Allow `meroxa resources list --types` to automatically open the resource catalog on the dashboard

[jayjayjpg]

Current

When a user runs meroxa resources list --types in the CLI today, the see the following output in their terminal:

 $ meroxa resources list --types
         NAME                 TYPE        RELEASE STAGE 
======================= ================ ===============
 AWS Redshift            redshift         beta          
 AWS S3                  s3               beta          
 Apache Kafka            kafka            beta          
 Azure CosmosDB          cosmosdb         beta          
 Confluent Cloud Kafka   confluentcloud   beta          
 Elasticsearch           elasticsearch    beta          
 Generic HTTP            url              beta          
 Google BigQuery         bigquery         beta          
 Microsoft SQL Server    sqlserver        beta          
 MongoDB                 mongodb          beta          
 MySQL                   mysql            beta          
 Oracle DB               oracle           beta          
 PostgreSQL              postgres         beta          
 Snowflake               snowflakedb      beta          

 ✨ View a complete list of available and upcoming resources in the dashboard: https://dashboard.meroxa.io/resources/new

Expected

A consideration for the future: The resource-types list will continue to grow and adapt. We may just want meroxa resources list ---types to open up the resource dashboard view with the connector roadmap.

See also the previous discussion here

[janelletavares]

@jayjayjpg @justmisosoup I saw the discussion in the other ticket, but thought it would be appropriate to respond here. One reason to not forego listing the types in the CLI in favor of opening in the browser, but maybe in addition to that with something like a --open flag, is that there is nowhere else in the CLI to discover all of the available resource types. There's some CLI usage documentation, but we don't always remember to update those examples. The Meroxa docs are better at being complete, but that involves having to click away from the CLI.

[jayjayjpg]

@janelletavares That's also a good point, thank you for calling this out as well!

[justmisosoup]

@janelletavares Thank you for the insight here. Is the recommendation to double our efforts then?

My only follow up question might be, at what point does the list no longer provide value to the customer within the context of the CLI? It makes me wonder if there may be a better way to solve this problem while still giving visibility without requiring the customer to click away from the CLI.

I don't think this will be a problem we solve now, but more--something up for consideration in the future as our list of supported resources grows.

I am going to put this issue in the "Not Doing" column for now.

cc: @jayjayjpg

[jayjayjpg]

@justmisosoup As far as I can tell, the current (and likely future) purpose of the CLI command for listing resource types would be, that the user can look up the type parameter value needed to create a new resource of a certain type via the CLI.

Whenever a resource is created on the CLI, the user needs to provide the internal name of the resource-type to the --type flag. For example:

meroxa resources create --type bigquery

This type value is something that the user can only look up two places right now:

• output of meroxa resources list --types (column: TYPE)
• Meroxa docs for the respective resource

It is not possible for the user to find the required type value on the dashboard as of today, because we're only displaying the human-readable formConfig.label value in the UI (In the case of biquery, we only show the formConfig.label Google BigQuery on the dashboard). This human readable value cannot be used together with the meroxa resources create command to create a certain resource.

If we want users to be able to use the CLI to create resources and to do so without having to defer to the docs when running meroxa resources create --type <resource-type>, we should keep the meroxa resources list --types with an output of a list of type values around or we should find another way for them to easily get the information through the CLI user interface directly.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this UX given this context and what would make most sense. @janelletavares may also have more context on what would be needed here if we do want to update the way meroxa resources list --types works

[jayjayjpg]

@justmisosoup @janelletavares Nevermind my previous comment, I just read the comment thread again and noticed that Janelle already said exactly this a few days ago: #669 (comment) I'll see myself out 🙈

[janelletavares]

@justmisosoup I think the list can be quite long that's printed by the CLI and still be a good experience. scrolling in the dashboard is expected, and scrolling in the CLI isn't a burden.