Inherit from a Template or Override It

In a pipeline that instantiates a template, besides providing values for template variables you can…

• Inherit features from the template
• Override (add to) inherited features.

Inherit from the template

By default, the pipeline instance inherits the stages, expected artifacts, triggers, parameters, and notifications from the template. It’s possible to opt out of inheriting triggers, parameters, and notifications by including the corresponding string in the exclude element.

For example, the template might have a trigger defined in the triggers element, but you can opt out of inheriting it by including triggers inside the exclude element.

1. In the pipeline template you are instantiating, examine what’s in the pipeline element to see what you want to use in your pipeline.

   spin pipeline-template get --id <templateName>
   

2. In the exclude: [] section of the pipeline JSON, include the key for each element of the template that you want to opt out of inheriting.

   For example, to opt out of inheriting triggers defined in pipeline.triggers, include triggers inside the exclude element of the new pipeline:

   "exclude": ["triggers"]
   

   The same goes for other items found inside pipeline.

   "exclude": ["triggers", "notifications"] # for example
   

Now, all the triggers and notificatons (in this example) defined in the template are excluded from the pipeline instance.

Override the template

To override an element from a pipeline template is to add to that element. You can only override an element if you inherit it, and you can only add to it—you can’t remove or edit individual members.

The stage definitions inside stages are inherited by default. You can add further stages, and the configuration required to wire added stages with inherited stages.

1. Make sure you’re inheriting from the element or elements you want to override.

   See above

   Also, as mentioned above, stages defined in the tempate are inherited by default.

2. Add any triggers, notifications, parameters, etc., inside their respective elements.

These items are now added to those inherited from the template.