comma here:

github.com

grafana/grafana/blob/master/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts#L127


        return value;
      }
      return this.distributeVariable(value, variable.name);
    }
    case 'csv': {
      if (_.isArray(value)) {
        return value.join(',');
      }
      return value;
    }
    default: {
      if (_.isArray(value)) {
        return '{' + value.join(',') + '}';
      }
      return value;
    }
  }
}


setGrafanaVariable(name, value) {
  this.grafanaVariables[name] = value;

this.templateSrv.replace("$hostname", t.scopedVars, "lucene")
> "("cm\-20")"
this.templateSrv.replace("$hostname", t.scopedVars)
> "{cm-20}"

What do you guys think? Is it a bug or I’m just trying too hard to use it in a way that wasn’t meant to be?

Why I’m trying to use template variables on an ad-hoc variable, well, it’s easy, this would allow me to create an ad-hoc with all the regular variables, hide it and automatically have them apply to my elasticsearch queries, without having to include each variable on each graph.

Thanks.

mefraimsson · May 29, 2018, 11:03am

Probably a bug, but why don’t you use the adhoc filter drop down functionality instead of template variable???

Marcus

joaquin · May 29, 2018, 3:14pm

Hey @mefraimsson, thanks for taking the time

The drop down functionality only shows me the different values of the field, but I can’t (except writting it myself) set “all” or select “many” like we can for regular template variables.

For example, suppose I have a @host field and I want to select host1.com and host2.com, if I use a regular template variable there is no problem, but I have to add that variable to the query of each graph in my dashboard. If I use an ad-hoc variable I don’t have to add it to every graph, but it’s not flexible enough as a regular template variable to choose values.

I’ve found a workaround while I was typing this answer, but only work for Grafana v5.1+.

I can use advance formatting of the $host variable to turn it into a regex and then use the regex operation (=~) in the ad-hoc variable. It works as expected!

Note: Because of the way the query is created using the ad-hoc variables, the lucene formatting of the variable can’t be used in this problem.

mefraimsson · May 29, 2018, 3:25pm

Understood. But can’t you add multiple ad hoc filters for hostname then or is it more convenient to use a drop down in template variable?

Marcus

joaquin · May 29, 2018, 3:48pm

I find it easier (not all of my users are technical) to just tell them to select the values they want from the dropdown.

I don’t follow… wouldn’t multiple ad-hoc filters with different hostnames produce basically empty results? I mean, events are either from hostA or hostB in my case…

mefraimsson · May 30, 2018, 6:38pm

Sorry thought that you could select OR instead of ADD in the ad hoc filters.

Marcus

shikhapriyedarshi4 · March 11, 2021, 6:38pm

Hi ,

Need help with the following problem:

I have a post request to send data to influxdb as below:

“curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_connect,url={params.TEST_URL},Connect_min={value_min[0]},Connect_max={value_max[0]},Connect_mean={value_mean[0]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)
sh(script: “curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_processing,url={params.TEST_URL},metric=processing Processing_min={value_min[1]},Processing_max={value_max[1]},Processing_mean={value_mean[1]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)
sh(script: “curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_waiting,url={params.TEST_URL},metric=waiting Waiting_min={value_min[2]},Waiting_max={value_max[2]},Waiting_mean={value_mean[2]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)

I have grafana dashboard plotted but need to templatise the metrics of all of them How do I do that? so as the template will show selective metrics for a time range of for example last 7 days

shikhapriyedarshi4 · March 11, 2021, 6:39pm

Hi ,

Need help with the following problem:

I have a post request to send data to influxdb as below:

“curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_connect,url={params.TEST_URL},Connect_min={value_min[0]},Connect_max={value_max[0]},Connect_mean={value_mean[0]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)
sh(script: “curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_processing,url={params.TEST_URL},metric=processing Processing_min={value_min[1]},Processing_max={value_max[1]},Processing_mean={value_mean[1]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)
sh(script: “curl -s -X POST {TELEGRAF_URL} --data-binary 'ab_loadtest_waiting,url={params.TEST_URL},metric=waiting Waiting_min={value_min[2]},Waiting_max={value_max[2]},Waiting_mean={value_mean[2]} {loadtestStartTime}000000’”)

I have grafana dashboard plotted but need to templatise the metrics of all of them How do I do that? so as the template will show selective metrics for a time range of for example last 7 days