"template manager" system

[dsriseah]

This is the subsystem that allows the definition of cascading settings files using a human-friendly format, with its own implementation-agnostic viewmodel to help with creating GUIs.

Desired Features

• Human readable files
• Custom DSL specification, implemented using something like PeggyJS
• Cascading specifications, using a logical sequence from default
• Produces a final 'compiled' human-readable file from referenced specifications
• Compatibility with URSYS Programmatic API/CLI Module standard
• Compatibility with URSYS Collections standard to support adapters
• Compatibility with URSYS Datacore Sync standard for automatic updates

[dsriseah]

From 4/24 Code Summit - Templating-related concerns (unsorted)

kinds of customization in meme

• classroom related

kinds of customization in netcreate

• graph-related

kinds of customization in gemstep

• project specific

templating overall (in terms of customization)

• customizeable based on provided defaults
• • colors of ui element, font sizes
• • text on key panel chrome
• parameters related to other hardware (tracking, webcams)
• connection info and network resources
• minimum required media assets (backgrounds, sprites) for running the "activity"
• initial configuration of directories required to start the app
• default activity template
• • define anything that an educator or researcher wants to change the appearance of, or labeling, of the app itself
• • define any organization-level, classroom-level, curriculum-level, study-level changes to appearance/labeling that overrides the default
• • define any org-level, classroom-level, etc of pre-provided examples to work from, exercises to complete, for the entire activity, and also different "levels" or "stages" or "operational modes" of the activity
• examples of appearance/labels to customize
• examples of organizational metadata (teachers, classrooms, groups) to add/remove/modify collections of stuff that is presented in admin interfaces, and may reflect in the UI also for students (e.g. classroom name)
• internationalization (general concern for how to represent text in a systematic but non-annoying way)
• string/prompt tables
• contextual help systems that are customized based on detected conditions
• related app configuration that is not necesarily student or researcher facing, but enables a different operational mode (e.g. standalone)
• related app module configuration for significant subsystems (physics, sprites, media, simulation) that need their own specialized realm of config settings.

Template Management

• duplicating templates
• assigning templates to particular projects, teachers, etc
• human-readable, non-tech friendly template format for direct editing that is also machine parseable and editable (e.g. not yaml, not json)
• finding templates in the system, figuring out what the "cascade of overrides" is for templates
• access control to templates for over-the-web editing
• coherently associating outside-of-our-app configuration and checking for errors so to suggest how to fix stuff
• migrating between template versions, detecting version changes.
• enforcing version control updates (e.g. tagging branches, updating version numbers). Associating a particular template format version with a particular repo tag.
• clear, unambigous naming and location of template files using a conventional grammar
• researcher-friendly way of managing sets of templates/config for their trials/study (maybe to how to capture runtime data) for an easy "single folder" backup