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Jsonnet Renderer

Preface

This renderer is both a Reference Implementation & Minimal Viable Product.

The Jsonnet Renderer is designed as a "plugin" which doesn't need to be shipped with shore core, but side-loaded.

Context

The Jsonnet Renderer ("plugin") integrates the Jsonnet programming language with the Shore Framework.

Jsonnet is a templating language that process's expressions and outputs JSON formatted text. (see more at https://jsonnet.org)

Following the shore-core interfaces, this implements the Renderer Interface

Implementation specific details

Embedded Go-Jsonnet

The go-jsonnet engine is embedded into the plugin and shipped with shore-core.

Embedded Go-Jsonnet - Pros

  1. It's already implemented in Golang - easy to embed.
  2. Easy to debug, test, validate - the runtime engine is embedded.
  3. Simple to setup a development environment - go mod handles the setup
  4. Customers don't need to install multiple tools.
  5. Many of the shared libraries in common use are already implemented in Jsonnet - this can help drive initial adoption.

Embedded Go-Jsonnet - Cons

  1. Only selected features are exposed via Shore - Rendering & Libraries.
  2. Version is pinned to the Renderer.

Other Solutions Considered

  1. Python Renderer.

Python Renderer Pros:

  1. Believed to be common enough on most developer's machines (I.E. no setup cost)
  2. Python has built-in testing framework (which can be extended with pytest)
  3. Python has many 3rd party libraries that deal with many edge cases.

Python Renderer Cons:

  1. Not a "configuration language" - may lead to complex solutions based on Python's ability to do "everything".
  2. Will require re-implementing many libraries.
  3. Large Foot Print - The Python runtime is large, while for pipeline development only a fraction of it's capabilities will be used (I.E. json.dumps())

Side Notes

Although renderers are pluggable by design, the initial support will focus on Jsonnet due to it's implementation simplicity. In the future we can look to extend to further renderers as needed.

NOTE: If you'd like to "bring your own" pipeline and leverage Shore's testing, saving, and executing capabilities, please follow the bring your own pipeline tutorial.