Projy¶
Projy is a template-based skeleton generator. In one command line, you can generate project skeletons like Python packages, LaTeX document or any file structure composed of directories and files.
Each file is generated by a different template. It uses the simple core templating system from Python, nothing fancy on that part. You can easily add new templates and new ways to collect data to insert in the created files. As much as possible, Projy tries to be simple to use and extend.
Content¶
Installation¶
If you are familiar with Python, it is strongly suggested that you install Projy in virtualenv.
Pip and Distribute¶
To install Projy system-wide, just type:
$ sudo pip install projy
If no pip available, try easy_install
:
$ sudo easy_install projy
Usage¶
As an example, let’s create a Python package. The Projy template mostly follows recommendations from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Packaging.
A Python package example¶
Use simply:
$ projy PythonPackage TowelStuff
In the same directory as you typed this command, you now have a TowelStuff directory, with the following structure:
TowelStuff/
bin/
bootstrap
CHANGES.txt
docs/
index.rst
LICENSE.txt
MANIFEST.in
README.txt
setup.py
towelstuff/
__init__.py
Each file has been created with a specific template, so the package is fully functional, yet empty. Now, let’s give a little explanation on each file. You can find further information here.
bin/, docs/ and towelstuff/ directories¶
- Three directories are created by default:
- bin/ contains your package’s scripts ;
- docs/, contains the documentation you write for the package. A primary index.rst file waits for you to write into it. Yes, it uses reStructuredText format.
- towelstuff/, is where you put the files of your package. It is the lower case version of the project name. By default, it already contains an empty __init__.py file.
See the links for more information.
bootstrap¶
This file is a little treat, not present in The Hitchhiker’s Guide
to Packaging. Using the
BootstrapScriptFileTemplate
template, it is a simple bash file
creating a virtual environment easily. Use it with a simple:
$ source bootstrap
- By default, it installs three packages from pypi:
Everything you need to write quality code :-) Of course, you can add any other package you may need, it’s up to you. You can even externalize this list of package to a requirement file.
CHANGES.txt¶
The template of the CHANGES.txt file simply contains:
v<version>, <date> -- Initial release.
LICENSE.txt¶
By default, the Python package template contains the GPL v3 as LICENSE.txt. Change it as your convenience.
MANIFEST.in¶
The manifest is an important file that contains this:
include CHANGES.txt
include LICENSE.txt
include MANIFEST.in
include README.txt
recursive-include bin *
recursive-include docs *
recursive-include towelstuff *
README.txt¶
The usual README file, written in reStructuredText format.
setup.py¶
The setup.py file created from the template contains:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" $project setup.py script """
# system
from distutils.core import setup
from os.path import join, dirname
setup(
name='TowelStuff',
version='0.1.0',
author='Stéphane Péchard',
author_email='stephanepechard@provider.com',
packages=['towelstuff','towelstuff.test'],
url='http://',
license='LICENSE.txt',
long_description=open(join(dirname(__file__), 'README.txt')).read(),
install_requires=[''],
test_suite='towelstuff.test',
)
|
A more elaborate example: customizing the substitutions¶
You can modify the substitutions used by the template through the command line:
$ projy PythonPackage TowelStuff "author,Monty" "date,2012-06-18"
Then the substitutes author
(normally get from
git) and date
(defaulted to the current
day) are defined by the given values, not those computed by Projy.
The format of such substitutions should be "key,value"
.
Neither the key or the value should therefore include a comma.
Leading and trailing spaces are removed from both key and value.
To know which substitutions can be overwritten this way, use the -i
option as described in the dedicated section. You can add substitutions
that are not listed with the -i
option but they won’t have
any effect if the template file does not consider them.
Options¶
Projy comes also with some useful command line option.
Listing templates¶
Type:
$ projy -l
and you’ll see the list of available templates in your installation. That’s an easy way to copy/paste the name of the template you want to use on the next command.
What’s inside a template¶
Type:
$ projy -i PythonPackage
and you’ll see the detailed structure of the PythonPackage
template.
It shows the created directories and files, with the substitutions
included in the template.
