Beer Garden Documentation

Beer Garden is a plugin framework that helps developers to create useful, streamlined, event-driven applications in a composable, and easily extendable way. This guide is a quick reference for creating plugins in Beer Garden.

These examples focus almost exclusively on the python language bindings. As more bindings are updated, this guide will split itself out.

Simple Plugin

main.py

from brewtils import Plugin, command

class HelloWorldClient(object):

    @command (1)
    def hello_world(self):
        greeting = "Hello, World!"

        print(greeting)

        return greeting

1	The `@command` decorator marks this method as a Command that’s part of the enclosing Client.

Local plugin running

main.py

from brewtils import Plugin, command


class HelloWorldClient(object):

    @command (1)
    def say_hello(self):
        greeting = "Hello, World!"

        print(greeting)

        return greeting


def main():
    client = HelloWorldClient()

    plugin = Plugin(
        client=client,
        name="hello-world", (2)
        version="1.0",
        description="Say hello"
    )
    plugin.run()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

1	The `@command` decorator marks this method as a Command that’s part of the enclosing Client.
2	The values defined here determine how the plugin is listed in the UI.

Remote plugin running

plugin.py

from brewtils import Plugin, command


class HelloWorldClient(object):

    @command (1)
    def say_hello(self):
        greeting = "Hello, World!"

        print(greeting)

        return greeting


def main():
    client = HelloWorldClient()

    plugin = Plugin(
        client=client,
        name="hello-world", (2)
        version="1.0.0",
        description="My First Plugin",
        bg_host="<HOST>", (3)
        bg_port="<PORT>",
        ssl_enabled=<SSL_ENABLED>,
    )
    plugin.run()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

1	The `@command` decorator marks this method as a Command that’s part of the enclosing Client.
2	The values defined here determine how the plugin is listed in the UI.
3	Be sure to replace `<HOST>`, `<PORT>`, and `<SSL_ENABLED>` with appropriate values for your garden.

To review what’s happening here: we added an import Plugin at the top of our file and created a standard main method. In that method we created a HelloWorldClient object and a Plugin object. Notice that when we create the Plugin we pass it the client and some additional parameters. Don’t worry too much about the additional paramters - we’ll cover them later.

Exception Handling

It is important to be able to tell Beer Garden when something on your system goes wrong. brewtils takes advantage of Python’s exceptions in order to handle command malfunctions. So if you have a function:

def my_error(self):
    raise ValueError("Something went wrong!")

This will result in the request status turning to "ERROR" and its output will be Something went wrong!. It is expected that plugins will throw errors as a way to notify Beer Garden that something has gone wrong.

If you choose to handle errors and not throw, you will notice something that may be quite confusing to your plugins users. Let’s have an example:

def my_error(self, x):
  if x is None:
    # This is actually an error, but we will short-circuit
    return "An error occurred."
  return x

If x being None is an error, then you should throw an error. Otherwise, the request will be marked as SUCCESS while the output will say An error occurred

If your command has a JSON output type, then Beer Garden will attempt to format your exception as a JSON error message. Here’s an example:

@command(command_type="JSON")
def my_error(self):
  raise ValueError("Error Message")

If you call this method, you’ll still notice a status of ERROR but the output will be something like:

{
  "message": "Error Message",
  "attributes": {}
}

If you’re asking what the attributes entry is supposed to represent, it will take the dict of the exception and attempt to jsonify it. Let’s say you have a custom exception class like the following:

class MyError(Exception):
  def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    self.foo = kwargs.pop("foo")
    self.bar = kwargs.pop("bar")

Then you throw that error during a command, Beer Garden will modify the output as per the following:

{
  "message": "Error Message"
  "attributes": {"foo": "foo_value", "bar": "bar_value"}
}

If your attributes are not JSON serializable, then a string representation of the dictionary will be provided to the attributes.

Making a Request

This section goes over various ways to make a request.

