# New Grafana plugin: Websocket data source

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [13 April 2022 19:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255 "2022-04-13T19:27:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [13 April 2022 19:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/1 "2022-04-13T19:27:15Z")

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Thought this might be of interest to some people. A newly contributed Grafana plugin for getting realtime data via websocket connections.

> **[WebSocket API](https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/golioth-websocket-datasource/)**
>
> A data source plugin for handling WebSocket connections on Grafana.

Perhaps an interesting alternative to Dashboard charts where you have lots of rapidly changing data.

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [13 April 2022 20:07 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/2 "2022-04-13T20:07:44Z")

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Looks good, they started developing a MQTT plugin, but it looks like it is not being developed any more!

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [13 April 2022 20:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/3 "2022-04-13T20:09:09Z")

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Shame about the MQTT plugin but then you could always configure a ws interface on your Mosquitto broker 😀

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**Author:** ![bakman2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/bakman2/32/6207_2.png) [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)\
**Post date:** [14 April 2022 06:35 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/4 "2022-04-14T06:35:34Z")

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For Grafana a more likely approach is using Influxdb in conjunction with telegraf and the mqtt consumer. There are [so many integrations with telegraf](https://www.influxdata.com/products/integrations/) nowadays.

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [14 April 2022 11:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/5 "2022-04-14T11:43:46Z")

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Yes, already doing that. But direct ws-\>mqtt could be useful where you just want real-time reporting and don't want to shove everything through InfluxDB.

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [15 April 2022 12:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/6 "2022-04-15T12:06:42Z")

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Just tried this, it works well! It's a viable alternative to MQTT for data that doesn't need to go into a database.

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**Author:** ![MountainKing91](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/mountainking91/32/59516_2.png) [@MountainKing91](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/MountainKing91)\
**Post date:** [16 April 2022 23:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/7 "2022-04-16T23:08:06Z")

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Thanks for sharing, really interesting - I will give it a try. I'm still hoping for the mqtt plug-in though 😞

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**Author:** ![grant1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/grant1/32/49890_2.png) [@grant1](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/grant1)\
**Post date:** [17 April 2022 14:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/8 "2022-04-17T14:06:11Z")

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The [MQTT datasource plugin for Grafana](https://github.com/grafana/mqtt-datasource) does work. It was just painfully difficult (at least for me) to build and install. I do not understand Mage, Yarn, etc. which is required. I was told by one of the developers last fall that it would eventually be a "click to add" datasource plugin (like Influx or MSSQL), so maybe that will happen at their upcoming GrafanaCONline conference.

Meanwhile, I will try the websocket plugin.

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [17 April 2022 14:18 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/9 "2022-04-17T14:18:41Z")

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Grant, didn't they announce the MQTT Plugin at last years GrafanaCONline?

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**Author:** ![grant1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/grant1/32/49890_2.png) [@grant1](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/grant1)\
**Post date:** [17 April 2022 19:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/10 "2022-04-17T19:51:50Z")

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@ghayne Yes, they did announce (and present) the MQTT datasource plugin, but it was really more of a proof-of-concept. The plugin only works for the Open Source version (not Grafana Cloud) and it requires the user to build everything from the GitHub files. I believe it has not received widespread adoption because of these factors. Having said that, once it's set up, it works nicely. Below is a flow that displays the (constantly changing) scale weight via MQTT to Grafana using the MQTT datasource:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/0/8/0817f911eab2f2e1e0e935354b576319f54999ba.png)

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [17 April 2022 20:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/11 "2022-04-17T20:09:17Z")

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Yes, looks good, but the non-trivial installation instructions put me off trying to install it. The websocket plugin is great though, until the MQTT plugin is available to install using the plugin interface.

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [20 May 2022 08:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/12 "2022-05-20T08:58:39Z")

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Sorry, know this is a late reply but I use Telegraf to get MQTT data into Grafana.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [19 July 2022 08:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/new-grafana-plugin-websocket-data-source/61255/13 "2022-07-19T08:59:39Z")

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