ExploreMetrics: Add toggle to enable routing to externalized Explore Metrics app plugin (#99481)

* feat: toggle for explore metrics app plugin

* chore: put app navigation settings behind feature toggle

* chore: require restart

* feat: context-driven applinks toggling

* fix: toggle ownership

* docs: note restart requirement

* refactor: prefer global feature toggle check

* chore: undo rm newlines

* fix: minimize changes

* fix: app id, `chromeless`, sidebar ordering

pkg/services/featuremgmt/registry.go

@@ -912,7 +912,7 @@ var (
 			Stage:        FeatureStageGeneralAvailability,
 			Expression:   "true", // enabled by default
 			FrontendOnly: true,
-			Owner:        grafanaDashboardsSquad,
+			Owner:        grafanaObservabilityMetricsSquad,
 		},
 		{
 			Name:         "alertingSimplifiedRouting",
@@ -1742,6 +1742,15 @@ var (
 			Stage:       FeatureStageExperimental,
 			Owner:       awsDatasourcesSquad,
 		},
+		{
+			Name:            "exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin",
+			Description:     "Use the externalized Metrics Drilldown (formerly known as Explore Metrics) app plugin",
+			Stage:           FeatureStageExperimental,
+			Owner:           grafanaObservabilityMetricsSquad,
+			FrontendOnly:    true,
+			RequiresRestart: true,
+			HideFromDocs:    true,
+		},
 		{
 			Name:            "datasourceConnectionsTab",
 			Description:     "Shows defined connections for a data source in the plugins detail page",

pkg/services/featuremgmt/toggles_gen.csv

@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ pdfTables,preview,@grafana/sharing-squad,false,false,false
 ssoSettingsApi,GA,@grafana/identity-access-team,false,false,false
 canvasPanelPanZoom,preview,@grafana/dataviz-squad,false,false,true
 logsInfiniteScrolling,GA,@grafana/observability-logs,false,false,true
-exploreMetrics,GA,@grafana/dashboards-squad,false,false,true
+exploreMetrics,GA,@grafana/observability-metrics,false,false,true
 alertingSimplifiedRouting,GA,@grafana/alerting-squad,false,false,false
 logRowsPopoverMenu,GA,@grafana/observability-logs,false,false,true
 pluginsSkipHostEnvVars,experimental,@grafana/plugins-platform-backend,false,false,false
@@ -232,6 +232,7 @@ ABTestFeatureToggleB,experimental,@grafana/sharing-squad,false,false,false
 queryLibraryDashboards,experimental,@grafana/grafana-frontend-platform,false,false,false
 grafanaAdvisor,experimental,@grafana/plugins-platform-backend,false,false,false
 elasticsearchImprovedParsing,experimental,@grafana/aws-datasources,false,false,false
+exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin,experimental,@grafana/observability-metrics,false,true,true
 datasourceConnectionsTab,experimental,@grafana/plugins-platform-backend,false,false,true
 fetchRulesUsingPost,experimental,@grafana/alerting-squad,false,false,false
 alertingAlertmanagerExtraDedupStage,experimental,@grafana/alerting-squad,false,true,false

pkg/services/featuremgmt/toggles_gen.go

@@ -939,6 +939,10 @@ const (
 	// Enables less memory intensive Elasticsearch result parsing
 	FlagElasticsearchImprovedParsing = "elasticsearchImprovedParsing"
 
+	// FlagExploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin
+	// Use the externalized Metrics Drilldown (formerly known as Explore Metrics) app plugin
+	FlagExploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin = "exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin"
+
 	// FlagDatasourceConnectionsTab
 	// Shows defined connections for a data source in the plugins detail page
 	FlagDatasourceConnectionsTab = "datasourceConnectionsTab"

