Extension JSON explained

The plugin.json is your extension definition. Starting with the metrics used by the extension to the favicon and extension configuration fields.

Logically, it can be divided into four parts:

• Metadata
• UI
• Metrics
• Configuration

Example:

jsoncopydownload
{
  "name": "custom.remote.python.example",
  "version": "1.17",
  "productiveMinVersion": "1.000",
  "requiredAgentVersion": "1.000",
  "type": "python",
  "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE",
  "metricGroup": "tech.Example_Service",
  "technologies": ["EXAMPLE_SERVICE"],
  "source": {
    "package": "demo_activegate_plugin_multi",
    "className": "RemoteExamplePlugin",
    "install_requires": ["requests>=2.6.0"],
    "activation": "Remote"
  },
  "ui": {
    "keymetrics": [
      {
        "key": "databases.table_size",
        "aggregation": "max",
        "mergeaggregation": "sum",
        "displayname": "Total table size"
      }
    ],
    "keycharts": [
      {
        "group": "Service state",
        "title": "State",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "service.state_5",
            "displayname": "Status",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "statecolors": ["#ff3333", "#ffd633", "#00b33c"],
            "statechart": true
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Disk usage",
        "title": "Total disk usage",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.table_size",
            "displayname": "Sum of databases size",
            "seriestype": "area",
            "color": "#74cff7"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "charts": [
      {
        "group": "Memory",
        "title": "Per table usage",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.table_size",
            "displayname": "Per table size",
            "seriestype": "area",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "How big is each table"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Entries",
        "title": "Total num entries",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.total_num_entities",
            "displayname": "Total number of entries",
            "seriestype": "line",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "How big is each table"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Entries",
        "title": "Archives",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.replicated_entries",
            "displayname": "Number of entries archived",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "Number of metrics moved to archive"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Connections",
        "title": "Archives",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "service.querries_per_second",
            "displayname": "Connections per second",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "Connections per second"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "metrics": [
    {
      "statetimeseries": {
        "key": "service.state_5",
        "states": ["DOWNTIME", "MAINTENANCE", "WORKING"],
        "displayname": "Service State",
        "source": { "state_entrypoint": "/api/state" }
      },
      "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
    },
    {
      "timeseries": {
        "key": "service.querries_per_second",
        "unit": "PerSecond",
        "displayname": "Querries per second",
        "aggregation": "AVG"
      },
      "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE_GROUP",
      "alert_settings": [
        {
          "alert_id": "custom_connections_alert",
          "event_type": "AVAILABILITY_EVENT",
          "event_name": "No connections!",
          "description": "The {metricname} of {severity} is {alert_condition} the threshold of {threshold}",
          "threshold": 0.01,
          "alert_condition": "ABOVE",
          "samples": 5,
          "violating_samples": 1,
          "dealerting_samples": 5
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "timeseries": {
        "key": "databases.table_size",
        "unit": "MegaByte",
        "displayname": "Table size",
        "aggregation": "MAX",
        "dimensions": ["table_name"]
      },
      "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
    },
    {
      "timeseries": {
        "key": "databases.total_num_entities",
        "unit": "Count",
        "displayname": "Total num ",
        "aggregation": "MAX"
      },
      "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
    },
    {
      "timeseries": {
        "key": "databases.replicated_entries",
        "unit": "Count",
        "displayname": "Archived Entries",
        "aggregation": "SUM"
      },
      "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
    }
  ],
  "properties": [
    {
      "key": "url",
      "type": "String"
    },
    {
      "key": "auth_user",
      "type": "String"
    },
    {
      "key": "auth_password",
      "type": "Password"
    },
    {
      "key": "state_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 60
    },
    {
      "key": "alert_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 360
    },
    {
      "key": "event_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 240
    },
    {
      "key": "relative_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 60
    }
  ],
  "configUI": {
    "displayName": "CustomCloudTechnology",
    "properties": [
      {
        "key": "url",
        "displayName": "URL",
        "displayOrder": 3,
        "displayHint": "http://localhost:9200/"
      },
      {
        "key": "auth_user",
        "displayName": "User",
        "displayOrder": 1,
        "displayHint": "Leave empty if no authentication is set up"
      },
      {
        "key": "auth_password",
        "displayName": "Password",
        "displayOrder": 2,
        "displayHint": "Leave empty if no authentication is set up",
        "defaultValue": "somepassword"
      },
      {
        "key": "state_interval",
        "displayName": "State change interval",
        "displayOrder": 3,
        "displayHint": "How often state metrics changes",
        "defaultValue": 60
      },
      {
        "key": "alert_interval",
        "displayName": "Alert interval",
        "displayOrder": 4,
        "displayHint": "How often an alert is raised",
        "defaultValue": 360
      },
      {
        "key": "event_interval",
        "displayName": "Event interval",
        "displayOrder": 5,
        "displayHint": "How often an event is raised",
        "defaultValue": 240
      },
      {
        "key": "relative_interval",
        "displayName": "Relative interval",
        "displayOrder": 6,
        "displayHint": "How often relative metric is submitted",
        "defaultValue": 60
      }
    ]
  }
}

