[Kibana > Timelion] Timelion.json is not working

Just a mark to investigate the reason configuration file of Timelion plugin is not working. It is maybe a designed feature. :)

Background

In Kibana 5.X, (specially Kibana 5.3.3 in my case), I have configured the timelion.json into the following:

{
  "quandl": {
    "key": "someKeyHere"
  },
  "es": {
    "timefield": "timestamp",
    "default_index": "qos*"
  },
  "graphite": {
    "url": "http://devops-graphite.prod.hulu.com"
  },
  "default_rows": 2,
  "default_columns": 2,
  "max_buckets": 2000,
  "target_buckets": 200
}

The significant change is timefield: @timestamp to timefield: timestamp. This does not work since an ad hoc query in timelion still says the default timefield is @timestamp.

Solution

Actually, after timelion is merged into kibana project, its default configuration comes from two sources:

• Kibana default UI Setting configuration: https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/5.3/src/ui/settings/defaults.js#L272
• Timelion configuration: https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/5.3/src/core_plugins/timelion/timelion.json

And the first configuration would override the seconds configuration. As we can check here: https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/5.3/src/core_plugins/timelion/server/routes/run.js#L23

        const tlConfig = require('../handlers/lib/tl_config.js')({
          server,
          request,
          settings: _.defaults(uiSettings, timelionDefaults) // Just in case they delete some setting.

With this being said, to modify the default setting for timelion, you are supposed to do modification in Kibana’s default UI setting.
If you persist to make your changes only in timelion.json, then you might change the above snip to the following:

        const tlConfig = require('../handlers/lib/tl_config.js')({
          server,
          request,
          settings: _.defaults(timelionDefaults, uiSettings) // Prefer the settings in timelion.json.

Contact me

If you get any question, you are welcome to contact me via:

• email: nisxiya@yeah.net
• wechat: nisxiya