Make io.strimzi.operator.common.model.Labels model public

[mikekamornikov]

Hello,
I'd like to use Labels functionality to build KafkaConnector and KafkaTopic objects. So far as I see it's not possible to avoid hardcoding Strimzi lables. So I wonder if you can start releasing operator-common or as an alternative inject functionality into Builder classes or even move it completely to some public module like api.

[scholzj]

What do you want to do with the Labels class? It has nothing to do with the api module - you cannot really use it in the api classes. The whole operator-common module is not public API in any way and the Labels class is not really part of any stable API either. So it would be good to better understand what pain points you have and what might be the solutions.

[mikekamornikov]

Actually I just need the names of Strimzi constants to do something like that while creating Strimzi CRs in my app:

new KafkaConnectorBuilder(new KafkaConnector())
        .editOrNewMetadata()
            .addToLabels(Labels.STRIMZI_CLUSTER_LABEL, "cluster-name")
        .endMetadata()

or even this way (as I have a template to modify):

new KafkaConnectorBuilder(connectorTemplate)
        .editOrNewMetadata()
            .addToLabels(Labels.fromResource(connectorTemplate)
                .withStrimziCluster("kafka-cluster")
                .toMap())
        .endMetadata()

As you understand right now I have to hardcode label name (addToLabels("strimzi.io/cluster", "cluster-name")). Obviously it's a minor thing, but looks a little bit dirty anyway.

[scholzj]

Ok, I think that makes sense. I do not think we should move the Labels class -> but the constants like this should be somewhere in the api module. I opened #7988 to cover it.