Cat Facts Operator
Combining Hybrid-Cloud Technology With Cats
Cat Facts? ๐
- Do you like to have fun?
- Do you like OpenShift?
If you answered either question, install this operator! (You don't even
have to like cats...)
Seriously, what is it? ๐ค
Red Hat allows applications to extend OpenShift's web UI with OpenShift
Console Dynamic Plugins. Red Hat provides docs for building
plugins and deploying through Helm. They don't provide a good operator-based
deployment reference.
Cat Facts Operator is the community reference for operator-based OpenShift
console dynamic plugin deployment, combining hybrid-cloud technology with
cats.
The operator is Go-based and built with Operator SDK. The operator also bundles
a React+PatternFly 6-based OpenShift Console Dynamic Plugin
that serves custom content in the OpenShift web console to manage operator
resources.
Cat Facts Operator provides a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) for CatFact. A
CatFact is a Kubernetes resource that contains metadata along with a fact about
cats. Facts are queried from https://catfact.ninja/fact, a free API that
generates cat facts.
Requirements ๐
- OKD/OpenShift 4.19 or later (Kubernetes 1.32.0+)
NOTE: OCP 4.19+ is required because the OpenShift dynamic console plugin
uses PatternFly 6, which was introduced starting with OpenShift 4.19.
Installing ๐
OperatorHub
Install through OperatorHub directly in OpenShift under Ecosystem > Software
Catalog. Search for "Cat Facts Operator". Select "Install".
Accept the default options for everything except for Console
Plugin. For security, OpenShift defaults Console Plugin to Disabled on
operators that come from community catalogs. **Select Enable for Console
plugin before installing the operator.

It will take a few moments for the operator controller and console dynamic
plugin containers to download and launch. Within a few moments, you'll be able
to refresh and enjoy Cat Facts Operator.
Custom Catalog (Testing)
make catalog-build catalog-push catalog-install
How to Use Cat Facts ๐ป
- Navigate to Cat Facts > Cat Fact Catalog on the left-side navigation pane
of the OpenShift console
- Select Create CatFact
- Select the new CatFact card to view it
- Select Create CatFact again
- Select Create CatFact 20 more times!!!
- If you get bored and want to delete all your CatFacts, select
Delete All
Uninstalling ๐ฟ
To uninstall, go to Ecosystem > Installed Operators in the OpenShift console.
Select "Cat Facts Operator" and uninstall.
After uninstalling, run these commands to clean up resources the operator
leaves behind:
oc delete catfacts --all -A
oc delete crd catfacts.ryanmillerc.github.io
oc delete csv --all -n cat-facts-operator
oc delete consoleplugin cat-facts-operator-console-plugin
oc delete namespace cat-facts-operator
# If using Test Cat Facts OLM CatalogSource
oc delete -n openshift-marketplace catalogsource cat-facts-catalog
Acknowledgments
Cat facts are generated by the public Cat Facts API.
Cat icons/emojis used in this project were created by Emily Jรคger, licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0, and are available here.