Customizing Horizon

See also

You may also be interested in Themes and Branding Horizon.

Changing the Site Title

The OpenStack Dashboard Site Title branding (i.e. “OpenStack Dashboard”) can be overwritten by adding the attribute SITE_BRANDING to local_settings.py with the value being the desired name.

The file local_settings.py can be found at the Horizon directory path of openstack_dashboard/local/local_settings.py.

Modifying Existing Dashboards and Panels

If you wish to alter dashboards or panels which are not part of your codebase, you can specify a custom python module which will be loaded after the entire Horizon site has been initialized, but prior to the URLconf construction. This allows for common site-customization requirements such as:

  • Registering or unregistering panels from an existing dashboard.

  • Changing the names of dashboards and panels.

  • Re-ordering panels within a dashboard or panel group.

Default Horizon panels are loaded based upon files within the openstack_dashboard/enabled/ folder. These files are loaded based upon the filename order, with space left for more files to be added. There are some example files available within this folder, with the .example suffix added. Developers and deployers should strive to use this method of customization as much as possible, and support for this is given preference over more exotic methods such as monkey patching and overrides files.

Horizon customization module (overrides)

Horizon has a global overrides mechanism available to perform customizations that are not yet customizable via configuration settings. This file can perform monkey patching and other forms of customization which are not possible via the enabled folder’s customization method.

This method of customization is meant to be available for deployers of Horizon, and use of this should be avoided by Horizon plugins at all cost. Plugins needing this level of monkey patching and flexibility should instead look for changing their __init__.py file and performing customizations through other means.

To specify the python module containing your modifications, add the key customization_module to your HORIZON_CONFIG dictionary in local_settings.py. The value should be a string containing the path to your module in dotted python path notation. Example:

HORIZON_CONFIG["customization_module"] = "my_project.overrides"

You can do essentially anything you like in the customization module. For example, you could change the name of a panel:

from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _

import horizon

# Rename "User Settings" to "User Options"
settings = horizon.get_dashboard("settings")
user_panel = settings.get_panel("user")
user_panel.name = _("User Options")

Or get the instances panel:

projects_dashboard = horizon.get_dashboard("project")
instances_panel = projects_dashboard.get_panel("instances")

Or just remove it entirely:

projects_dashboard.unregister(instances_panel.__class__)

You cannot unregister a default_panel. If you wish to remove a default_panel, you need to make a different panel in the dashboard as a default_panel and then unregister the former. For example, if you wished to remove the overview_panel from the Project dashboard, you could do the following:

project = horizon.get_dashboard('project')
project.default_panel = "instances"
overview = project.get_panel('overview')
project.unregister(overview.__class__)

You can also override existing methods with your own versions:

from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.admin.info import tabs
from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.project.instances import tables

NO = lambda *x: False

tables.AssociateIP.allowed = NO
tables.SimpleAssociateIP.allowed = NO
tables.SimpleDisassociateIP.allowed = NO

You could also customize what columns are displayed in an existing table, by redefining the columns attribute of its Meta class. This can be achieved in 3 steps:

  1. Extend the table that you wish to modify

  2. Redefine the columns attribute under the Meta class for this new table

  3. Modify the table_class attribute for the related view so that it points to the new table

For example, if you wished to remove the Admin State column from the NetworksTable, you could do the following:

from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.project.networks import tables
from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.project.networks import views

class MyNetworksTable(tables.NetworksTable):

    class Meta(tables.NetworksTable.Meta):
        columns = ('name', 'subnets', 'shared', 'status')

views.IndexView.table_class = MyNetworksTable

If you want to add a column you can override the parent table in a similar way, add the new column definition and then use the Meta columns attribute to control the column order as needed.

Note

my_project.overrides needs to be importable by the python process running Horizon. If your module is not installed as a system-wide python package, you can either make it installable (e.g., with a setup.py) or you can adjust the python path used by your WSGI server to include its location.

Probably the easiest way is to add a python-path argument to the WSGIDaemonProcess line in Apache’s Horizon config.