Metadata

The top-level metadata section contains a list of properties used to identify your extension.

plugin.json top level

Source

The source section lists the package name and class that is to be imported and executed by ActiveGate. This corresponds to the name of the Python file that contains the code and the name of the class that’s defined in it. This information is required by the ActiveGate Plugin Module Python engine.

jsoncopydownload
{
  "package": "remote_example",
  "className": "RemoteExamplePlugin",
  "install_requires": ["requests>=2.6.0"]
}

Source metadata section

Technologies and favicon

The technologies and favicon properties determine how your technology is presented on the Technology overview page. To have the data from your extension displayed on an existing technology tile, set a corresponding technology name. You can look up the configured technology names in the ActiveGate extensions JSON reference or you can get them from the UI as the Main technology process property.

If a value of the technologies property doesn't map to an existing one, the extension will create a new tile on the Technology overview page. The Favicon property determines the technology tile displayed on the page:

Version

You can't deploy the same extension version twice. To upload a modified extension, make sure you increment the extension version with every build or upload.

Name

ActiveGate extension name should follow ^ custom.remote.python (\.[a-zA-Z0-9_]+)+$ regex. For example, custom.remote.python.demo. The name of each extension must be unique.

Metric Group

The preferred way of using Metric Group is adding prefix "tech" before your metric group definition. For example "tech.elasticsearch". Thanks to this, other users will be able to find additional metrics alongside with others in the context of technology like in this example on Custom Charts page:

MetricGroup field can be also used to create a completely new entry. Note that you can use dots to create subgroups, like in this example "My_Metrics.plugins":

However, setting metricGroup field is not necessary for already running extensions that originally didn't have is set. In such a case, metricGroup will be automatically set the extension name not to break the continuity of your data.

UI

This part of the JSON defines how metrics are charted on the Dynatrace page. It contains an optional charts section and an optional keycharts section.

Example UI section:

jsoncopydownload
{
  "ui": {
    "keymetrics": [
      {
        "key": "databases.table_size",
        "aggregation": "max",
        "mergeaggregation": "sum",
        "displayname": "Total table size"
      }
    ],
    "keycharts": [
      {
        "group": "Service state",
        "title": "State",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "service.state_5",
            "displayname": "Status",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "statecolors": ["#ff3333", "#ffd633", "#00b33c"],
            "statechart": true
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Disk usage",
        "title": "Total disk usage",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.table_size",
            "displayname": "Sum of databases size",
            "seriestype": "area",
            "color": "#74cff7"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "charts": [
      {
        "group": "Memory",
        "title": "Per table usage",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.table_size",
            "displayname": "Per table size",
            "seriestype": "area",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "How big is each table"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Entries",
        "title": "Total num entries",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.total_num_entities",
            "displayname": "Total number of entries",
            "seriestype": "line",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "How big is each table"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Entries",
        "title": "Archives",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "databases.replicated_entries",
            "displayname": "Number of entries archived",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "Number of metrics moved to archive"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Connections",
        "title": "Archives",
        "series": [
          {
            "key": "service.querries_per_second",
            "displayname": "Connections per second",
            "seriestype": "bar",
            "color": "#74cff7",
            "metricexplanation": "Connections per second"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

UI Section

KeyMetrics

The KeyMetrics section is optional and allows you to define up to two metrics that should be part of the Custom Device infographic.

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{
    [
        {
            "key": "databases.table_size",
            "aggregation": "max",
            "mergeaggregation": "sum",
            "displayname": "Total table size"
        }
    ]
}

Here is an example of a keymetric in web UI:

A keymetric has the following attributes:

keyMetrics

Array item definition:

KeyCharts

Both KeyCharts and Charts have the same object structure, for example:

jsoncopydownload
    "keycharts" : [
        {
            "group": "Service state",
            "title": "State",
            "series": [
            {
                "key": "service.state_5",
                "displayname": "Status",
                "seriestype": "bar",
                "statecolors": ["#ff3333", "#ffd633", "#00b33c"],
                "statechart": true
            }]
        },
        {
            "group": "Disk usage",
            "title": "Total disk usage",
            "series": [
            {
                "key": "databases.table_size",
                "displayname": "Sum of databases size",
                "seriestype": "area",
                "color": "#74cff7"
            }]
        }
        ],

Keycharts are visible on each Process page:

Charts

Other charts are available after drilling down to the Further details section of each Process page.

