Replace "index patterns" with data-source shared attribute

[colleenmcginnis]

Related #1096
Related elastic/kibana#100844

The term "index patterns" (or index-pattern in URLs) appears on 10 pages. It looks like it's primarily in various Settings pages and after looking at the Kibana UI, it looks like some of these references have been changed to "data views" but others still use index patterns.

I'm trying to figure out if all references to "index patterns" should be changed or only where the UI text has changed. Here's what I found:

UI now using "data view":

Logs > Settings > Data view (new option)

Pages that mention this part of the UI:

• Log monitoring » Configure data sources
• Send data to Elasticsearch » Deploy Beats to send data » Ingest logs with Filebeat
• Send data to Elasticsearch » Deploy Beats to send data » Ingest metrics with Metricbeat
• Centrally manage Elastic Agents in Fleet » Data streams
  • Also line 42?

UI using "index pattern":

Metrics > Settings > Indices > Metric indices

Pages that mention this part of the UI:

• Metrics monitoring » Configure settings
• Alerting » Create a metrics threshold rule
• Alerting » Create an infrastructure threshold rule

Uptime > Settings > Indices > Uptime indices

Pages that mention this part of the UI:

• Synthetic monitoring via the Uptime app » Lightweight synthetic monitoring » Configure settings

Not sure:

Pages that mention "index pattern" that I'm not sure if I should replace:

• Alerting » Create a logs threshold rule
• Package specification

Question for @dedemorton:

Should I update references in the pages listed under "UI using index pattern" and "Not sure"?

[apmmachine]

A documentation preview will be available soon:

• 📚 HTML diff
• 📘 Fleet and Elastic Agent Guide
• 📙 Observability Guide

[bmorelli25]

I'm trying to figure out if all references to "index patterns" should be changed or only where the UI text has changed.

All instances should be updated. It is curious that both the logs and metrics settings pages in Kibana still use "index pattern". AFAIK, that term shouldn't exist anywhere after 8.0.

[dedemorton]

I think the term "index pattern" is still valid if you are talking about using a simple matching pattern on an index name (the old way). The UI still supports that:

I need to do a little testing today then I'll add some commments.

[dedemorton]

Sorry it took me a little while to get back to you. So I agree with Brandon...in most cases, you do want to use data view instead of index pattern. Here are my suggestions:

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams.html

I would change the following text to avoid saying index pattern.

OLD: "Using a namespace makes it easier to search the data from a given source by using index patterns..."

NEW: "Using a namespace makes it easier to search data from a given source by using a matching pattern..."

The second part of that sentence also needs work (it's confusing even if you fix "index pattern"):

"...or to give users permissions to data by assigning an index pattern to user roles." I'd suggest text to replace this, but it's late and I'm running on one brain cell.

Here's the UI that I think this topic is talking about. Here you are specifying a matching pattern (not a data view). Full disclosure, tho. I have not tested this to confirm that it works! Might be worth confirming with the dev team, then you can rewrite it to make more sense:

Also, in the following text, you DO want to use data views:

OLD:
Index patterns
When searching your data in Kibana, you can use an index pattern to search across all or some of your data streams.

NEW:
Data views
When searching your data in Kibana, you can use a data view to search across all or some of your data streams.

---

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/integrations-developer/current/package-spec.html

Yes, change the bullet under Kibana to say Data views instead of Index patterns.

---

For all the other links, which I think say "index patterns" because it's still used in the UI, I would check with the dev team. I think it's better to match what the UI says for now and then update the docs when the UI gets updated. Might be that there's a mistake in the UI, and they've implemented changes inconsistently.

[colleenmcginnis]

For all the other links, which I think say "index patterns" because it's still used in the UI, I would check with the dev team.

Thanks @dedemorton! By "the dev team" do you mean the Kibana team (like the author of elastic/kibana#100844)?

[dedemorton]

By "the dev team" do you mean the Kibana team (like the author of elastic/kibana#100844)?

Yes exactly. I would start there and ask why the UI still uses index patterns.

[colleenmcginnis]

From elastic/kibana#109284 (comment):

Should those references be updated? I'm not sure if I should update the docs referencing these pages or keep them as they are to match the UI.

As best I can tell they're accurate as is - they're referring to index pattern strings rather than a kibana saved object.

So it sounds like the Metrics and Uptime settings pages should not be updated, right?

[dedemorton]

So it sounds like the Metrics and Uptime settings pages should not be updated, right?

That's right. But it does seem a little odd to me that the Logs UI gives users the option of using data views, but Metrics and Uptime do not. Maybe that's coming? Could be really confusing to users though. I'll add a response to Matt in that other PR.

[dedemorton]

LGTM!

[colleenmcginnis]

Merging here, but confirmed that not all parts of the Observability UI have switched from "index patterns" to "data views" yet and documented issues to track going forward in #1096 (comment).