Document use of Jinja2 extensions with fetch:cookiecutter

Signed-off-by: Vinay P <mail@vinayvinay.com>
This commit is contained in:
Vinay P
2021-03-18 12:19:28 +00:00
parent 91e87c0554
commit 3105b46afa
2 changed files with 74 additions and 0 deletions
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FROM alpine:3.7
RUN apk add --update \
git \
python \
python-dev \
py-pip \
g++ && \
pip install cookiecutter jinja2_custom_filters_extension && \
apk del g++ py-pip python-dev && \
rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
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# Using Cookiecutter with Jinja2 extensions
Jinja2 extensions can be used with the scaffolder's `fetch:cookiecutter` built-in action to add filters, tests, or to extend the parser.
Using Cookiecutter extensions is a two-step process:
- [Installing the extension](#installing-the-extension), and
- [Instructing Cookiecutter to use the extension](#instructing-cookiecutter-to-use-the-extension)
### Installing the extension
This step depends on how the scaffolder is setup to use Cookiecutter:
- Using a local Cookiecutter, or
- Using a Cookiecutter Docker image, e.g. [spotify/backstage-cookiecutter](https://github.com/backstage/backstage/blob/37e35b91/plugins/scaffolder-backend/scripts/Cookiecutter.dockerfile).
Say we want to install [`jinja2_custom_filters_extension`](https://pypi.org/project/jinja2-custom-filters-extension/) to use the `upper_case_first_letter` filter in a Cookiecutter template.
#### Using a local Cookiecutter
The scaffolder is able to execute a locally installed Cookiecutter, and doesn't pull a Docker image in that case. If that's your setup, just ensure that the Jinja2 extensions, available via `pip` are installed alongside Cookiecutter, e.g. if Cookiecutter is baked into a custom Backstage image using `pip` and a `requirements.txt`:
In the custom Backstage Dockerfile:
```Dockerfile
...
RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
...
```
In requirements.txt:
```python
...
cookiecutter==1.7.2
jinja2_custom_filters_extension==0.0.2
...
```
#### Using a Cookiecutter Docker image
If the scaffolder doesn't find a local Cookiecutter, it pulls down the `spotify/backstage-cookiecutter` image. You can create a custom Cookiecutter image based on that, install extensions into it, and use that instead. See for example, the [`Dockerfile`](./Dockerfile) in this directory.
**Note:** The [`imageName`](https://github.com/vinayvinay/backstage/blob/37e35b91/plugins/scaffolder-backend/src/scaffolder/stages/templater/cookiecutter.ts#L77) that gets pulled isn't currently configurable. So, for the time being, you might have to customise the `scaffolder-backend` plugin to fetch your customised Cookiecutter Docker image.
### Instructing Cookiecutter to use the extension
Cookiecutter enables extensions mentioned in `cookiecutter.json`. `fetch:cookiecutter` generates a `cookiecutter.json`, deriving its values from `inputs` to `fetch:cookiecutter` in the scaffolder [Template](https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-templates/writing-templates), as:
```yaml
steps:
- id: fetch-base
name: Fetch Base
action: fetch:cookiecutter
input:
extensions:
- jinja2_custom_filters_extension.string_filters_extension.StringFilterExtension
url: https://github.com/spotify/cookiecutter-golang
values:
name: '{{ parameters.name }}'
```
Cookiecutter enables a few extensions by default. See the official Cookiecutter documentation for [Template Extensions](https://cookiecutter.readthedocs.io/en/1.7.2/advanced/template_extensions.html) for a list of such extensions, and more information.