[APM] Allow to create custom links from the Actions drop down in APM

[nehaduggal]

Describe the feature: Currently, the actions dropdown menu in APM is entirely curated and doesn't allow any customization. Adding this new functionality will allow a customer to add additional custom links to other dashboards/tools from APM.

Describe a specific use case for the feature: When debugging a performance issue, a customer would possibly want to navigate to custom created dashboards or tools to be able to do deeper troubleshooting. Our current menu options do not allow for adding custom links into the menu that can help a customer to navigate between custom UIs. With this option, the customer will be able to specify custom URLs in the config file which would then surface on the APM App Actions link and allow for navigation to configured links.

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/apm-ui (Team:apm)

[katrin-freihofner]

I think this could work with our new actions menu:

...dependent on #53282

[formgeist]

@katrin-freihofner I think that's a great treatment to the custom links and the "more" option. Do you imagine that clicking "see more" transitions to a new context menu "page" like the current context menu nested functionality?

[katrin-freihofner]

Do you imagine that clicking "see more" transitions to a new context menu "page" like the current context menu nested functionality?

Yes, exactly, I think that could work for many custom links.

[formgeist]

Sounds good - minor nitpick; do you think we need the left icon plusInCircle for the "see more" option? There's also another icon on the right, so aligning it more with the current context menu component treatment?

[katrin-freihofner]

No, you are right - we don't need it. I'm going to update it.

[katrin-freihofner]

[nehaduggal]

I love the classification the Actions dropdown - it makes it super clear to the user what the different links are. The ability to "View full trace" is missing from this list- that should be in its own subsection probably at the top of the list?

[katrin-freihofner]

The ability to "View full trace" is missing from this list- that should be in its own subsection probably at the top of the list?

This example is based on a screenshot of the actions menu of the trace sample. If we need an additional link that's fine.

[formgeist]

@nehaduggal Currently the "View full trace" is its own option next to the Actions context in the Trace sample view. I think we'd want to keep it that way?

[nehaduggal]

Ah yes, of course it is and it should remain that way. Totally my bad!

[nehaduggal]

@katrin-freihofner @formgeist how many custom links could we actually display in the dropdown without cluttering the UI? What if a user has 15-20 different custom links- what does this dropdown look like in that scenario?

[katrin-freihofner]

@nehaduggal it becomes a very long list, similar to this

[formgeist]

Since we'll most likely build a CRUD-like interface of this, perhaps we can allow for nested links within the custom links section, so users have another way of grouping say specific links together (Dashboards category, Support links etc.)

[katrin-freihofner]

Follow-up issue elastic/apm#196