9. Extension Template

• Status: proposed
• Deciders: @c0rby
• Date: 2021-06-10

Technical Story: [description | ticket/issue URL]

We want to accelerate and simplify extension development by removing the necessity to type or copy the boilerplate code. Can we provide a template or a similar mechanism to aid when developing new extensions?

• The solution should be easily maintainable.
  • It should always be up-to-date.
• The solution should be easy to use.

• Use boilr
• Create a template git repository.
• Use ocis-hello as a “template”

Chosen option: “[option 1]”, because [justification. e.g., only option, which meets k.o. criterion decision driver | which resolves force force | … | comes out best (see below)].

• [e.g., improvement of quality attribute satisfaction, follow-up decisions required, …]
• …

• [e.g., compromising quality attribute, follow-up decisions required, …]
• …

We have a boilr template already. boilr-ocis-extension This approach is nice because it provides placeholders which can be filled during the generation of a new extension from the template. It also provides prompts for the placeholder values during generation.

• Good, because with the placeholders it is hard to miss values which should be changed
• Bad, because maintaining is more complex

Create a git repository with an extension containing the boilerplate code.

• Good, because we can use the usual tools for QA and dependency scanning/updating.
• Good, because it doesn’t require any additional tool.

We have the ocis-hello repository which acts as an example extension containing a grpc and http service and a web UI. It also demonstrates the usage of the settings service.

• Good, because it contains a bit more code than just the plain boilerplate
• Good, because the integration into oCIS is already tested for the Hello extension (e.g. with Proxy and Settings). This will ensure, that the example extension is up-to-date.
• Bad, because if you don’t require all features you have to delete stuff