Modular inputs

Modular inputs are a feature of Splunk that allow you to extend the platform in ways that are specifically geared to consuming data. Modular inputs can promote your scripted inputs to first-class natives of the Splunk platform. This gives you the ability to define how to collect the data and let your users define the settings with which to collect that data. "Why would you want that?" you might ask. Lots of reasons! For example, let's say you want to gather data about the weather. You could write a scripted input to collect a single city's weather data from the API of wunderground.com. But what happens when you want more than one city's weather data? You'll have to copy and paste the scripted input, change the API parameters, and update the API key. And if there was a change made to the API specification, you will have to update all configured scripted inputs. If you use a modular input, you can give the user an option to specify the API key and the API parameters in the web...