Local style.yaml files

[jgrizou]

It seems currently we can define style in .panzer/styles.yaml or locally in the yaml header.

It would be nice to be able to provide a path to a styles.yaml file that is local to our project, e.g.

---
stylepath: "`path/to/project/styles.yaml`"
style:MyTemplate

---

Any thoughts on this?

[msprev]

It's an interesting idea. But you can do something very close to this already though. Let me know if this solves the use case. Embed whatever you want in your local styles.yaml file in a styledef field of a separate file, local_styles.yaml:

---
styledef:
    CONTENT OF YOUR LOCAL STYLES.YAML
---

then just run panzer local_styles.yaml input.md -o output.html. The styledef will be shunted into input.md's AST.

The downside is if you also want to use styledef inside input.md. Its content would be clobbered by the entry in local_styles.yaml, as pandoc will combine them with a left biased union.

[jgrizou]

Yes that is a good option but, if I understood well, the downside is very major.

Having all styles in one file in one location can be a hurdle when managing several projects with different styles. You end up with a big .panzer/styles.yaml file and, more importantly, the project is not self contained.

Don't bother too much with all my comments, I am just starting. Once I get familiar with the code I could try this myself ;)

[msprev]

Doesn't the suggestion solve this? Just stick whatever you want defined in local_styles.yaml and add it to the command line before your input file? You can have as many local_styles.yamls as you like, and keep them wherever you like? It's equivalent to sharing styledefs across your markdown files.

Is your concern that, even with this, you want to customise/add to the style definitions inside each of your markdown files too?

Here is possible solution. How about panzer looks for a local styles.yaml in the working directory. If found, this would override the global styles.yaml. This would be consistent with the current behaviour for filters, scripts, and templates.

[jgrizou]

Yes my concern is what you pointed out, I still want to customize the styledef inside each markdown.

Having the same behavior as filters, scripts, etc is a nice and consistent solution!

About this, why not having a path: option for filter, scripts, templates fields such that panzer checks that path first?

---
filter:
  path: ./custom/path/to/filters
  -run: filter1.py
  -run: pandoc-citeproc
---

In order panzer would look for:

#	look for
1	./custom/path/to/filters/foo.py
2	./foo.py
3	./filter/foo.py
4	...

[msprev]

I'll implement looking for a current working directory styles.yaml as this seems to fit nicely with current behaviour for filters, templates, and scripts.

I'm not sure about the path: field. It's possible to implement, but would require a bit of thought to do it right. I'm not yet convinced it is worth it.

Here is one final workaround for your problem. It sounds like you really want a dedicated .panzer directory (styles, filters, etc.) for each project. You can do this via panzer's command line ---panzer-support option. You pass the path to your custom .panzer directory. You could in principle have a custom .panzer directory for every project, and place it wherever you like. If you want to share items between these .panzer directories (say, templates), you can do this via symbolic links. Does this solve the problem?

[jgrizou]

Yes, this address my concern perfectly! Sorry about that, I didn't notice this feature before.

[msprev]

Great. I'll close this issue for the moment. I've added to my todo list to implement local styles.yaml files.

[msprev]

I've implemented some changes that you may like. styles.yaml is no longer a magic filename. panzer instead reads style definitions found inside any yaml files -- first searched for in .panzer/styles/ then searched for in ./styles/. This should give you the flexibility you are looking for. I've updated the documentation to reflect this change.

The old method of defining styles in a single styles.yaml file in .panzer/ is still supported for legacy reasons.

[jgrizou]

Great, it is exactly what I was dreaming of, I think it brings more flexibility. Thanks!

One really dumb comment: the folder for filters and templates are called "filter" and "template" at the singular. For styles it is plural.

[msprev]

Thanks. I noticed that too. I think it is the best that can be done in terms of naming.