Assuming your my_project module lives in /opt/python/my_project, you’d make it look like the following:

WSGIDaemonProcess [... existing options ...] python-path=/opt/python

Customize the project and user table columns

Keystone V3 has a place to store extra information regarding project and user. Using the override mechanism described in Horizon customization module (overrides), Horizon is able to show these extra information as a custom column. For example, if a user in Keystone has an attribute phone_num, you could define new column:

from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _

from horizon import forms
from horizon import tables

from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.identity.users import tables as user_tables
from openstack_dashboard.dashboards.identity.users import views

class MyUsersTable(user_tables.UsersTable):
    phone_num = tables.Column('phone_num',
                              verbose_name=_('Phone Number'),
                              form_field=forms.CharField(),)

    class Meta(user_tables.UsersTable.Meta):
        columns = ('name', 'description', 'phone_num')

views.IndexView.table_class = MyUsersTable

Customize Angular dashboards

In Angular, you may write a plugin to extend certain features. Two components in the Horizon framework that make this possible are the extensibility service and the resource type registry service. The extensibleService allows certain Horizon elements to be extended dynamically, including add, remove, and replace. The resourceTypeRegistry service provides methods to set and get information pertaining to a resource type object. We use Heat type names like OS::Glance::Image as our reference name.

Some information you may place in the registry include:

  • API to fetch data from

  • Property names

  • Actions (e.g. “Create Volume”)

  • URL paths to detail view or detail drawer

  • Property information like labels or formatting for property values

These properties in the registry use the extensibility service (as of Newton release):

  • globalActions

  • batchActions

  • itemActions

  • detailViews

  • tableColumns

  • filterFacets

Using the information from the registry, we can build out our dashboard panels. Panels use the high-level directive hzResourceTable that replaces common templates so we do not need to write boilerplate HTML and controller code. It gives developers a quick way to build a new table or change an existing table.

Note

You may still choose to use the HTML template for complete control of form and functionality. For example, you may want to create a custom footer. You may also use the hzDynamicTable directive (what hzResourceTable uses under the hood) directly. However, neither of these is extensible. You would need to override the panel completely.

This is a sample module file to demonstrate how to make some customizations to the Images Panel.:

(function() {
  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('horizon.app.core.images')
    .run(customizeImagePanel);

  customizeImagePanel.$inject = [
    'horizon.framework.conf.resource-type-registry.service',
    'horizon.app.core.images.basePath',
    'horizon.app.core.images.resourceType',
    'horizon.app.core.images.actions.surprise.service'
  ];

  function customizeImagePanel(registry, basePath, imageResourceType, surpriseService) {
    // get registry for ``OS::Glance::Image``
    registry = registry.getResourceType(imageResourceType);

    // replace existing Size column to make the font color red
    var column = {
      id: 'size',
      priority: 2,
      template: '<a style="color:red;">{$ item.size | bytes $}</a>'
    };
    registry.tableColumns.replace('size', column);

    // add a new detail view
    registry.detailsViews
      .append({
        id: 'anotherDetailView',
        name: gettext('Another Detail View'),
        template: basePath + 'demo/detail.html'
    });

    // set a different summary drawer template
    registry.setSummaryTemplateUrl(basePath + 'demo/drawer.html');

    // add a new global action
    registry.globalActions
      .append({
        id: 'surpriseAction',
        service: surpriseService,
        template: {
          text: gettext('Surprise')
        }
    });
  }
})();

Additionally, you should have content defined in detail.html and drawer.html, as well as define the surpriseService which is based off the actions directive and needs allowed and perform methods defined.

Icons

Horizon uses font icons from Font Awesome. Please see Font Awesome for instructions on how to use icons in the code.

To add icon to Table Action, use icon property. Example:

class CreateSnapshot(tables.LinkAction):
    name = "snapshot"
    verbose_name = _("Create Snapshot")
    icon = "camera"

Additionally, the site-wide default button classes can be configured by setting ACTION_CSS_CLASSES to a tuple of the classes you wish to appear on all action buttons in your local_settings.py file.

