Working with Sisense Add-ons

Sisense add-ons enable you to extend the functionality and capabilities of your Sisense dashboard through standard web development languages such as JavaScript and HTML.

Sisense offers both free and premium add-ons, which are available in the Sisense Marketplace. These add-ons are supported and maintained by Sisense and Sisense partners. There are also free unsupported add-ons in the Sisense Community.

You can also develop your own add-ons with the Sisense JavaScript API. For more information about developing Sisense add-ons, see JavaScript API & Plugins.

For more information about support for add-ons, see below.

Installing Add-ons

To install an add-on:

  1. Download the add-on.

  2. Install the add-on in either one of the following ways:

    • Extract the contents of the .zip folder to the relevant directory below:
      /opt/sisense/storage/plugins/

      OR

    • Select Admin > Server & Hardware > System Management > File Management, and add it to Plugins.

  3. Verify that the add-on is listed in Sisense under Admin > Plug-ins.

Enabling and Disabling Add-ons

In the Sisense Admin tab, search for Add-ons, which is located under Server & Hardware. You can view a list of your current add-ons, their version as defined in your add-on script, and their status, enabled or disabled.

From the Add-ons page, you can enable or disable your add-ons. This is useful for testing new add-ons or troubleshooting issues with your dashboard. When an add-on is disabled, its functionality is no longer available in the Sisense.

To enable or disable an add-on:

  1. In Sisense, open the Add-ons page.

  2. Toggle the Enable/Disable switch to activate or deactivate an add-on.

    OR
    To activate/deactivate multiple add-ons, select the checkbox of the relevant add-ons. When you select any of the checkboxes, an Enable/Disable switch is displayed in the menu bar. Toggle the switch to enable or disable all the selected add-ons.

    After enabling or disabling an add-on, Sisense rebuilds your add-ons list.
    The next time you refresh your dashboard, the add-ons will be enabled or disabled as defined in the Add-ons page.

Note:

The "Print Widget" add-on appears as "printToPrinter" in the product (see the image above).

Administering Add-ons

Through the Sisense REST API, you can use export, import, and delete an add-on from your system.
To use the REST API commands for plug-ins:

  1. In Sisense, go to the Admin page, and select Rest API from the left-side menu. You might have to scroll down the menu to see the REST API menu option.
  2. In REST API version 1.0, select the plugins category to use the following REST API commands.
    CommandDescription
    GET /plugins/{id}/exportExports a plug-in as a .zip archive that can be imported back into Sisense.
    POST /plugins/importImports a plug-in from a .zip archive and adds it to Sisense. If the plug-in is already in the system, it can be overridden by the imported version.
    DELETE /plugins/{id}Deletes the specified plug-in.
  3. For the command you need to run, click Try it out, enter the required parameters for the command, and click Execute.
    The Responses body shows a verification message that the operation was successful, or an error message about why the operation failed.

Note:

  • To use these REST API commands you must enter a user API token to confirm that the user has permissions to export, import, or delete a plug-in.
  • Any certified plug-ins that are deleted will be reinstalled with each Sisense installation.

Upgrading Effects on Add-ons

During the upgrade of premium plugins, backup copies of the config files are created. These copies are applied post-upgrade in order to keep the original configuration.

During the upgrade of certified (free, pre-installed) add-ons, there is a similar procedure, but first the config files are removed from the new versions of the add-ons, then the add-on files are copied, overwriting the existing files except for the config files, which remain unmodified.

The above procedures are the same for both for on-prem and cloud instances of Sisense.

Add-on Support

This table describes the level of Support for the different types of add-ons. A more detailed explanation follows the table.

Add-on Type Available Support Notes
Sisense Certified On the Sisense Marketplace Supported by Sisense Maintained and tested by Sisense. Contact Sisense Support for help with this type of add-on.
Sisense Partner On the Sisense Marketplace Supported by the Partner
Self-developed and Community Self-developed or on the Sisense Community Unsupported If this add-on is a core requirement, Sisense recommends certifying it (see below).

Add-ons Certified by Sisense

Sisense maintains and tests certified add-ons to make sure they work in every new version of Sisense. Contact Sisense for help with these add-ons.

If you have deployed Sisense on Linux, all certified add-ons in the Marketplace are now supported, except for Embedded Images.

Note:

Any manual change that you make to certified add-ons will be overwritten on upgrade. Sisense recommends that you do not modify certified add-ons. If you want to change them, duplicate the add-on, rename it (including the internal label), and modify the duplicate version of the add-on. The upgrade process creates a backup copy of all add-ons, which can be restored if needed.


Add-ons Developed by Sisense Partners

Contact the Partners directly for support for these add-ons.

Self-developed and Community Developed Add-ons (and Scripts)

Sisense doesn't offer support for these add-ons or scripts.

Important:

Because self-developed and Community add-ons and scripts are unsupported, they are not included in the Sisense QA cycle for new versions. Therefore, you will need to test the add-on after every upgrade to make sure:

  • The add-on still works
  • The add-on doesn't break native Sisense functionality

If you have an issue with a self-developed or Community add-on or script, you can do one of the following:

  • If you are a JavaScript developer, you could try fixing the add-on yourself.
  • If the add-on is one of your core requirements, or is otherwise important to you, Sisense highly recommends that you contact your Customer Success Manager to have Sisense certify it for you. This is a paid service.

Add-ons (Plugins) Service Memory Consumption

The add-ons (plugins) service may consume a significant amount of memory during the add-ons compilation process that may lead to the service instability. This is especially common if there are dozens of add-ons installed or the add-ons are complex and large.

It is recommended to have as many add-ons as possible precompiled (and minified) before installing and have the precompiled add-ons set the “skipCompilation” flag to true. The “skipCompilation” flag should be added in the plugin.json file for every compiled add-on. If you encounter high memory usage of the add-ons service, request your add-ons developer to implement the needed changes.

The following is an example of the plugin.json file contents with the flag set to true:

Copy 
{
  "name":  "My Add-on",
  "version":  "1.2.2",
  …
  …
  "skipCompilation":  true
}

Implementing this recommendation will offload the add-ons service and reduce the service memory consumption by preventing the attempted recompilation of these add-ons.