Left Pane

Overview

The left pane is where all the graphical objects are available for you to use in the design area. You can also do the following:

• Select a specific cloud provider from the supported ones.

• Set the version of the selected cloud provider.

• Switch between Terraform/OpenTofu resources and data sources.

Once you select a cloud provider of your choice, the left pane's graphical object categories are refreshed to show the relevant design elements.

For example, if you select GCP (Google Cloud Platform), then AlloyDB appears under Database as a design element with other relevant options. However, if you select Microsoft Azure as your cloud service provider, then MYSQL, CosmosDB and other relevant database options are populated as design elements.

Custom Brainboard sections: Custom design elements options are also available, such as Containers and Modules.

Azure

AWS

GCP

Components of the left pane

Please refer to the image shared below to have a look at the main components on the left pane. Explanation is provided below it.

1. Cloud providers selector: It allows you to select the cloud provider to use in the current architecture.

The "Custom configuration" button under it allows you to customize the Terraform/OpenTofu provider block, as demonstrated in the image shared below.

1. Cloud provider version: This is the Terraform/OpenTofu version of the selected provider.

• Brainboard automatically update the left pane whenever there is a new Terraform/OpenTofu version of the provider.

• When you select a version, the left pane will be updated for you to reflect the resources available in this specific version.

1. Resource type selector: It allows you to switch between cloud resources and data sources.

When you select a resource type, the left pane will be updated accordingly to reflect the resources available within the selected resource type.

1. Search bar: It allows you to search resources by:

   1. Full Terraform name, like azurerm_virtual_network, aws_vpc or google_compute_network.

   2. Abbreviations.

   3. Part of the word.

2. Buttons to easily access the configuration of variables, locals and outputs.

3. An arrow option to collapse or expand the left pane.

4. Category of resources: It contains all the resources that belong to the same category as specified by the cloud providers.

Every item is a sub-category, so you need to click on it to see all its resources.

How to use these elements in your design?

To build your cloud infrastructure, you can drag and drop resources from the left pane into your design space, and then you can set up their cloud configuration.