Name of $1, $2, $3..... are not being expanded anymore in version 6.x

[frater]

As a programmer I'm used to defining a variable only once.

15 years ago I created a net.ping which will let the agent ping to a local IP.
I would use it like this in an item:


instead of




Everywhere it would show "Ping to 192.168.16.2", but now after going through many major versions without any problems, I'm getting "Ping to $1" in Zabbix 6.4.3

Is it possible to get that old behaviour back?
In latest data I'm now not getting any meaningful item names anymore.


I haven't been following latest developments in the last 2 years


It always told me "Ping to 10.0.240.5" .....

[PeterZielony]

Yes, they removed it a while back.

Not sure if there is a workaround for this

[cyber]

You are clever programmer.. write an API call, which will update all your items.. It seems to be anyway an item with hardcoded value... when you add new one, you need to edit it anyway...

[frater]

You are clever programmer.. write an API call, which will update all your items.. It seems to be anyway an item with hardcoded value... when you add new one, you need to edit it anyway...

I decided to revert back to version 5.4.7

The point is that I want it to work the way it was....
I don't want to define the same value twice, it's error prone.

I even wished Zabbix could do these things even more, like getting more data inside the trigger.
I gave that up 8 years ago.

I've always had the feeling many zabbix users are using it completely different than I am.

For me, the dashboard is everything.
I want it to tell me what's going on now and I try to make 1 powerful sentence which tries to say all that I need.

It was always great to have this tool and it still is.
I will probably stay at 5.4.7 forever.... (as if such a thing as forever exists)


Zabbix 5.4.7:

[frater]

I even wished Zabbix could do these things even more, like getting more data inside the trigger.
I gave that up 8 years ago.

To illustrate.....

Cloning a trigger would be so much easier and less error-prone if the item's parameter could be used in the name field.
Once in a while these 2 IP's do not correspond due to a user-error.

If I change the IP in item from 192.168.19.42 to 192.168.19.45, the trigger will travel with it.
The IP address in "Name" will of course not change in current Zabbix.

The same for the URL where I want to have a {MACRO} as well.



In Zabbix itself you don't have to define constants in different places.....
Why are we forced to do that?

Someone even wrote a patch for that a long time ago and it wasn't even that big of a change....

[frater]

Apparently my posts are not worth a comment....

[tim.mooney]

I commented in one of the other threads where you discussed this issue, but I'm not sure what additional comments you're looking for. I use this feature too and I agree that it sucks that they deprecated it, for reasons I've never understood.

In you estimation, what would more comments here accomplish? If 5 people followed up and said "+1" or "me too" or whatever, is that what you are looking for?

[frater]

cyber chimed in, apparently somehow with influence as a developer (maybe) and he more or less implied I shouldn't have used it in the first place.

That's not giving me any hope.

If 5 people followed up and said "+1" or "me too" or whatever, is that what you are looking for?

If I had the idea it would help, yes, but I don't really think it will.
It's preposterous having to vote for a feature that was there to begin with and suddenly after far more than a decade of use taken out.

A few years back they even made the new Zabbix more or less useless for me as a dashboard to tell me the current situation.
They did solve that one, but there were far more people appalled by it and it was also far more severe.

It's clear Zabbix isn't going into the direction I want it for a long time. I haven't been looking to what Zabbix will bring me for more than 7 years.
Zabbix apparently can be used in many ways and the way I'm using it is probably not mainstream enough.

I don't even understand why I have to explain from a user's viewpoint that this is a step back.
They themselves are programming in languages where literal duplicate values are discouraged and should be replaced by constants and now they themselves are actually forcing us to stop doing that.

I haven't even received any info about the reason why they even did it and how it would be beneficial for other use cases.
Even here they just can't be bothered.

A smart-ass comment is all I get

You are clever programmer.. write an API call, which will update all your items..

No, I don't want to "update" all my items!!
I want what I had all this time and in fact I want even more of that.

If they explained why they did it and how that would be beneficial for other users, I do not think I would upgrade as it's probably not worth it to me.
It would, however, take some of the frustration away if I would be able to understand the choice....

Now it's "Lord Zabbix Giveth, Lord Zabbix Taketh Away" and be thankful for what you have.
More or less the opposite of what a "community" is all about.

They work too, in mysterious ways.

[cyber]

cyber chimed in, apparently somehow with influence as a developer (maybe) and he more or less implied I shouldn't have used it in the first place.

I am not in any way associated with Zabbix. I am a user just like yourself.. Thus I can afford to be smartass. :P