Curl

Create a Request

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"system": "echo", "command": "say", "parameters": {"message": "My Message" } }' http://localhost:2337/api/v1/requests
    {
        "message" : "Successfully Created Request",
        "request" : "http://localhost:2337/api/v1/requests/555a56fae9a45a2ad182ac16"
    }

Get the status of a request

    $ curl http://localhost:2337/api/v1/requests/555a56fae9a45a2ad182ac16

    {
        "children": [],
        "command": "say",
        "command_type": null,
        "comment": "",
        "created_at": 1491927102000,
        "updated_at": 1491927102000,
        "error_class": null,
        "id": "58ed003e71afd45a7bf21e7a",
        "instance_name": "default",
        "output": "Hello, World!",
        "output_type": "STRING",
        "parameters": {
            "message": "Hello, World!"
        },
        "parent": null,
        "status": "SUCCESS",
        "system": "echo",
        "system_version": "0.0.1"
    }

Python

SystemClient Example

from brewtils.rest.system_client import SystemClient

client = SystemClient("localhost", 2337, system_name="echo") (1)

request = client.echo(message="Hello, World!") (2)

print(request.status)
print(request.output)

1	Create the client, passing Beer Garden connection parameters and the target System name
2	Create a Request for the 'echo' Command as if you were calling a method

The SystemClient is a blocking client that will make a rest request that is formatted correctly and returns a request object. This request object can then be queried the same way you would query a normal request object.

If the system you are using is multi-instanced, you can specify the default instance to use at the system level:

Default Instance Example

client = SystemClient("localhost", 2337, system_name="echo", default_instance="01")

request = client.say(message="Hello, Instance 01!")

You can also specify a different instance when creating a Request:

request = client.say(message="Hello, Instance 02!", _instance_name="02")

Parameters

Quick Table

Table 1. Plugin Param Arguments
Argument	Required?	Options	Default	Description
key	Y	N/A	N/A	Specifies the Argument Name
type	N	[String, Integer, Float, Boolean, Any, Dictionary, Base64]	Any	Specifies the type of Parameter
multi	N	[True, False]	False	Specifies if the parameter is a list
display_name	N	N/A	key	Specifies a Pretty way to refer to the key
optional	N	[True, False]	False	Specifies if the parameter is required
default	N	N/A	N/A	The Default value of the Parameter
description	N	N/A	N/A	A short Description of the Parameter
choices	N	N/A	N/A	A list of possible values
is_kwarg	N	N/A	N/A	If parameter comes in as a kwarg
model	N	N/A	N/A	A python Object that has a parameters list
nullable	N	[True, False]	False	Specifies if this parameter can be null
maximum	N	Integer	N/A	Specifies maximum (See detailed for more info)
minimum	N	Integer	N/A	Specifies minimum (See detailed for more info)
regex	N	N/A	N/A	Specifies regex to validate against this value
form_input_type	N	[textarea]	N/A	Specifies the form type to render for this plugin

Key argument

The key argument to @parameter is the only required parameter. It must match the name of an argument in whatever method it is decorating. This is how users of your plugin will identify the parameter they would like to set.

Key argument example

@parameter(key="message")
def do_something(self, message):
    print(message)
    return message

Type argument

Setting the type field for a Parameter will let Beer Garden do a couple of things.

First, it lets Beer Garden perform type validation on that parameter. If the value does not match the type (and can’t be converted sensibly) then the Request will be rejected.

Second, it allows the UI to use the best form element for that type of data. For example, you could use a string to represent a date, but setting type to 'date' means the UI will use a nice datepicker form element.

Finally, several validation constraints can only be applied to specific types. The minimum and maximum constraints are good examples of this - they don’t make sense for booleans, but they definitely do for integers!

Type argument example

@parameter(key="number", type="Integer")
def multiply_by_zero(self, number):
    return number * 0

This table outlines the valid type options.

Type Valid Constraints Notes

Type	Valid Constraints	Notes
String	minimum, maximum, regex	Minimum and Maximum refer to length
Integer	minimum, maximum
Float	minimum, maximum
Boolean
Date		Form control will not have 'time' option
DateTime
Dictionary		JSON Object
Base64		Allows the user to upload a file as a parameter. This is provided as a file-like object to the plugin.
Any		Valid JSON (Object, Array, String), number, literal `null`, `true`, `false`

String

minimum, maximum, regex

Minimum and Maximum refer to length

Integer

minimum, maximum

Float

minimum, maximum

Boolean

Date

Form control will not have 'time' option

DateTime

Dictionary

JSON Object

Base64

Allows the user to upload a file as a parameter. This is provided as a file-like object to the plugin.

