topic Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard? in Dashboards & Visualizations

Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

raffinyc — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:27:00 GMT

We're currently evaluating Splunk for collecting and visualizing metrics. Splunk's UI appears very nice and customizable, and we want to understand how far we can extend it for building arbitrary UI's, say, for gathering user input through a registration process, then POSTing the data to a backend custom REST service.

How flexible is splunk for building arbitrary forms and screens? I found information on converting XML to HTML forms, but that's too rudimentary for our needs. We need control over placement of form components and widgets. Is this feasible to do in splunk?

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

alacercogitatus — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:59:01 GMT

Yes, but to what end? You have to authenticate into Splunk first. You can use a full set of CSS/HTML/JS in the HTML Dashboards to do what ever you want with a dashboard, the harder part is redirecting users there, AFTER they authenticate. You might as well just spin a new webpage with your form that posts back to the REST service, which that data is then consumed by Splunk in the normal methods.

Please expand a little more on this very interesting use case, and we shall see what makes sense.

You can also reach us in the #splunk IRC channel on EFNET.

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

woodcock — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:59:56 GMT

You are probably going to have to take full control and go django:

http://dev.splunk.com/view/webframework-djangobindings/SP-CAAAEMS

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

alacercogitatus — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 15:07:00 GMT

Keeping in mind that django will be deprecated in a future release and may be removed entirely at some point. Better to switch to HTML Dashboards now to prevent heartache in the future.

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

raffinyc — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 03:59:28 GMT

Hi, thank you. I want to use splunks UI framework for building custom input forms, and for displaying arbitrary data which may not originate from splunk sources. Basically, I like the UI, and if we can avoid buying an entirely separate utility dashboard/portal framework for creating interactive screens, we want to leverage splunk's dashboard/UI for that purpose.

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

alacercogitatus — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 12:12:10 GMT

Sure, I would make a Splunk App with all relevant configs to do that. Use the HTML Dashboards, and you will be up and running in no time.

http://dev.splunk.com/view/webframework-htmldashboards/SP-CAAAEM2 Should get you started.

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

alacercogitatus — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 12:12:25 GMT

If this answer is what you were looking for, please accept it. Thakns!

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

woodcock — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 18:55:20 GMT

Really, why did Splunk make such a big investment in it, including major highlights in the Splunk 6.x Dashboard Examples app?

https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/1603/

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

skoelpin — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 19:30:16 GMT

Thanks for this Gregg, I never knew this existed and would be a great learning tool

Re: Can I use splunk for creating arbitrary user input forms, like a registration wizard?

woodcock — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 19:33:20 GMT

Yes, it is a great app but it sounds like half of it is headed straight to the dustbin!