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Testing Updates to Existing Formulas

The formulae-contents that are installed and configured for use by Watchmaker can be modified through a custom config.yaml file. This is done through the config.yaml file’s user_formula dictionary-parameter (see: the discussion of the config.yaml file’s user_formulas parameter and take special note of guidance around file-formatting and indenting). This parameter may be used to enable the setup of “in progress” updates to existing formulae. This is done by specifying dictionary-values for user_formulas in a custom config.yaml file:

all:
  salt:
    [...elided...]
    user_formulas:
      <TEST_FORMULA_1>: <TEST_FORMULA_ARCHIVE_1_URI>
      <TEST_FORMULA_2>: <TEST_FORMULA_ARCHIVE_2_URI>
      [...elided...]
      <TEST_FORMULA_N>: <TEST_FORMULA_ARCHIVE_N_URI>

Note

While multiple formulae are shown in the above snippet, it’s not generally recommended to use this method for more than one, formula at a time. The above is primarily to illustrate that the user_formulas parameter is a dictionary.

Once the custom config.yaml file is in the desired state, it can be uploaded to an S3-based testing-bucket, web server[1] or even staged locally within the testing-system.

About Testing Updates

To the greatest extent possible, formulae should be portable. It is recommended that when testing updates, the developer:

  • Tests with a bog-standard configuration (the custom config.yaml file’s salt_content parameter’s value is set to null)

  • Tests with the target-environment’s or target-environments’ custom salt-content.zip file(s)

  • Tests with a customized version of the bog-standard salt-config.zip file if to-be-tested formula’s config-inputs have been changed

  • Tests with a salt-config.zip file cloned from the target-environment’s or target-environments’ custom salt-config.zip file if to-be-tested formula’s config-inputs have been changed

Exercising across environments, in this way, will better assure that proposed updates do not break an existing formula’s portability.

About Hosting of Modified Formula-Content

The modified formulae’s contents can be installed from any Watchmaker-supported source-type – S3-hosted, web server hosted or local files. However, it is expected that most personnel attempting to test modifications to existing formulae will want to load that modified content directly from their development content-management system (CMS). To have watchmaker load content directly from the source CMS:

  1. Visit the CMS (GitHub.Com when devloping for the main Watchmaker project)

  2. Navigate to the content-developer’s source fork/branch

  3. Find the https:// URL of fork/branch’s ZIP-archive of the code to be tested.

  4. Use the value from the prior step as the value for <TEST_FORMULA_ARCHIVE_URI>

Modification of existing/already-integrated formulae’s content typically takes place on GitHub.Com. As of this document’s authoring date, the above process looks like:

  1. Browse to https://www.github.com/plus3it/<FORMULA_NAME>

  2. Click on the down-arrow on the Fork button to bring up the Existing Forks list

  3. Click on the developer’s fork

  4. On the landing-page for the developer’s fork, click on the branch button’s down-arrow[2]. This opens the Switch branches/tags dropdown

  5. Select the desired branch from the Switch branches/tags dropdown

  6. Click on the Code button’s down-arrow. Right-click on the Download ZIP text in the drop-down that the down-arrow opens. This opens a context-menu of link-actions.

  7. Click on the Copy Link Address menu-option (if using a browser other than Chrome, the specific menu-option may be different, but the equivalent action should be obvious) to copy the branch-archive’s URL into your system’s copy-buffer.

  8. Paste the branch-archive’s URL (from your system’s copy-buffer) as the <TEST_FORMULA_ARCHIVE_URI> value in your custom config.yaml file

Warning

If you created your modification-branch in a private fork, it will be necessary to create an API-token that grants your test-host the ability to access the archive-URL. Creating such tokens is outside the scope of this document.

Execution With Standard Configuration-Options

Assuming that the executing system has access to the specified URI(s), watchmaker will:

  1. Download the requested formula ZIP-archive(s)

  2. Unarchive them to the .../formulas directory – replacing the standard contents with the testing-contents

As an already-integrated formula, it should already be executed when a full/generic Watchmaker-run is requested.

While the modified formula should execute in place of the already-integrated formula contents as part of a full/generic Watchmaker-run, it will save testing-time to execute only the modified formula. This can be done by explicitly selecting only the modified-formula for execution using a method similar to:

  • Linux invocation:

    watchmaker \
  -c s3://<TESTING_BUCKET>/config.yaml \
  -s <FORMULA_NAME> \
  --log-level debug --log-dir=/var/log/watchmaker

  • Windows invocation:

    watchmaker --log-level debug --log-dir=C:\Watchmaker\Logs -c s3://<TESTING_BUCKET>/config.yaml -s <FORMULA_NAME>

The modified formula’s execution will be logged into the directory requested via the manual invocation.

Execution With Modified/New Configuration-Options

Because Watchmaker will overwrite existing formula-content with the referenced formula-content, it should only be necessary to execute the updated formula with a custom salt-content.zip if:

  • One wishes to test with specific testing-values for existing formula-parameters

  • The formula-updates add new parameters

  • The formula-updates rename existing parameters

  • The formula-updates change existing parameters’ data-types.

If executing to cover one of the above scenarios, it will be necessary to either manually update the .../pillar directory’s contents with the appropiate data (see: The pillar Directory-Tree) or create a custom salt-config.zip file and reference it from the custom config.yaml file.

Final Notes

If modification of an existing formula adds or removes parameters, renames existing parameters or changes existing parameters’ data-types, it is critical that the formula-project’s pillar.example or pillar.example.yaml file be updated to reflect these changes.