Any

Valid JSON (Object, Array, String), number, literal null, true, false

The default type is Any. This gives the most flexibility, but it’s a good idea to always specify a type to take advantage of the benefits described above.

Multi argument

The multi field let’s Beer Garden know that the parameter should be a list. Most of the other fields stay the same and continue to describe the individual items in the list.

Multi argument example

@parameter(key="list_of_strings", multi=True, type="String")
def do_something(self, list_of_strings):
    for s in list_of_strings:
        print(s)

Some of the fields do change meaning when you’ve specified that multi is true. See the below table for a more detailed description.

Table 2. Multi Changes These Arguments
Argument	How is it changed?
choices	Choices specify the only valid values, no value can be repeated.
maximum	Specifies Maximum length of the list
minimum	Specifies Minimum length of the list

Display name argument

The display_name field allows you control over how Beer Garden renders the name of the field. This is useful if your argument has a less-than-useful name from the end-users perspective.

Display name argument example

@parameter(key="foo", display_name="Name")
def do_something(self, foo):
    print("Hi!, my name is: %s" % foo)

Optional argument

The optional field allows you to specify whether or not the parameter is optional or required. The default depends on if there is a default value in the method definition.

Optional argument example

@parameter(key="foo", optional=True, nullable=True))
def do_something(self, foo):
    # By default, foo would not be optional but
    # it is specified in the param so it's assumed
    # the developer will handle the None case.
    if foo is None:
        print("foo is empty!")
    else:
        print(foo)

If a default is passed in, then optional will be set to True by default.

If you specify that something is optional, then it must also be nullable if no default is specified.

Default argument

The default field allows you to specify the default value for a parameter if it is not given by a user. If there is a default value in the method definition then it will use that.

Default argument example

@parameter(key="foo")
def do_something(self, foo="bar"):
  print(foo)

In the above case, if someone utilizes this command but does not pass Beer Garden the foo parameter, then Beer Garden will default it to bar. Below is another example of how to use the default argument.

Default argument example

@parameter(key="foo", default="bar"))
def do_something(self, foo):
    print(foo)

These are functionally equivalent for Beer Garden.

Description argument

The description field adds a description to the plugin parameter you are defining.

Description argument example

@parameter(key="foo", description="Your first name")
def do_something(self, foo):
    pass

Choices argument

The choices field allows you to specify possible values for a parameter.

Basic Usage

The easiest way to use choices is to pass a list of values:

Choices list example

@parameter(key="output_type", choices=["json", "xml"])
def format(self, obj, output_type):
    if output_type == "json":
        return jsonify(obj)
    elif output_type == "xml":
        return xmlify(obj)

Sometimes it’s useful to have the display text (what shows up in the UI) be different from the 'real' value (what gets sent to the plugin). To do this, instead of a list of literal values just pass a list of objects with text and value keys:

Choices rename example

@parameter(key="output_type", choices=[
    {"text": "The best", "value": "json"},
    {"text": "The worst", "value": "xml"}])
def format(self, output_type):
    pass

Additional Configuration

There are some configuration options that control how choices works. Beer Garden will pick sensible defaults, but to tweak them pass a dictionary to choices:

Choices Dictionary example

@parameter(key="output_type",
           choices={'type': 'static', 'value': ['json','xml']})
def format(self, output_type):
    ...

That way you can add additional key/value pairs to the choices dictionary.

Choices Type

You probably noticed the 'type': 'static' entry above. Beer Garden is able to figure out exactly what to do when you pass a list of values to choices, but it needs a hint when you use the dictionary configuration. There are a couple of other ways to populate the choices list (more on those in a bit) so you need to be explicit.

The example above is using the static type, which tells Beer Garden to expect a list of values in the value attribute. This is functionally identical to passing a list of values to choices directly.

The other choice types will be explained in detail in the Choice Sources section.

Display

When you use choices the UI form control can be a typeahead or a select. To specify which to use just set the display key:

Choices Typeahead example

@parameter(key="output_type",
           choices={'type': 'static', 'value': ['json','xml'],
                    'display': 'typeahead'})
def format(self, output_type):
    ...