Available templates¶
Here is a list of all the templates, but also collectors, integrated into Projy at the moment. Of course, you can propose new templates, they’ll be integrated into Projy.
Project templates¶
Project templates are used to create a files/directories structure.
That’s the second argument of the command line. For this list,
the projects we create are all called TowelStuff
.
They are somewhat ordered by the programming language they use.
Python¶
These are Python templates.
Python package¶
The command:
$ projy PythonPackage TowelStuff
produces:
TowelStuff/
bootstrap - BootstrapScriptFileTemplate
CHANGES.txt - PythonPackageCHANGESFileTemplate
LICENSE.txt - GPL3FileTemplate
MANIFEST.in - PythonPackageMANIFESTFileTemplate
README.txt - READMEReSTFileTemplate
setup.py - PythonPackageSetupFileTemplate
TowelStuff/docs/
index.rst
TowelStuff/towelstuff/
__init__.py
Python script¶
The command:
$ projy PythonScript TowelStuff
produces:
TowelStuff/
TowelStuff.py - PythonScriptFileTemplate
Fabric file¶
The command:
$ projy Fabfile TowelStuff
produces:
/
fabfile.py - FabfileFileTemplate
This one is probably not generic enough, I added some stuff I use. Feel free to customize it.
Bootstrap¶
The command:
$ projy Bootstrap TowelStuff
produces:
/
bootstrap - BootstrapScriptFileTemplate
Yes, the name has no impact on the produced file. Don’t hesitate to make it short!
Projy itself!¶
Finally, a bit of a special template, which lets you create a Projy template and an empty file template from Projy itself. Call it meta if you want :-) See Extending Projy to know how such templates are meant to be written.
The command:
$ projy ProjyTemplate TowelStuff
produces:
/
TowelStuffTemplate.py - ProjyTemplateFileTemplate
TowelStuffFileTemplate.txt
Extending Projy¶
Writing new templates and data collectors is easy. Let’s continue reviewing our example.
Project templates¶
Here is the project template used to create a Python package:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 | # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" Projy template for PythonPackage. """
# system
from datetime import date
# parent class
from projy.templates.ProjyTemplate import ProjyTemplate
# collectors
from projy.collectors.AuthorCollector import AuthorCollector
from projy.collectors.AuthorMailCollector import AuthorMailCollector
class PythonPackageTemplate(ProjyTemplate):
""" Projy template class for PythonPackage. """
def __init__(self):
ProjyTemplate.__init__(self)
def directories(self):
""" Return the names of directories to be created. """
directories_description = [
self.project_name,
self.project_name + '/' + self.project_name.lower(),
self.project_name + '/docs',
]
return directories_description
def files(self):
""" Return the names of files to be created. """
files_description = [
[ self.project_name,
'bootstrap',
'BootstrapScriptFileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name,
'CHANGES.txt',
'PythonPackageCHANGESFileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name,
'LICENSE.txt',
'GPL3FileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name,
'MANIFEST.in',
'PythonPackageMANIFESTFileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name,
'README.txt',
'READMEReSTFileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name,
'setup.py',
'PythonPackageSetupFileTemplate' ],
[ self.project_name + '/' + self.project_name.lower(),
'__init__.py',
None ],
[ self.project_name + '/docs',
'index.rst',
None ],
]
return files_description
def substitutes(self):
""" Return the substitutions for the templating replacements. """
author_collector = AuthorCollector()
mail_collector = AuthorMailCollector()
substitute_dict = dict(
project = self.project_name,
project_lower = self.project_name.lower(),
date = date.today().isoformat(),
author = author_collector.collect(),
author_email = mail_collector.collect(),
)
return substitute_dict
|
- To write a new template, you have to specify four parts:
- the name of the template, which is the name of the class ;
- the
directories
,files
andsubstitutes
functions.
When writing a new template, you can use the self.project_name
variable
which contains the name of the project as you typed it.
In our example, it is TowelStuff
.
Name of the template¶
Here it is simply PythonPackageTemplate
. This is the name you
type in the command line plus Template
at the end. The created template
inherits from the father of all templates, the ProjyTemplate
class.