Custom Stylesheets

It is possible to define custom stylesheets for your dashboards. Horizon’s base template openstack_dashboard/templates/base.html defines multiple blocks that can be overridden.

To define custom css files that apply only to a specific dashboard, create a base template in your dashboard’s templates folder, which extends Horizon’s base template e.g. openstack_dashboard/dashboards/my_custom_dashboard/ templates/my_custom_dashboard/base.html.

In this template, redefine block css. (Don’t forget to include _stylesheets.html which includes all Horizon’s default stylesheets.):

{% extends 'base.html' %}

{% block css %}
  {% include "_stylesheets.html" %}

  {% load compress %}
  {% compress css %}
  <link href='{{ STATIC_URL }}my_custom_dashboard/scss/my_custom_dashboard.scss' type='text/scss' media='screen' rel='stylesheet' />
  {% endcompress %}
{% endblock %}

The custom stylesheets then reside in the dashboard’s own static folder openstack_dashboard/dashboards/my_custom_dashboard/static/my_custom_dashboard/scss/my_custom_dashboard.scss.

All dashboard’s templates have to inherit from dashboard’s base.html:

{% extends 'my_custom_dashboard/base.html' %}
...

Custom Javascript

Similarly to adding custom styling (see above), it is possible to include custom javascript files.

All Horizon’s javascript files are listed in the openstack_dashboard/templates/horizon/_scripts.html partial template, which is included in Horizon’s base template in block js.

To add custom javascript files, create an _scripts.html partial template in your dashboard openstack_dashboard/dashboards/my_custom_dashboard/templates/my_custom_dashboard/_scripts.html which extends horizon/_scripts.html. In this template override the block custom_js_files including your custom javascript files:

{% extends 'horizon/_scripts.html' %}

{% block custom_js_files %}
    <script src='{{ STATIC_URL }}my_custom_dashboard/js/my_custom_js.js' type='text/javascript' charset='utf-8'></script>
{% endblock %}

In your dashboard’s own base template openstack_dashboard/dashboards/ my_custom_dashboard/templates/my_custom_dashboard/base.html override block js with inclusion of dashboard’s own _scripts.html:

{% block js %}
    {% include "my_custom_dashboard/_scripts.html" %}
{% endblock %}

The result is a single compressed js file consisting both Horizon and dashboard’s custom scripts.

Custom Head js

Additionally, some scripts require you to place them within the page’s <head> tag. To do this, recursively extend the base.html template in your theme to override the custom_head_js block.

Your theme’s base.html:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block custom_head_js %}
  <script src='{{ STATIC_URL }}/my_custom_dashboard/js/my_custom_js.js' type='text/javascript' charset='utf-8'></script>
{% endblock %}

See the example theme for a working theme that uses these blocks.

Warning

Don’t use the custom_head_js block for analytics tracking. See below.

Custom Analytics

For analytics or tracking scripts you should avoid the custom_head_js block. We have a specific block instead called custom_analytics. Much like the custom_head_js block this inserts additional content into the head of the base.html template and it will be on all pages.

The reason for an analytics specific block is that for security purposes we want to be able to turn off tracking on certain pages that we deem sensitive. This is done for the safety of the users and the cloud admins. By using this block instead, pages using base.html can override it themselves when they want to avoid tracking. They can’t simply override the custom js because it may be non-tracking code.

Your theme’s base.html:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block custom_analytics %}
  <script src='{{ STATIC_URL }}/my_custom_dashboard/js/my_tracking_js.js' type='text/javascript' charset='utf-8'></script>
{% endblock %}

See the example theme for a working theme that uses these blocks.

Customizing Meta Attributes

To add custom metadata attributes to your project’s base template use the custom_metadata block. To do this, recursively extend the base.html template in your theme to override the custom_metadata block. The contents of this block will be inserted into the page’s <head> just after the default Horizon meta tags.

Your theme’s base.html:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block custom_metadata %}
  <meta name="description" content="My custom metadata.">
{% endblock %}

See the example theme for a working theme that uses these blocks.