Designing Automation Projects¶
Projects¶
Creating Projects
Ideally, you aim to initiate a Project with a defined purpose, crafting it as a modular building block for seamless integration into end-to-end automated workflows.
Use a name that describes the purpose of the Project. If the Project will be shared publicly, consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) when naming the Project. Attune generates the files for GitHub Pages to generate a website for your Project.
The following examples are Projects created to be modular building blocks:
Create Windows ISO with autounattend built on macOS or Linux
Create Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL with kickstart built on macOS or Linux
The following examples link Blueprints from the above Projects to automate an end-to-end process:
This promotes re-usability and makes it easier to update and maintain specific pieces of functionality.
Project Descriptions
Use the Project description to describe the purpose of the Project. A quality Project description encourages collaboration, maintainability, and knowledge transfer.
Project Management
You can version control your Projects, ensure you frequently commit your changes. Publish and push your commits to Git repositories. Leverage publicly shared Projects such as Attune Automation on GitHub.
Blueprints¶
Creating Blueprints
Blueprints complete a required process. Make best effort to use Parameters so that you minimise the number of Blueprints to maintain. Use a name that describes the process being performed.
Blueprint Descriptions
Use the Blueprint description to describe the process performed by the Blueprint. A quality Blueprint description encourages collaboration, maintainability, and knowledge transfer.
Steps¶
Break down your script into small, discrete steps, each dedicated to performing a specific action. Additionally, ensure that your scripts are designed to be idempotent, meaning they can be run multiple times without causing unexpected side effects. This approach not only enhances the clarity of your code but also simplifies the debugging process, making it more efficient and less error-prone.
Parameters¶
Using Parameters in Steps and Files greatly increases the flexibility of the Blueprints. Ensure that names are intuitive and that comments clearly describe the expected value to help users when populating the Plans.