[pve-devel] [RFC pve-storage/proxmox-widget-toolkit/pve-manager master v2 00/10] GUI Support for Custom Storage Plugins

[Andrei Perepiolkin]

Hi Max,


I like your idea of extending Proxmox with the capability to render a UI 
for adding and editing custom storage plugins.

I'm curious — was your patch approved or merged?


Best regards,

Andrei Perepiolkin

On 11/21/25 11:58, Max R. Carrara wrote:
> GUI Support for Custom Storage Plugins - v2
> ===========================================
>
> This is a complete refresh of my previous RFC that aims to be much less
> greenfield-y and instead tries to reuse as much existing code as
> possible while remaining as forward-compatible as possible.
>
> Normally I would provide a more detailed changelog under each patch, but
> since so much has changed since rfc-v1, I'll instead sum up the biggest
> changes here:
>
> - The API routes are changed to be a little more flexible—routes
>    regarding views etc. are completely omitted. See patches #01 and #08
>    for more information.
>
> - The schemas of plugins are returned as part of their metadata. A
>    "schema" for a storage plugin in this context is simply a hashmap
>    consisting of the plugin's properties' JSON schemas. See patch #02 for
>    a complete and detailed explanation.
>
> - Existing UI code concerned with building the fields of ACME DNS
>    challenge plugins is factored out, made more generic and also receives
>    some additional features so that it can be used in different places.
>    See patches #05 and #06 for details.
>
> - Instead of making separate versions of all of the storage-related UI
>    components (panels etc.), only one new input panel is added, while the
>    remaining necessary functionality is integrated into the existing
>    code. See patch #09 for further details.
>
>
> The Result
> ----------
>
> Instead of having to provide a separate "view definition", storage
> entries for custom storage plugins can now be created and edited in the
> UI *without* needing to provide any extra UI / layouting hints.
>
> So, if one now installs something like the SSHFS example plugin
> [sshfs-plugin], the resulting UI is about ~80% there in terms of look
> and feel compared to the forms of built-in plugins:
>
> - Default values are displayed as grey text inside fields
> - Descriptions of properties are provided as little pop-up quips when
>    hovering over a field
> - "fixed" properties are automatically taken into account and made
>    read-only when editing a storage entry
> - "sensitive" properties are automatically treated as password fields
> - Optional / non-optional properties are handled
> - The min- / maxLength of strings and the min- / maximum of numeric
>    fields is taken into account in the UI
> - The "Backup Retention" tab is automatically masked / unmasked
>    depending on whether the storage plugin supports backups or not
>
> This is mostly everything that I managed to squeeze out of the existing
> SectionConfig schemas / data.
>
> Additionally, something that's neat is that the `title` key of every
> property is now used as its field's label in the UI. That means we can
> provide labels for all of our built-in properties while third-party
> developers may provide theirs for their own properties. As a quick
> example, this is what that would look like for the SSHFS plugin
> [sshfs-plugin]:
>
>    sub properties {
>        return {
>            'remote-path' => {
>                description => "Path on the remote filesystem used for SSHFS. Must be absolute.",
>                type => 'string',
>                format => 'pve-storage-path',
>                title => 'Remote Path',
>            },
>            'sshfs-private-key' => {
>                description => "The private key to use for SSHFS.",
>                type => 'string',
>                title => 'Private Key',
>            },
>        };
>    }
>
>
> This becomes even more flexible for third-party devs once we switch over
> to property isolation—something the code in this RFC should be 100%
> forward-compatible with. Then they wouldn't be bound to our provided
> labels.
>
> In terms of overall looks, the remaining 20% consist of some polish on
> the frontend for the most part, but honestly, that can be done once this
> RFC becomes an actual series. I felt that this was in an adequate enough
> state to publish for now—please let me know what you think if you give
> this RFC a spin, I'd appreciate it!
>
> Previous Versions
> -----------------
>
> rfc-v1: https://lore.proxmox.com/pve-devel/20250908180058.530119-1-m.carrara@proxmox.com/
>
> References
> ----------
>
> [sshfs-plugin]: https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-storage-plugin-examples.git;a=tree;f=plugin-sshfs;h=c7543808f7226209650d1b8b6e449392bc1f0d2d;hb=refs/heads/master
>
> Summary of Changes
> ------------------
>
> pve-storage:
>
> Max R. Carrara (5):
>    api: plugins/storage: add initial routes and endpoints
>    api: plugins/storage/plugin: include schema in plugin metadata
>    api: plugins/storage/plugin: mark sensitive properties in schema
>    api: plugins/storage/plugin: factor plugin metadata code into helper
>    api: plugins/storage/plugin: add plugins' 'content' to their metadata
>
>   src/PVE/API2/Makefile                  |   1 +
>   src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Makefile          |  18 +++
>   src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage.pm        |  54 ++++++++
>   src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage/Makefile  |  17 +++
>   src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage/Plugin.pm | 163 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   5 files changed, 253 insertions(+)
>   create mode 100644 src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Makefile
>   create mode 100644 src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage.pm
>   create mode 100644 src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage/Makefile
>   create mode 100644 src/PVE/API2/Plugins/Storage/Plugin.pm
>
>
> proxmox-widget-toolkit:
>
> Max R. Carrara (2):
>    utils: introduce helper function getFieldDefFromPropertySchema
>    acme: use helper to construct ExtJS fields from property schemas
>
>   src/Utils.js                 | 106 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   src/window/ACMEPluginEdit.js |  42 +++++---------
>   2 files changed, 119 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)
>
>
> pve-manager:
>
> Max R. Carrara (3):
>    api: add API routes 'plugins' and 'plugins/storage'
>    ui: storage view: display error when no editor for storage type exists
>    ui: storage: add basic UI integration for custom storage plugins
>
>   PVE/API2.pm                        |   6 ++
>   PVE/API2/Makefile                  |   1 +
>   PVE/API2/Plugins.pm                |  61 +++++++++++++
>   www/manager6/Makefile              |   1 +
>   www/manager6/dc/StorageView.js     | 132 +++++++++++++++++++++--------
>   www/manager6/storage/Base.js       |   1 +
>   www/manager6/storage/CustomEdit.js | 110 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   7 files changed, 278 insertions(+), 34 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 PVE/API2/Plugins.pm
>   create mode 100644 www/manager6/storage/CustomEdit.js
>