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Why YAML in OpenShift
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YAML Experience for cluster creation in OCM
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OpenShift YAML Editor

Ethan Kim avatar

Author: Ethan Kim | Last edit: July 08, 2024 | Design type: Side drawer, YAML | Product area: Hybrid Cloud Console, OpenShift Cluster Manager, Managed Infrastructure

Overview

Goal, Effort, User Outcomes, Impact

UX Goal

For managed cluster creation, customers can easily access more advanced features through the YAML editor that won’t be surfaced in the UI otherwise.

Effort

We’d like to support the YAML editor that allows the user to specify parameters when creating a cluster.

Impact

Customers who are familiar with YAML or JSON can easily access the YAML editor to create a cluster without interacting with the cluster creation UI wizard. This will balance out the cluster creation experience for the beginner & intermediate persona as well as the advanced persona. 

yaml-idea-01-side-by-side.png

Design Details

Understanding Problems

We started this journey with a question “Why YAML in OpenShift.” It is the standard way of configuring Kubernetes. It is used everywhere including Ansible Playbook and Terraform. Most importantly it is lowering the barrier while still providing all the detail options that UI or CLI doesn’t offer.

yaml-why--it-matters-in-openshift.png

Here is the cluster creation statistics in May 2024. About 65% of ROSA clusters are created in CLI, followed by UI about 28% and Terraform 6%. While the YAML experience should appeal to the users who mainly use UI to create clusters, many CLI users should benefit because of its ease and convenience.

yaml-amplitude-cluster-mostly-created-by-cli.png

Understanding Personas

While Ali is a CLI expert, Henry, who is a hybrid administrator, may not be a savvy CLI user. They can easily download the YAML file and reuse it to create more clusters because YAML is an easy way for them to change any configuration in managed infra.

yaml-ocm-personas.png

Exploring Design Ideas 

Side-by-side (prototype)

While users can view either of the experiences, the “split” allows them to view the UI as well as YAML side by side. In this way, they can easily educate themselves on how the YAML configuration works.

yaml-idea-01-side-by-side.png

Switching Between YAML and UI (prototype)

This experience is similar to the OpenShift Cluster Platform. Users can select a view of either the UI or YAML.

yaml-idea-02-switching.png

MVP (prototype)

For the 2024 Q3 MVP, we wanted to surface the YAML editor at the end of the wizard in the UI. Users can access the YAML file at any point in the CLI and utilize the previous YAML configuration to create additional clusters.

yaml-idea-03-01-editing-at-the-end-of-wizard.png

yaml-idea-03-02-editing-at-the-end-of-wizard.png

yaml-idea-03-03-editing-at-the-end-of-wizard.png