Kind Connector spec.configs.topics should allow comma separated string and array

[dxs0323]

Eschewed features

• This issue is not requesting templating, unstuctured edits, build-time side-effects from args or env vars, or any other eschewed feature.

What would you like to have added?

I would like the spec.configs.topics to be more versatile. To accept existing comma separated string and also the usual array annotation. This would be processed under the hood to function as it already is. The array would be converted into comma separated string.

Examples:

Example 1 - Kustomize

(...)
kind: Connector

spec:
   configs:
       topics:
            - "topic 1"
            - "topic 2"
            - "topic 3"

The Kustomize should handle it as if it was written following:

(...)
kind: Connector

spec:
   configs:
       topics: "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3"

Example 2 - Kustomize

(...)
kind: Connector

spec:
   configs:
       topics:
            - "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3"
            - "topic 4,topic 5"
            - "topic 6"

The Kustomize should handle it as if it was written following:

(...)
kind: Connector

spec:
   configs:
       topics: "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3,topic 4,topic 5,topic 6"

Why is this needed?

This would increase readability when there is lots of topics being consumed by Connector. One use case is Datadog connector. This way, the programmer would be able also make necessary groupings. This could also enable multiple parallel developments that need the same connector (i.e. topics could be separated in array elements to avoid accidental overwriting).

Can you accomplish the motivating task without this feature, and if so, how?

This cannot be done by actually changing the way the config works.

What other solutions have you considered?

Alternatively, we could have multiple connectors each with its own topics. However this seems to be unnecessary. I consider this feature be the best to increase readability.

Anything else we should know?

I would love to contribute to this if needed. But I would need help in getting up to the speed to understand the code.

Feature ownership

• I am interested in contributing this feature myself! 🎉

[koba1t]

@dxs0323

I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I don't think this operation is equivalent in YAML.

topics:
 - "topic 1"
 - "topic 2"
 - "topic 3"

topics: "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3"

If you want to handle specific resources like those for Datadog, the kustomize plugin might be useful.
https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/guides/extending_kustomize/

/triage needs-information

[dxs0323]

@dxs0323

I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I don't think this operation is equivalent in YAML.

topics:

• "topic 1"
• "topic 2"
• "topic 3"
  topics: "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3"
  If you want to handle specific resources like those for Datadog, the kustomize plugin might be useful. https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/guides/extending_kustomize/

/triage needs-information

Connector kind currently does not support:

topics:
 - "topic 1"
 - "topic 2"
 - "topic 3"
 

Only this is supported:

topics: "topic 1,topic 2,topic 3"

My goal is to increase readability by enabling that property to accept both array and string. Under the hood, that would be converted into comma separated string. This means, there would be a code snippet that would handle topics array and topics string to be processed into single topics string. That is what I illustrated with examples.

I hope I explained it. I understand that array syntax is not equivalent to string syntax.

[dxs0323]

The reason why I am proposing this is that array can increase readability when there is lots of topics. Especially when developers are adding new ones... they can just add another array element and put new topic in there in comma separated string.