Variables for template repositories

[mwarkentin]

Now that github has template repositories, an obvious next step is to enable "variables" to make it easy to stamp out customized repositories based on a set of metadata passed in to the template.

See https://cookiecutter.readthedocs.io for an example of this in a command line tool.

[chalu]

I need this badly. Is it been looked into?

[usagiga]

Any news?
I don't want to replace variables manually.

[bastienrobert]

Another example of a great implementation of variables for templates could be Heroku: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-button#invoke-app-setups

[farinasa]

Any updates? This could be extremely helpful.

[itsjavi]

I also think this is a must-have to make this feature really useful.
I propose to have it in a new section/tab of the template repository settings:

• a section where to put the substitution keys (they will be asked to the developer when generating a new project based on the template)
• a section to add glob wildcards for the files that will be processed in the generated project

[sr-nu]

Need a way to:

• Update the template project
• Variables that can be replaced easily during cloning/post cloning.

[sustacek]

Need a way to:

• Update the template project

I second this. I think it's important to give some (reasonably easy) way to match (update) an older project, so that's in line with a newer version of the template. At least some simple scenarios, like "one file gets updated in the template (and this is still present in the target project repository)". Since this will most likely mean conflicts, hopefully some conflict-resolution (with manual decisioning process) will be possible.

[itsjavi]

@sustacek It would be very convenient to sync them similarly to Pull Requests, but the derivated project might become so different from the template that it will produce lots of conflicts and changed files most likely.

[sustacek]

@itsjavi, some process like PR would be lovely. Conflicts would be expected, this is like merging / rebasing between branches during development -- if two devs worked on the very same piece of code (lines in a file), someone has to decide what should be the end result. This can work well only for stable templates and projects not customized drastically after being created from that template.

Right now, when I need to update a project, I do a directory diff between the template repo and project repo. In an actual project, I mostly add new files and don't change the existing directory structure too much, to make my (future) life easier.

[chriss2401]

Any update on whether this would ever be implemented ?

[mwarkentin]

Came across this: https://stefanbuck.com/blog/repository-templates-meets-github-actions

[sebacruz]

Any update on this?

[stevenpollack]

Definitely would like to see variables in use -- at the very least for things like README's and package.json's...

[robertohein]

it would be very useful, looking foward to it!

[paulbijancoch]

Hey everyone, I am working on http://codeboard.world to solve exactly this.
Please reach out at paulbijancoch@gmail.com, if you are interested.

[mwarkentin]

I came across this today which uses a 1-time Github Action to do some variables: https://github.com/rochacbruno/python-project-template/blob/main/.github/workflows/rename_project.yml

I've also opened a discussion on the official feedback forum, please upvote there! community/community#5336