The directories function¶
-
directories
()¶ - Returns a tuple containing all the names of the directories to be created.
Return type: list of directory names
In our example, the created directories are TowelStuff
, TowelStuff/towelstuff
and TowelStuff/docs
.
The files function¶
-
files
()¶ - This function should return a tuple containing three informations for each file:
- the directory the file is in. It is defined as in the directories function ;
- the name of the file ;
- the template of the file, which is not the same as the project template. See File templates.
Return type: list of file names
- In our example, eight files are created:
bootstrap
created fromBootstrapScriptFileTemplate
;CHANGES.txt
created fromPythonPackageCHANGESFileTemplate
;LICENSE.txt
created fromGPL3FileTemplate
;MANIFEST.in
created fromPythonPackageMANIFESTFileTemplate
;README.txt
created fromREADMEReSTFileTemplate
;setup.py
created fromPythonPackageSetupFileTemplate
;__init__.py
into theTowelStuff/towelstuff
directory, created fromPythonPackageSetupFileTemplate
;index.rst
into theTowelStuff/docs
directory, created empty.
Details on the content of each file is given on Usage.
The substitutes function¶
-
substitutes
()¶ - This function should return a dictionary containing the string substitutions used in the template.
Return type: list of file names
- In our example, the substitutions made in all the created files are:
$project
is replaced byTowelStuff
;$project_lower
is replaced bytowelstuff
;$date
is replaced by the current date, in the format 2012-11-23 ;$author
is replaced by what returns theAuthorCollector
;$author_email
is replaced by what returns theAuthorMailCollector
;
File templates¶
From all the templated files we created, let’s see how the
PythonPackageSetupFileTemplate
is made. Here is its content:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" $project setup.py script """
# $project
from $project_lower import __version__
# system
try:
from setuptools import setup
except ImportError:
from distutils.core import setup
from os.path import join, dirname
setup(
name=__version__,
version='0.1.0',
description='My $project project',
author='$author',
author_email='$author_email',
packages=['$project_lower','$project_lower.test'],
url='http://stephanepechard.github.com/projy',
long_description=open('README.txt').read(),
install_requires=[''],
test_suite='$project_lower.test',
classifiers=[
'Development Status :: 3 - Alpha',
'License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)',
'Programming Language :: Python',
],
)
|
It is simply the file you want to create with the variables that will
be substitute in the creation process. Each variable should begin
by $
as described in the Template
mechanism. Nothing fancy on this side, as you can see.
Data collectors¶
A data collector, as its name suggest, collects data. It is used by Projy to complete the File templates. Here is the data collector for the author data:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 | # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" AuthorCollector class
Tries to find the program user name, as accuratly as possible.
Put the functions alphabetical order in the same order as their importance.
For example here, author_from_git should be taken before author_from_system
as it is probably better.
"""
# system
import getpass
import os
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, CalledProcessError
# parent class
from projy.collectors.Collector import Collector
class AuthorCollector(Collector):
""" The AuthorCollector class. """
def __init__(self):
self.author = None
def author_from_git(self):
""" Get the author name from git information. """
self.author = None
try:
# launch git command and get answer
cmd = Popen(["git", "config", "--get", "user.name"], stdout=PIPE)
stdoutdata = cmd.communicate()
if (stdoutdata[0]):
self.author = stdoutdata[0].rstrip(os.linesep)
except ImportError:
pass
except CalledProcessError:
pass
except OSError:
pass
return self.author
def author_from_system(self):
""" Get the author name from system information.
This is just the user name, not the real name.
"""
self.author = getpass.getuser()
return self.author
|
A data collector defines as many functions as necessary. In the case of the author, two ways of finding it are written. The first uses git. As many users of Projy would probably use it, chances are that its configuration will reflect the author’s information. As a fallback in case git does not return the wanted data, the user name is taken as the system current user name. There are probably other methods to find it, so feel free to propose some more.
Functions are treated in the alphabetical order, which means that the most accurate functions should come before the least accurate ones. Of course, one may not always know what the most accurate way of finding a particular data is. Be smart then!