Improve the experience for navigating from the metrics chart to log explorer
Problem to solve
In #122013 (closed) we're implementing an MVC solution:
As an MVC, we should allow the user to navigate to logs based on the selected timeframe via the chart dropdown menu (
View logs
menu item). By default, the user will be taken to whatever timeframe is selected in the dashboard timeframe picker (which also coincides with the default range in charts). If the chart is zoomed in and the user views logs for the that chart, they'll be taken to the selected, zoomed in range for that chart.The user should be able to scroll through the logs.
This issue is meant as a follow-up to improve the user experience for navigating from the metrics chart to log explorer. We want to explore allowing the user to navigate to a specific point in time vs. a defined range, and change the interaction to allow the user to just click on any point on the chart to navigate to that point in the logs.
This issue will require design exploration and also I believe we need input from the backend to see if we can take the user to a specific timestamp in the logs.
Further details
We may want to consider an interaction that makes it easier to navigate to the logs for a very specific point in the chart. For example, we can allow the user to just click on the chart and navigate to the log explorer.
WIP Proposal
As a user, I would like to click on any section on the metric chart and navigate into the log explorer.
Grafana upon click interation |
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We may want to consider, for example, a pop-up menu upon click, similar to what Grafana is doing, where the "View logs" link can be placed, and any other actions we may want to introduce in the future. That would give the user more control.
Also, to make this new functionality more discoverable, we can add an alert at the top of the page informing the user of the new feature and prompting them to try it out.
Technical Requirements
- Logs page should have custom date selection enabled #197879 (closed)
- We may decide on settling to ensure the 2 areas of the application integrate well #196986 (closed)