Built-in data refs

NOTE: The new frontend system is in alpha and is only supported by a small number of plugins.

To have a better understanding of extension data references please read the corresponding architecture section first.

Built-in extension data references

Data references help to define the inputs and outputs of an extension. A data ref is uniquely identified through its id. Through the data ref, strong typing is enforced for the input/output of the extension.

reactElement

id	type
core.reactElement	JSX.Element

The reactElement data reference can be used for defining the extension input/output of React elements. Example usage could be something like this:

import {
  coreExtensionData,
  createExtensionInput,
  createPageExtension,
} from '@backstage/frontend-plugin-api';

const homePage = createPageExtension({
  defaultPath: '/home',
  routeRef: rootRouteRef,
  inputs: {
    props: createExtensionInput({
      children: coreExtensionData.reactElement.optional(),
    }),
  },
});

routePath

id	type
core.routing.path	string

The routePath data reference can be used for defining the extension input/output of string paths.

routeRef

id	type
core.routing.ref	RouteRef

The routeRef data reference can be used for defining the extension input/output of route references.

Other data references

There are other data refs in the frontend system you might stumble upon while building your plugin. Most of them were created for use cases inside the core of the system, but they can be used also in your plugin.