How to add a new template#

You can easily add new templates. However, before doing so, it is important that you read the Contributing section.

Understanding the templates directory#

In ansys-templates, all templates are placed in src/ansys/templates/. The templates/ directory contains different families of templates.

A family of templates is simply a directory with a common/ directory and various templates directories.

The common/ directory contains various resources that are common to all templates of a given family. This avoids duplication of files across templates.
Each template directory contains its own set of custom files.

src/ansys/templates/
│
├── family_0/
│    ├── common/
│    │   ├── cookiecutter.json
│    │   └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}
│    │       └── ...
│    ├── template_0/
│    │   ├── cookiecutter.json
│    │   └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}
│    │       └── ...
│    ├── template_1/
│    │   ├── cookiecutter.json
│    │   └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}
│    │       └── ...
│    └── template_N/
│        ├── cookiecutter.json
│        └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}
│            └── ...
└── family_N/

Be sure to confirm if there is already a family for the template you want to add before creating a new one.

Adding a new family of templates#

Start by creating a new directory in src/ansys/templates/ with the name of the new family of templates. For example, create src/ansys/templates/new_family:

src/ansys/templates/
│
└── new_family/
    └── common/
       ├── cookiecutter.json
       └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}/
           └── ... # All these files will be included in each family template

Inside this new family, you must create at least two different files:

A cookiecutter.json file for specifying the minimum required variables for any of this family’s templates to work. You must use cookie cutter private variables in this file.
A common/{{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}/ directory to contain all of the typical files for this family. All files in the common/{{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}} directory will be copied to each template when rendering it.

Note

You can later add a hooks/post_gen_project.py file in the family/template/ directory if you need to remove non-desired files coming from the common/{{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}} directory.

Adding a new template to a family#

To add a new template to a family, first create a new template directory. For example, src/ansys/templates/family_0/new_template:

src/ansys/templates/
│
└── family_0/
    ├── common/
    │   ├── cookiecutter.json
    │   └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}
    │       └── ... # All these files will be included in new_template/
    └── new_template/
        ├── cookiecutter.json
        └── {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}/
            └── ... # Custom template files

Inside the new_template/ directory, you must create at least two different files:

A cookiecutter.json file for specifying variables for the new template and overriding common/cookiecutter.json variables.
A {{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}/ directory to contain any additional files or directories that you would like to include in your new template. The files in this directory will be combined with the files in the common/{{cookiecutter.__project_name_slug}}/ directory.

Adding a new template to the CLI#

To have access to a newly template from the CLI (command line interface), you must do the following:

Include the name and description of the new template in the src/ansys/templates/__init__.py file under the AVAILABLE_TEMPLATES_AND_DESCRIPTION dictionary.
Add the path to the new template in src/ansys/templates/paths.py and in the TEMPLATE_PATH_FINDER dictionary.

Create a command to expose the new template in the CLI:

@new.command()
def template_name():
    """Short description of the template."""
    bake_template(TEMPLATE_PATH_FINDER["pyansys"], os.getcwd())

Adding unit tests#

Each template must have its own unit test script. To organize the test suite, the following namespace is followed:

tests/tests_templates_family/test_template_family_name_of_template.py

Note

If you created a new family template, make sure to include tests for the family/common/ directory too.

Expected common files should be defined in tests/tests_templates_family/conftest.py as a pytest fixture. For example, consider the following code of a generic conftest.py file:

@pytest.fixture(scope="package")
def family_common_files():

    # All expected common files
    basedir_files = ["README.rst", "LICENSE"]
    doc_files = [...]
    tests_files = [...]

    # Combine all files and export those to be accessible to the tests
    all_common_files = basedir_files + doc_files + tests_files
    return all_common_files

Add the family to tox envs#

If you created a new family, you must add it to the [tox] set of environments:

Look for the [testenv] section in the tox.ini file.
Within this section, look for the setenv variable.

Add the following line:

family: PYTEST_MARKERS = -k "tests_templates_family"

Updating the CI#

Each family of templates is tested within its own GitHub actions workflow. Therefore, you need to create a YML file for a new family:

.github/workflows/templates_family.yml

Note

To reduce the amount of CI jobs, templates are only tested under Linux. If you require testing from a particular programming language, try to test the minimum and maximum supported versions of the language. Avoid all intermediate versions if possible.

Removing undesired files#

It is likely that there are some files coming from the common/ directory that you do not want included in your rendered template. To exclude files, you can take advantage of cookiecutter hooks.

Hooks are Python scripts that allow you to control the rendering process both before and after the process is executed. With hooks, you can move or delete any files included in the final rendered project.

To use hooks, you must create a new directory named src/ansys/templates/new_family/new_template/hooks. Only two hooks are allowed:

pre_gen_project.py: executes before rendering process.
post_gen_project.py: executes after the rendering process.

Warning

Both hooks are executed once the cookiecutter context has been started. This implies that any file with a variable of the type {{ cookiecutter.some_var }} or Jinja2 syntax is not rendered.