Custom Panels ​

Panels are modular units of data visualization that exist within the Insights module. Each panel exists within a Dashboard and can be positioned and resized as needed. They are developed using Vue.js. Learn more about Panels.

Extension Entrypoint ​

The entrypoint of your panel is the index file inside the src/ folder of your extension package. It exports a configuration object with options to configure the behavior of your panel. When loading your panel, this object is imported by the Directus host.

Example of an entrypoint:

import PanelComponent from './panel.vue';

export default {
	id: 'custom',
	name: 'Custom',
	icon: 'box',
	description: 'This is my custom panel!',
	component: PanelComponent,
	options: [
		{
			field: 'text',
			name: 'Text',
			type: 'string',
			meta: {
				interface: 'input',
				width: 'full',
			},
		},
	],
	minWidth: 12,
	minHeight: 8,
};

import PanelComponent from './panel.vue';

export default {
	id: 'custom',
	name: 'Custom',
	icon: 'box',
	description: 'This is my custom panel!',
	component: PanelComponent,
	options: [
		{
			field: 'text',
			name: 'Text',
			type: 'string',
			meta: {
				interface: 'input',
				width: 'full',
			},
		},
	],
	minWidth: 12,
	minHeight: 8,
};

Available Options ​

• id — The unique key for this panel. It is good practice to scope proprietary panels with an author prefix.
• name — The human-readable name for this panel.
• icon — An icon name from the material icon set, or the extended list of Directus custom icons.
• description — A short description (<80 characters) of this panel shown in the App.
• component — A reference to your panel component.
• options — The options of your panel. Can be either an options object or a dedicated Vue component.
• minWidth - The minimum width in grid units of your panel on a dashboard.
• minHeight - The minimum height in grid units of your panel on a dashboard.

Panel Component ​

The panel component is the part of your extension that will be rendered by the Directus App whenever your panel should be used for data visualization in a dashboard within the Insights module. This panel component has to be Vue component. The most straightforward way to write a Vue component is to use the Vue Single File Component syntax.

Example of a panel component using the Vue SFC syntax:

<template>
	<div class="text" :class="{ 'has-header': showHeader }">
		{{ text }}
	</div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
	props: {
		showHeader: {
			type: Boolean,
			default: false,
		},
		text: {
			type: String,
			default: '',
		},
	},
};
</script>

<style scoped>
.text {
	padding: 12px;
}

.text.has-header {
	padding: 0 12px;
}
</style>

<template>
	<div class="text" :class="{ 'has-header': showHeader }">
		{{ text }}
	</div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
	props: {
		showHeader: {
			type: Boolean,
			default: false,
		},
		text: {
			type: String,
			default: '',
		},
	},
};
</script>

<style scoped>
.text {
	padding: 12px;
}

.text.has-header {
	padding: 0 12px;
}
</style>

Available Props ​

• showHeader boolean — Whether the header is shown. Useful for alternative styling based on the extra/reduced space.
• dashboard uuid - The UUID string of the dashboard containing the panel.
• id uuid - The UUID string of the panel.
• height number - The current configured height of the panel.
• width number - The current configured width of the panel.
• now Date - The Date object as of the moment of viewing the dashboard containing the panel.

Accessing Internal Systems ​

To access internal systems like the API or the stores, you can use the useApi() and useStores() composables exported by the @directus/extensions-sdk package. They can be used inside a setup() function like this:

import { useApi, useStores } from '@directus/extensions-sdk';

export default {
	setup() {
		const api = useApi();

		const { useCollectionsStore } = useStores();
		const collectionsStore = useCollectionsStore();

		// ...
	},
};

import { useApi, useStores } from '@directus/extensions-sdk';

export default {
	setup() {
		const api = useApi();

		const { useCollectionsStore } = useStores();
		const collectionsStore = useCollectionsStore();

		// ...
	},
};

Guides ​

Learn how to build panels with our official guides:

• Create An Interactive Panel To Create Items
• Create A Panel To Display External API Data With Vonage
• Create An Interactive Panel To Send SMS With Twilio