Both chart and keychart sections are an array of objects:

Chart

Array item definition:

Where series is an array of objects:

series

Array item definition:

Metrics

This part of the JSON is an array and defines which metrics are fetched by the extension. Each metric is defined by independently by JSON. There are two types of metrics available: timeseries and statetimeseries

jsoncopydownload
[
  {
    "statetimeseries": {
      "key": "service.state_5",
      "states": ["DOWNTIME", "MAINTENANCE", "WORKING"],
      "displayname": "Service State",
      "source": { "state_entrypoint": "/api/state" }
    },
    "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
  },
  {
    "timeseries": {
      "key": "service.querries_per_second",
      "unit": "PerSecond",
      "displayname": "Querries per second",
      "aggregation": "AVG"
    },
    "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE_GROUP",
    "alert_settings": [
      {
        "alert_id": "custom_connections_alert",
        "event_type": "AVAILABILITY_EVENT",
        "event_name": "No connections!",
        "description": "The {metricname} of {severity} is {alert_condition} the threshold of {threshold}",
        "threshold": 0.01,
        "alert_condition": "ABOVE",
        "samples": 5,
        "violating_samples": 1,
        "dealerting_samples": 5
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "timeseries": {
      "key": "databases.table_size",
      "unit": "MegaByte",
      "displayname": "Table size",
      "aggregation": "MAX",
      "dimensions": ["table_name"]
    },
    "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
  },
  {
    "timeseries": {
      "key": "databases.total_num_entities",
      "unit": "Count",
      "displayname": "Total num ",
      "aggregation": "MAX"
    },
    "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
  },
  {
    "timeseries": {
      "key": "databases.replicated_entries",
      "unit": "Count",
      "displayname": "Archived Entries",
      "aggregation": "SUM"
    },
    "entity": "CUSTOM_DEVICE"
  }
]

Metrics section

Array item have to match one of:

Where timeseries and statetimeseries are defined as:

Timeseries

Statetimeseries

Alerts

Both timeseries and statetimeseries can define alerts. To do it, use the alert_settings which is an array of objects, where each object looks like:

jsoncopydownload
{
  "alert_id": "custom_connections_alert",
  "event_type": "AVAILABILITY_EVENT",
  "event_name": "No connections!",
  "description": "The {metricname} of {severity} is {alert_condition} the threshold of {threshold}",
  "threshold": 0.01,
  "alert_condition": "ABOVE",
  "samples": 5,
  "violating_samples": 1,
  "dealerting_samples": 5
}

Alert

Array item definition:

Configuration

The extension configuration section controls the extension data appearance in the web UI at Settings > Monitored technologies and its configuration, for example: user name, password, connection string, etc. The configUI section defines the configuration fields that are displayed in the UI. The properties section defines the configuration properties that are sent to the extension.

ConfigUI

Example ConfigUI section:

jsoncopydownload
{
  "configUI": {
    "displayName": "CustomCloudTechnology",
    "properties": [
      {
        "key": "url",
        "displayName": "URL",
        "displayOrder": 3,
        "displayHint": "http://localhost:9200/"
      },
      {
        "key": "auth_user",
        "displayName": "User",
        "displayOrder": 1,
        "displayHint": "Leave empty if no authentication is set up"
      },
      {
        "key": "auth_password",
        "displayName": "Password",
        "displayOrder": 2,
        "displayHint": "Leave empty if no authentication is set up",
        "defaultValue": "somepassword"
      },
      {
        "key": "state_interval",
        "displayName": "State change interval",
        "displayOrder": 3,
        "displayHint": "How often state metrics changes",
        "defaultValue": 60
      },
      {
        "key": "alert_interval",
        "displayName": "Alert interval",
        "displayOrder": 4,
        "displayHint": "How often an alert is raised",
        "defaultValue": 360
      },
      {
        "key": "event_interval",
        "displayName": "Event interval",
        "displayOrder": 5,
        "displayHint": "How often an event is raised",
        "defaultValue": 240
      },
      {
        "key": "relative_interval",
        "displayName": "Relative interval",
        "displayOrder": 6,
        "displayHint": "How often relative metric is submitted",
        "defaultValue": 60
      }
    ]
  }
}

This is how it looks in Monitored Technologies:

Note the two additional fields:

• Endpoint is a CustomDevice name
• Choose ActiveGate is a dropdown of all available ActiveGate PluginModules. Select the one you want to use to execute the extension.

ConfigUI is an array of objects:

Config UI section

Properties is an array of objects that are used to define fields for extension configuration page:

ConfigUI properties

Array item definition:

Properties

Example Properties section:

jsoncopydownload
{
  "properties": [
    {
      "key": "url",
      "type": "String"
    },
    {
      "key": "auth_user",
      "type": "String"
    },
    {
      "key": "auth_password",
      "type": "Password"
    },
    {
      "key": "state_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 60
    },
    {
      "key": "alert_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 360
    },
    {
      "key": "event_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 240
    },
    {
      "key": "relative_interval",
      "type": "Integer",
      "defaultValue": 60
    }
  ]
}

Properties is an array of objects:

Plugin properties

Array item definition: