Changing plugin definition

Once the plugin.json has been uploaded to the server, not every aspect of plugin definition may be modified. This is especially related to plugin metric definition, as consistency with historic data must be ensured. In this section we will discuss which parts of plugin definition may be changed and how to approach changes in those that may not.

Note

Please remember, that whenever plugin.json is modified, the version field needs to be incremented.

In particular no element of "timeseries" from "metrics" may be modified. If any "timeseries" field is changed plugin's name has to change. Otherwise server does not allow to upload modified plugin bundle. While you may always remove old plugin and create a new one, the table below presents some alternatives.

Change	Possible	Comment
Visualization	Yes	Entire "ui" section may be safely modified.
Configuration	Yes	Entire "configUI" section may be modified. Note that backward plugins compatibility could be broken if an old configuration parameter is removed.
Alert definition	Yes	"alert_settings" section of "metrics" may be safely modified.
Adding new timeseries	Yes
Removing timeseries	No	If new version of plugin does not send given timeseries it will disappear from UI over time.
Changing timeseries name	No	You have to create a new timeseries with different name
Changing timeseries unit	No	You have to create a new timeseries with different name

For details of sections discussed in this chapter, legal field values and entire plugin.json format please refer to Plugin.json reference