replace form not working as intended

[jbockle]

using dotnet v6, I have the following in my template.json

{
  "sourceName": "MyWebApp",
  "symbols": {
    "nameUpper": {
      "description": "replaces content matching 'MYWEBAPP' to the uppercased '{sourceName}', e.g. sourceName 'Foo.Bar' becomes 'FOO.BAR'",
      "type": "generated",
      "generator": "casing",
      "parameters": {
        "source": "name",
        "toLower": false
      },
      "replaces": "MYWEBAPP"
    },
    "nameUpperSnake": {
      "description": "replaces content matching 'MY_WEB_APP' to the uppercased and underscored '{sourceName}', e.g. sourceName 'Foo.Bar' becomes 'FOO_BAR'",
      "type": "derived",
      "valueSource": "nameUpper",
      "valueTransform": "DotToSnake",
      "replaces": "MY_WEB_APP"
    }
  },
  "forms": {
    "DotToSnake": {
      "identifier": "replace",
      "pattern": "\\.",
      "replacement": "_"
    }
  }
}

and in several content files I have MY_WEB_APP in it, its being replaced, but with an empty value instead of an upper snake cased value.
e.g.
I have a file with contents

MY_WEB_APP_ENDPOINT

That after using the template looks like

_ENDPOINT

I tested the regex and it properly replaces var replacement = new Regex("\\.").Replace('FOO.BAR.BAZ', '_'); // "FOO_BAR_BAZ"

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[jbockle]

just tried a different approach and it worked, but not sure why the forms approach isn't working

using a regex generator approach:

  "symbols": {
    "nameUpper": {
      "description": "replaces content matching 'MYWEBAPP' to the uppercased '{sourceName}', e.g. sourceName 'Foo.Bar' becomes 'FOO.BAR'",
      "type": "generated",
      "generator": "casing",
      "replaces": "MYWEBAPP",
      "parameters": {
        "source": "name",
        "toLower": false
      }
    },
    "nameUpperSnake": {
      "description": "replaces content matching 'MY_WEB_APP' to the uppercased and underscored '{sourceName}', e.g. sourceName 'Foo.Bar.Baz' becomes 'FOO_BAR_BAZ'",
      "type": "generated",
      "generator": "regex",
      "replaces": "MY_WEB_APP",
      "parameters": {
        "source": "nameUpper",
        "steps": [
          {
            "regex": "\\.",
            "replacement": "_"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }

[vlada-shubina]

I would say using generated symbol is a better way to handle this, but I'll check what's is wrong with using forms.

[vlada-shubina]

I made an investigation to find out that generated symbols cannot be used as source for derived, due to processing order: derived symbols are processed before generated. Opened #5115 to improve that.

Alternative way to do the same might be using forms only

  "symbols": {
    "nameUpperSnake": {
      "type": "derived",
      "valueSource": "name",
      "valueTransform": "identity", //avoids initial transformation
      "replaces": "My.Web.App",
      "forms": {
        "global": [ "UpperCaseForm", "UpperCaseSnake" ]
      }
    }
  },
  "forms": {
    "DotToSnake": {
      "identifier": "replace",
      "pattern": "\\.",
      "replacement": "_"
    },
    "UpperCaseForm": {
      "identifier": "upperCase"
    },
    "UpperCaseSnake": {
      "identifier": "chain",
      "steps": [ "UpperCaseForm", "DotToSnake" ]
    }
  }

For full example refer to the template in https://github.com/dotnet/templating/pull/5116/files

[jbockle]

thanks for looking into it!