Backstage 1.20: Developer Portal Evolution and Plugin Ecosystem

Introduction

Backstage 1.20, released on July 28, 2023, is most relevant if you’re operating Kubernetes in production and want fewer surprises. This post walks through the highlights and the kinds of operational scenarios where the changes tend to matter first.

Plugin Ecosystem Improvements

• Plugin marketplace expansion provides more pre-built plugins for common integrations.
• Plugin development improvements simplify creating custom plugins with better SDKs.
• Plugin isolation enhancements ensure plugins don’t interfere with each other.
• Plugin versioning enables better plugin management and updates.

Kubernetes Integration

1. Kubernetes plugin improvements provide better visualization of workloads and services.
2. Multi-cluster support enables viewing resources across multiple clusters.
3. Resource health indicators provide real-time status of Kubernetes resources.
4. Cost insights integration shows resource usage and cost allocation.

Developer Experience

• Search improvements enable faster discovery of services, APIs, and documentation.
• TechDocs enhancements provide better documentation rendering and navigation.
• Software templates expansion offers more scaffolding options.
• CI/CD integration improvements provide better visibility into build and deployment status.

Platform Features

• Service catalog improvements provide better service discovery and management.
• API documentation enhancements enable better API discovery and testing.
• Ownership tracking enables better accountability and contact information.
• Analytics improvements provide insights into platform usage and adoption.

Getting Started

npx @backstage/create-app@latest
cd my-backstage-app
yarn install
yarn dev

Install Kubernetes plugin:

yarn --cwd packages/app add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes

Summary

Backstage 1.20 provides platform teams with powerful tools for building internal developer portals with enhanced plugin capabilities.