Utility scripts to manage the Platform.sh Template projects

Introduction

Platform.sh maintains a set of deployable templates on https://github.com/platformsh-templates/. This utility eases the job of keeping them up-do-date.

In this document we use the fictional term "spiffy" as an example of a template name (ie drupal7, django3).

In this README we first focus on the workflow to update an existing template, then we describe how to create a new one.

Dependencies

• DoIt
• Composer (for PHP projects)
• Git
• Public ssh key in github account

Setup

1. First install the dependencies:

pipenv install

2. You will need to have your user added to the platformsh-templates github organisation in order to be able to push to these repositories.

How it works

Each template is composed of three things:

• A repo to be kept up-to-date on https://github.com/platformsh-templates for example https://github.com/platformsh-templates/rails
• A python class that has the specific logic on how to update it. For example project/rails.py
• And a template directory, for example templates/rails that contains the extra files we would add.

It is worthy to note that currently the build itself will happen in a build subdirectory of, for example templates/rails. So once you run any of the commands expect the output to be in templates/rails/build.

This project is built using the Python DoIt library, which is required. It consists of a series of build targets for each supported project. Taken together, the build process can reproduce a Platform.sh-friendly version of any application or framework from its upstream source.

Organization

Each project is its own directory under templates, which corresponds to a template-* GitHub repository of the same name in the platformsh organization. We'll use a fictional application called spiffy for this example. The basic outline looks like this:

/
  project/
    spiffy.py
  templates/
    spiffy/
      files/
        .platform/
        .platform.app.yaml
        ...
      fix1.patch
      fix2.patch
      .platform.template.yaml
      build/

Only the files directory, patches, and .platform.template.yaml are checked into Git. The build directory is an artifact and excluded.

The files directory contains all the files that should be added wholesale to the upstream source of spiffy. The patches will be applied to the the source to modify it. Patches are optional and files could be as simple as just the Platform.sh configuration files, or it could be the entire repository with no upstream at all.

Additionally, each project has a Python class defined in the project directory that controls its build process. In most cases it only needs to specify an upstream source and possibly some custom build steps. See the BaseProject and RemoteProject classes for further details.

Build tasks

Each project has a series of build tasks, suffixed with the project name.

• cleanup:spiffy - Deletes the build directory for spiffy to start from a clean slate.

• init:spiffy - Checks out the Platform.sh template and links it in Git with the project's upstream. Implies cleanup:spiffy.

• update:spiffy - Pulls down the latest code from the upstream source and merges it into the build directory, overwriting files if necessary.

• platformify:spiffy - Copies the files directory over the build directory to add the Platform.sh files, applies any patches, and potentially takes other actions as needed. (Adding composer libraries, for instance.) This may vary widely with the application.

• branch:spiffy - Prepares a branch named update with the changes just made by update and platformify, with all changes committed.

• push:spiffy - Pushes a branch to GitHub, which displays a link to create a Pull Request out of it.

• rebuild:spiffy - Implies update:spiffy, platformify:spiffy, and branch:spiffy.

• full:spiffy - Runs cleanup:spiffy, init:spiffy, update:spiffy, platformify:spiffy, branch:spiffy, push:spiffy.

A particular task is run across all projects in case the project is not specified. That is, the following will clean-and-initialize all projects:

• init - Runs init task for all the projects.

In most cases, rebuilding a new update to a project is a matter of running:

doit full:spiffy

And poof, you are ready to make a PR with the updates.

Test environments

Template projects are hooked up to Platform.sh projects, so each new PR gets built as a new, empty environment ready for testing. In most cases simply visiting the built site and verifying that the installer can run (if available) or that the site gives the appropriate "there's nothing here yet" error is sufficient, but further testing can be done if needed.

Conventions

Templates should all follow some standard conventions for consistency and easier documentability, even though technically the Platform.sh code doesn't care. There may be case-by-case exceptions to these guidelines but the following should be followed unless there is a good reason otherwise.

• In single-application examples, the application name is always app.
• Service names should be named for the use case they are primarily for. For example, the primary database for an application is a service named db (regardless if it's MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB). The main cache service should be named cache. The main search service is named search. Etc.
• Relationship names should be named for the service type and use case. Thus, a Redis service named cache will have a relationship name of rediscache. A Solr service named search will have a relationship named solrsearch. Etc.
• As an exception to the previous point, the relationship for the primary database is called simply database regardless of its type. This is largely for historical reasons, and because 99% of the time no one cares about the type at that level.
• Always use the most recent version of a language or service container that the application supports.
• Always use the most up-to-date syntax and style for YAML files. For instance, always use the newer nested mount syntax, not the old inline version.
• If including both a www-prefixed domain and not in routes.yaml, the bare domain should redirect to the www domain, not vice versa.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute to the list of Platform.sh's maintained templates, there is a simple process for ensuring that future maintenance is set up from the start through template-builder.

Let's use the previous example: you have created a new application that uses the framework Spiffy that you think would be a useful template.

1. Create a repository under the Platform.sh Github organization for the template. Officially maintained templates begin with the template- prefix, so name it template-spiffy, and initialize it with an empty README.md.

2. Add the "Examples and Templates team" as Admin collaborators in the platformsh/template-spiffy repository settings.

3. Integrations: The DevRel team will create an integration during the review process, so you don't need to worry about having one set up, so long as you have given the "Examples and Templates team" "Admin" access to the repository.

4. Clone the template-builder repository locally. Create and checkout a new branch called add-spiffy.

5. Each template project is in its own directory within templates, which corresponds to a GitHub repository with the template- prefix. Create the directories templates/spiffy and templates/spiffy/files/ on the add-spiffy branch.

6. Add only the files for template-spiffy into templates/spiffy/files, as dependency downloads and linking to an upstream repository can be handled by the Python build process. For example, the Drupal 8 template links to its upstream here. If your application requires any patches to deploy on Platform.sh, copy them into templates/spiffy/.

7. Include or update the README.md so that it is similar to other templates. Address any information specific to running the application on Platform.sh you think the customer should know.

8. Each template comes with a file called .platform.template.yaml, which is used to define how the template repository will appear in and initialize from the management console. See the example in the external templates repo for instructions.

   Note: To create the image URI representing the template, find a svg formatted logo for Spiffy, create a data URL of that image and paste the output into image:.

9. Run the following commands to update the template-spiffy repository:

   cd <path>/template-builder
   doit full:spiffy

   This will create the branch updates on the repositoryplatformsh/template-spiffy and push your application files to it.

10. Open a pull request for updates on template-spiffy.

11. Commit and push add-spiffy to the template-builder repository and create a pull request for it.

12. Paste the two PR links in the Slack #devrel channel and include the handle @devrel_team so that it will be reviewed.

License

The license for the projects built by this tool vary.

All code unique to this repository is released under the MIT License.