Strictness

The strict configuration controls whether values that aren’t explicitly listed are allowed. Setting strict to False will result in a typeahead control that will use the choices values but still allow any text to be submitted.

Choices Non-strict example

@parameter(key="output_type",
           choices={'type': 'static', 'value': ['json','xml'],
                    'strict': False})
def format(self, output_type):
    ...

Setting strict to False for a select won’t affect the display, but the strict value also controls validation on the backend.

Choice Sources

In all the examples so far the list of choices has been a literal list of values. That’s useful, but it’s also useful to have values that can change at runtime. In order to do that you need to provide choices with instructions on how to populate the choice list instead of the list itself.

In all cases the result of the choices operation must be a valid choices list.

URL

Specifying a URL will tell the browser to load choices using an HTTP GET request. You can use type 'url' if using dictionary configuration or just pass the URL as a string:

Choices URL example

@parameter(key="p1", choices='https://test.com/p1.json')
@parameter(key="p2", choices={"type": "url",
                              "value": 'https://test.com/p2.json'})
def format(self, p1, p2):
    ...

Be aware that the user’s browser will be making this request. So if the Beer Garden UI is being accessed at a secure (https) address then a request to a non-secure (http) URL will likely fail due to mixed-content restrictions.

Command

Specifying a command will load choices by making a request to the current system. You can use type 'command' if using dictionary configuration or just pass the command as a string. If you’re not using choice parameters (more on those in a minute) you can omit the parenthesis for brevity.

Choices Command example

@parameter(key="p1", choices="get_choices()")
@parameter(key="p2", choices={"type": "command",
                              "value": "get_choices"})
def format(self, p1, p2):
    ...

@command
def get_choices(self):
    return [
        {"text": "The best", "value": "json"},
        {"text": "The worst", "value": "xml"}
    ]

Currently you must use a command from the same system (this restriction will be removed in a future release - see issue 269).

Choice parameters

It’s often useful to have the choices for one parameter depend on the current value of another. To do that you can use choice parameters.

To create a reference on another parameter enclose its key in ${}. How the parameter is passed depends on what choice source is being used.

When initializing the command creation page, BeerGarden will attempt to update all dependencies for choice parameters at once. If the dependent parameters are defined in such a way that causes side effects inside the command (for example, if A is a choice parameter that depends on B and C, but updating C changes an internal value A and B need), this could lead to unintended consequences or destructive behavior during command load.

For 'command' types the parameter will be passed as an argument to the command. For example, suppose you have two parameters: day_type and day_of_week. You’d like the choices for day_of_week to depend on what the user has selected for day_type:

Choices Command Parameter example

@command
def get_days(self, type):
    if type == "Weekday":
        return ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"]
    elif type == "Weekend":
        return ["Saturday", "Sunday"]
    else:
      raise Exception("Huh?")

@parameter(key="day_type", choices=["Weekday", "Weekend"])
@parameter(key="day_of_week", choices="get_days(type=${day_type})")
def my_command(self, day_type, day_of_week):
    do_something(day_of_week)
    return "All done!"

For 'url' types the choice parameter should be used as a query parameter:

Choices URL Parameter example

@parameter(key="day_type", choices=["Weekday", "Weekend"])
@parameter(key="day_of_week",
           choices="https://getthedays.com?type=${day_type}")
def my_command(self, day_type, day_of_week):
    do_something(day_of_week)
    return "All done!"

Choice parameters also enable using a static choices dictionary with one parameter used as the dictionary key. To do this use type static and pass the dictionary as the value. Since we can construct the dictionary before defining the command we can rework the day_of_week example to look like this:

Choices Dictionary example

day_dict = {
    "Weekday": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "Weekend": ["Saturday", "Sunday"]
}

@parameter(key="day_type", choices=["Weekday", "Weekend"])
@parameter(key="day_of_week", choices={'type': 'static',
                                       'value': day_dict,
                                       'key_reference': '${day_type}'})
def my_command(self, day_type, day_of_week):
    do_something(day_of_week)
    return "All done!"

