allow overriden defaults in questionnaire

[jacobstr]

This works in conjunction with #476, but is independent of it. If partial answers are written out to a file, they can be re-loaded as default overrides to whatever is specified in the template allowing one to resume progress.

Some code that uses the combination of these two MRs:

PARTIAL_ANSWERS = Path('~/.copier_partial.json').expanduser()

kwargs = {}

if Path(PARTIAL_ANSWERS).exists():
    with open(PARTIAL_ANSWERS) as f:
        kwargs['default_overrides'] = json.load(f)

try:
    result = copier.run_auto(TEMPLATES_SRC, os.getcwd(), **kwargs)
except copier.CopierAnswersInterrupt as e:
    with open(PARTIAL_ANSWERS, "w") as f:
        f.write(json.dumps(e.answers.user))
    print("Wrote partial answers to %s" % PARTIAL_ANSWERS)

Demo of these two features working together: https://asciinema.org/a/iVJvC8wAb8s3nSVKkmnhDjeZE

• First pass, I make some modifications and bail.
• Second pass, you can see the prior inputs being used.
• Prior to the third pass I modify the previous answers that were saved ala the snippet above.
• Third pass it's using the template defaults again because I emptied the javascript object.

[yajo]

A little comment on code.

This feature is cool. With a bit of rework, it could fix #235.

Copier could support loading these custom defaults from $XDG_CONFIG_DIR/copier/user-defaults.yaml. It could also feature a CLI flag --user-defaults to allow the execution environment to override that path. Then, the custom defaults get loaded from there automatically.

Implementation would probably go around

copier/copier/user_data.py

Line 70 in 9f05fdf

class AnswersMap:

Also, this still needs docs, tests, and a CHANGELOG entry to be merged.

Good work! Thanks 🙂

[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

Merging #477 (ef54292) into master (600ebdb) will increase coverage by 0.05%.
The diff coverage is 100.00%.

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master     #477      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   95.65%   95.71%   +0.05%     
==========================================
  Files          40       40              
  Lines        2580     2616      +36     
==========================================
+ Hits         2468     2504      +36     
  Misses        112      112              

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	95.71% <100.00%> (+0.05%)	⬆️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

Impacted Files	Coverage Δ
copier/main.py	94.51% <100.00%> (+0.01%)	⬆️
copier/user_data.py	93.83% <100.00%> (+0.11%)	⬆️
tests/test_config.py	99.09% <100.00%> (+0.34%)	⬆️

---

Continue to review full report at Codecov.

Legend - Click here to learn more
Δ = absolute <relative> (impact), ø = not affected, ? = missing data
Powered by Codecov. Last update 600ebdb...ef54292. Read the comment docs.

[jacobstr]

A little comment on code.

This feature is cool. With a bit of rework, it could fix #235.

Copier could support loading these custom defaults from $XDG_CONFIG_DIR/copier/user-defaults.yaml. It could also feature a CLI flag --user-defaults to allow the execution environment to override that path. Then, the custom defaults get loaded from there automatically.

Implementation would probably go around

copier/copier/user_data.py

Line 70 in 9f05fdf

class AnswersMap:

Also, this still needs docs, tests, and a CHANGELOG entry to be merged.

Good work! Thanks 🙂

Cheers!

To confirm - you believe this is an incremental step towards getting that functionality? I.E. it simplifies a subsequent MR (likely in cli.py?) that leverages the default-overrides available in the Worker class to merge these rc file defaults?

Walking that out a bit, we'll at some point want to merge (in order):

• user defaults (e.g. aws_project = teamname-dev)
• partially completed forms (e.g. aws_project = otherteamname-dev)

I think that logic could live entirely in cli.py - i.e. the caller would be responsible for reconciling these alternate default sources.

[jacobstr]

• Tests added.
• Changelog updated.

WRT to docs, the docstrings have been updated with the parameter. Please point me to where we'd want additional docs - it's one of these params that seems suited to the API reference, which is covered by the docstring.

[yajo]

I think that logic could live entirely in cli.py - i.e. the caller would be responsible for reconciling these alternate default sources.

In general terms, copier behaves the same through API and CLI. However it's true that this can be an exception because it's more ergonomic for an API call to provide user defaults through data than through a local file. So: yes, this is a valid intermediate step forward.

[yajo]

Thanks friend! 🙂 The code looks nice, but it has some bugs. That also reveals the test is nice but not enough (as it should have detected those bugs). See code comments below.

[yajo]

🎉