Writing your own template is as easy as creating a .mrbob.ini that may contain questions. Everything else is extra. To start quickly, use template starter that ships with mr.bob:
$ mr.bob mrbob:template_starter/
Welcome to mr.bob interactive mode. Before we generate directory structure, some questions need to be answered.
Answer with a question mark to display help.
Value in square brackets at the end of the questions present default value if there is no answer.
--> How old are you? [24]:
--> What is your name?: Foobar
--> Enter password:
Generated file structure at /home/ielectric/code/mr.bob
See .mrbob.ini for sample questions and sample.txt.bob for sample rendering.
Files inside structure can be just copied to destination or they can be suffixed with .bob and templating engine will be used to render them.
By default a little bit customized Jinja2 templating is used. The big difference is that variables are referenced with {{{ variable }}} instead of {{ variable }} and blocks are {{% if variable %}} instead of {% if variable %}. To read more about templating see Jinja2 documentation.
Variables can also be used on folder and file names. Surround variables with plus signs. For example foo/+author+/+age+.bob given variables author being Foo and age being 12, foo/Foo/12 will be rendered.
Templating engine can be changed by specifying renderer in mr.bob config section in dotted notation. It must be a callable that expects text source as first parameter and dictionary of variables as second.
When rendering structure, permissions will be preserved for files.
[question] section in .mrbob.ini specifies schema how [variables] are validated. Example speaks for itself:
[questions]
author.name.question = What is your name?
author.required = True
author.age.question = How old are you?
author.age.help = We need your age information to render the template
author.age.default = 24
author.password.question = Enter password
author.password.command_prompt = getpass:getpass
| Parameter | Default | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| name | Required. Unique identifier for the question | |
| question | Required. Question given interactively to a user when generating structure | |
| default | None | Default value when no answer is given. Can be a dotted notation |
| required | False | Specify if question must be answered |
| action | lambda x: x | Extra action to be taken except returning value to be used stored in variables |
| validator | None | Validator can raise mrbob.configurator.ValidationError and question will be asked again |
| command_prompt | raw_input() | Function that accepts question and asks user for the answer |
| help | “” | Extra help returned when user inputs a question mark |
Validators are functions with answer as only parameter. They may return value to be used as an answer and may raise ValidationError for question to be asked again.
See mrbob.validators for validators that ship with mr.bob.