grid and dashboard layouts

[RossCampbellDev]

At present, row.withPanels([]) only works as intended when used within a util.grid.makeGrid([]) - otherwise any panels added to the row will simply be invisible.

If trying to make use of row.withRepeat() while not using makeGrid([]), you have to define your row inside your dashboard.withPanels([]) array, then append another array to that containing the panels that you would have put inside row.withPanels([) (if it made any sense)

This then makes it impossible to combine some static panels (eg occurs only once within a dashboard) with anything that is repeated by use of row.withRepeat() because every panel mentioned repeats, wherever it occurs in the dashboard.withPanels([]) array.

when using makeGrid([]) we still repeat ALL mentioned panels, not just those within the grid

using v11.0.0

[Duologic]

This is sadly how rows in work today in Grafana, it is a bit archaic and makes designing complex dashboard layouts with Grafonnet quite a challenge.

Any 'static' panels need to come before any rows in the withPanels([]) array, if not they will be considered part of the 'rowpanel' that came before it. In either case it'll take a bit of trial and error to figure out what the Grafana render engine will do.

The makeGrid function uses the util functions described in https://grafana.github.io/grafonnet/API/util.html which might be useful if you want to write your own layout strategy.