pkg/services/featuremgmt/toggles_gen.json

@@ -1529,16 +1529,16 @@
     {
       "metadata": {
         "name": "exploreMetrics",
-        "resourceVersion": "1720021873452",
+        "resourceVersion": "1737658563230",
         "creationTimestamp": "2024-04-09T18:15:18Z",
         "annotations": {
-          "grafana.app/updatedTimestamp": "2024-07-03 15:51:13.452477 +0000 UTC"
+          "grafana.app/updatedTimestamp": "2025-01-23 18:56:03.23086 +0000 UTC"
         }
       },
       "spec": {
         "description": "Enables the new Explore Metrics core app",
         "stage": "GA",
-        "codeowner": "@grafana/dashboards-squad",
+        "codeowner": "@grafana/observability-metrics",
         "frontend": true,
         "expression": "true"
       }
@@ -1557,6 +1557,24 @@
         "hideFromDocs": true
       }
     },
+    {
+      "metadata": {
+        "name": "exploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin",
+        "resourceVersion": "1738596266973",
+        "creationTimestamp": "2025-01-21T23:24:50Z",
+        "annotations": {
+          "grafana.app/updatedTimestamp": "2025-02-03 15:24:26.973231 +0000 UTC"
+        }
+      },
+      "spec": {
+        "description": "Use the externalized Metrics Drilldown (formerly known as Explore Metrics) app plugin",
+        "stage": "experimental",
+        "codeowner": "@grafana/observability-metrics",
+        "frontend": true,
+        "requiresRestart": true,
+        "hideFromDocs": true
+      }
+    },
     {
       "metadata": {
         "name": "expressionParser",

pkg/services/navtree/navtreeimpl/applinks.go

@@ -286,9 +286,9 @@ func (s *ServiceImpl) readNavigationSettings() {
 		"grafana-k8s-app":                  {SectionID: navtree.NavIDInfrastructure, SortWeight: 1, Text: "Kubernetes"},
 		"grafana-dbo11y-app":               {SectionID: navtree.NavIDInfrastructure, SortWeight: 2, Text: "Databases"},
 		"grafana-app-observability-app":    {SectionID: navtree.NavIDRoot, SortWeight: navtree.WeightApplication, Text: "Application", Icon: "graph-bar"},
-		"grafana-lokiexplore-app":          {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 1, Text: "Logs"},
-		"grafana-exploretraces-app":        {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 2, Text: "Traces"},
-		"grafana-pyroscope-app":            {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 3, Text: "Profiles"},
+		"grafana-lokiexplore-app":          {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 2, Text: "Logs"},
+		"grafana-exploretraces-app":        {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 3, Text: "Traces"},
+		"grafana-pyroscope-app":            {SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 4, Text: "Profiles"},
 		"grafana-kowalski-app":             {SectionID: navtree.NavIDRoot, SortWeight: navtree.WeightFrontend, Text: "Frontend", Icon: "frontend-observability"},
 		"grafana-synthetic-monitoring-app": {SectionID: navtree.NavIDTestingAndSynthetics, SortWeight: 2, Text: "Synthetics"},
 		"grafana-irm-app":                  {SectionID: navtree.NavIDAlertsAndIncidents, SortWeight: 1, Text: "IRM"},
@@ -309,6 +309,10 @@ func (s *ServiceImpl) readNavigationSettings() {
 		"grafana-csp-app":                  {SectionID: navtree.NavIDRoot, SortWeight: navtree.WeightCloudServiceProviders, Icon: "cloud"},
 	}
 
+	if s.features.IsEnabledGlobally(featuremgmt.FlagExploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin) {
+		s.navigationAppConfig["grafana-metricsdrilldown-app"] = NavigationAppConfig{SectionID: navtree.NavIDExplore, SortWeight: 1, Text: "Metrics"}
+	}
+
 	s.navigationAppPathConfig = map[string]NavigationAppConfig{
 		"/a/grafana-auth-app": {SectionID: navtree.NavIDCfgAccess, SortWeight: 2},
 	}

pkg/services/navtree/navtreeimpl/navtree.go

@@ -562,7 +562,7 @@ func (s *ServiceImpl) buildDataConnectionsNavLink(c *contextmodel.ReqContext) *n
 
 func (s *ServiceImpl) buildExploreNavLinks(c *contextmodel.ReqContext) []*navtree.NavLink {
 	exploreChildNavs := []*navtree.NavLink{}
-	if s.features.IsEnabled(c.Req.Context(), featuremgmt.FlagExploreMetrics) {
+	if s.features.IsEnabled(c.Req.Context(), featuremgmt.FlagExploreMetrics) && !s.features.IsEnabled(c.Req.Context(), featuremgmt.FlagExploreMetricsUseExternalAppPlugin) {
 		exploreChildNavs = append(exploreChildNavs, &navtree.NavLink{
 			Text:     "Metrics",
 			SubTitle: "Queryless exploration of your metrics",