Upgrade Saved Object import & export APIs to beta

[joshdover]

While we are considering moving away from a single HTTP API for all CRUD actions on all Saved Objects types to purpose-built APIs for each type, we do not anticipate removing the import or export APIs at this time.

Some customers use these APIs for automating Kibana installations, replicating objects across environments, and backing up Kibana data in a more transportable way than Elasticsearch snapshots.

Currently, all Saved Object APIs are documented as 'experimental', but we may want to consider upgrading the import and export APIs to 'beta' in order to signal more confidence that these APIs should not change or be removed, we try to avoid breaking changes in this area, and that customers should feel more confident in integrating with them.

Specifically, I propose we mark these APIs as 'beta':

• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/saved-objects-api-import.html
• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/saved-objects-api-export.html
• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/saved-objects-api-resolve-import-errors.html
  • This one could be left experimental. I anticipate that we may want to change or improve this API for more scenarios in the future, especially considering the upcoming "share across spaces" features.

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-core (Team:Core)

[pgayvallet]

This one could be left experimental. I anticipate that we may want to change or improve this API for more scenarios in the future, especially considering the upcoming "share across spaces" features

+1 to keep this one as experimental

[jportner]

If we mark the import API as beta, perhaps we should tag the "createNewCopies" option as deprecated? (createNewCopies: false is the default right now, that is pseudo-copy mode which we eventually want to get rid of: #81904)

[jportner]

See also: #91615

[arisonl]

Noting that with the deprecation of the import/export dashboard API (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/dashboard-api.html), there is more user interest for the APIs in this issue to evolve from experimental.

[yctercero]

@joshdover I know there'd been discussion on this before but I couldn't remember if there was a ticket already. Is there any progress on being able to add validation hooks for import/export? Would that need to be considered prior to moving these to beta or can it be added later?

cc @rylnd @FrankHassanabad @dhurley14

[lukeelmers]

Is there any progress on being able to add validation hooks for import/export?

There is currently a PR in progress to allow for registering SO type validations, which are run on create and bulkCreate: #118969

Would that need to be considered prior to moving these to beta or can it be added later?

I think the larger thing keeping us from moving to beta at this point is getting an understanding of how we expect these APIs to be affected by some of the work we are planning around the future saved objects architecture and the "kibana persistence toolkit". We don't want to bump these to beta and then immediately have to make changes as a result of some of these other efforts, so the last time we discussed this, we have decided to hold on bumping these to beta until we have more clarity on our long-term plans.

[pgayvallet]

superseded by #159454