AWS Config Provider: Support for metadata.links transformation

[Jamsre]

🔖 Feature description

The AWS Config provider should support transforming metadata.links in addition to fields transformations. Currently, only fields (annotations, spec, etc.) can be transformed via the transform configuration.

Expected configuration:

catalog:
  providers:
    awsConfig:
      default:
        transform:
          fields:
            # existing field transformations
            links: # Add to metadata.links
              - title: "Grafana Dashboard"
                icon: "dashboard"
                url:
                  expression: '"https://grafana.example.com/d/dashboard-id/ec2-monitoring?var-instance=" & $resource.resourceId'

This would allow dynamic link generation based on resource properties, similar to how annotations work today.

🎤 Context

The AWS Config provider does not support adding links to imported resources through the transform configuration. The links section is completely ignored during transformation.

The imported AWS resources show "No links defined for this entity" in the Backstage UI, even when links are configured in the transform section.

There is no standard annotation equivalent for links like there is for other metadata fields, limiting the ability to automatically add contextual links to AWS resources.

[niallthomson]

HI @Jamsre thanks for the suggestion.

The transform fields we initially supported seemed like the most common ones, but this does make sense.

Originally we had thought to create a way to emit an entire "overlay" entity via jsonata which would have handled all entity fields but we decided to shelve that. It would help solve this I would expect?

[Jamsre]

Hello @niallthomson,
I agree that the "overlay" entity via JSONata would provide the most comprehensive control for transformations.
However, I believe the links use case is important and common enough that adding specific support for it would be sufficient for most scenarios.

[niallthomson]

That sounds reasonable. If you can raise a PR I'd be inclined to accept it, otherwise we'll try to get to it when time permits.

[Jamsre]

Thanks @niallthomson! I really appreciate you considering this feature. Unfortunately, I won't be able to work on a PR myself at the moment. Looking forward to it when your schedule permits 😊