When using a choices dictionary the None key can be used to specify the allowed values when the reference key is null. For example, if we wanted to modify the day_of_week example to additionally allow any day to be selected if day_type was null we could do this:

Choices Dictionary with None example

day_dict = {
    "Weekday": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "Weekend": ["Saturday", "Sunday"],
    None: ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday",
           "Saturday", "Sunday"]
}

@parameter(key="day_type", choices=["Weekday", "Weekend"],
           nullable=True)
@parameter(key="day_of_week", choices={'type': 'static',
                                       'value': day_dict,
                                       'key_reference': '${day_type}'})
def my_command(self, day_type, day_of_week):
    do_something(day_of_week)
    return "All done!"

Is kwarg argument

The is_kwarg argument allows you to name a keyword argument that is otherwise unspecified. This is useful if you take keyword args, but want to call out the normal use-case ones more explicitly while still being compatible to other python libraries calling you.

Is kwarg argument example

@parameter(key="foo", is_kwarg=True)
def do_something(self, **kwarg):
    foo = kwarg.pop("foo")
    print(foo)

Model argument

The model argument allows you to specify some structure for a complicated object. Have a look at the following for an example of how to use the model field.

Model argument example

from brewtils.models import Parameter
class Person(object):

  name = Parameter(key="name",
                   type="String",
                   description="Person's name")
  age = Parameter(key="age",
                  type="Integer",
                  description="Person's age")

class ExampleClient(object):

    @parameter(key="person", model=Person)
    def greet(self, person):
        print("Hello %s" % person.name)

It is assumed that if you have a model, that the type is "Dictionary"

Nullable argument

The nullable argument allows you to specify if the parameter can be null. If the argument is allowed to be null, then you must tell us this is possible. The default is assuming that parameters cannot be null.

If there is a default value for a parameter, then nullable is set to True.

Nullable argument example

@parameter(key="foo", nullable=True))
def do_something(self, foo):
    if foo is None:
        print("That's ok!")
    else:
        print("That's ok too!")

Maximum argument

The maximum argument allows you to specify the maximum value for a parameter. This meaning changes based on the type and whether or not the multi flag is enabled. If the multi flag is enabled, then maximum is referring to the list length maximum. Otherwise, if type is integer, it will compare the value of the parameter to the maximum. Otherwise if the type is a string, it will ensure the length of the string is within bounds.

Maximum argument example

@parameter(key="foo", type="String", maximum=1)
@parameter(key="bar", type="Integer", maximum=1)
@parameter(key="bazs", type="String", maximum=1)
def do_something(self, foo, bar, bazs):
    # guarantees that foo is 1 character at most
    # guarantees that bar is no more than 1
    # guarantees that bazs is no more than 1 item long
    print(foo)
    print(bar)
    print(bazs)

Minimum argument

The minimum argument allows you to specify the minimum value for a parameter. This meaning changes based on the type and whether or not the multi flag is enabled. If the multi flag is enabled, then minimum is referring to the list length minimum. Otherwise, if type is integer, it will compare the value of the parameter to the minimum. Otherwise if the type is a string, it will ensure the length of the string is within bounds.

Minimum argument example

@parameter(key="foo", type="String", minimum=1)
@parameter(key="bar", type="Integer", minimum=1)
@parameter(key="bazs", type="String", minimum=1)
def do_something(self, foo, bar, bazs):
    # guarantees that foo is at least 1 character
    # guarantees that bar is no less than 1
    # guarantees that bazs is no less than 1 item long
    print(foo)
    print(bar)
    print(bazs)

Regex argument

The regex argument allows you to specify a regex that the parameter must pass in order to be considered valid.

Regex argument example

@parameter(key="ip", regex=r'^\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}$')
def do_something(self, ipv4):
    print("This is a valid IPv4: %s" % ipv4)

Plugin Syntax Quick Reference Guide

Simple Plugin

Local plugin running

Remote plugin running

Exception Handling

Making a Request

Curl

Python

Parameters

Quick Table

Key argument

Type argument

Multi argument

Display name argument

Optional argument

Default argument

Description argument

Choices argument

Basic Usage

Additional Configuration

Choices Type

Display

Strictness

Choice Sources

URL

Command

Choice parameters

Is kwarg argument

Model argument

Nullable argument

Maximum argument

Minimum argument

Regex argument