FIGURA

What is Figura?

Figura is an expressive high-level configuration language based on Python syntax.

The Zen of Figura

  1. Config files are code. They need to be designed. Think OOD.
  2. You should never have to repeat yourself.
  3. Config-using code (code referencing config values and using them) should be decoupled from config code.
  4. Config-using code should be simple.

Getting Started

Installation

Install the python package using pip:

% pip install figura

This also installs the figura_print executable script for parsing Figura configuration files.

Hello World!

The package comes with a ready-to-use “hello_world.fig” configuration file:

% cat hello_world.fig
""" A sample Figura configuration file for greeting The World! """
class greeting:
    format = 'Hello, %s!'
    greetee = 'World'

After parsing it, the raw config (in JSON form) looks like this:

% figura_print figura.hello_world
{
  "greeting": {
    "greetee": "World",
    "format": "Hello, %s!"
  }
}

A sample Python snippet for printing the greeting:

from figura import read_config
greeting_config = read_config('figura.hello_world').greeting
print(greeting_config.format % greeting_config.greetee)
#  =>  Hello, World!

Python Importability

Every figura configuration file is a python module. When the file is processed, the python interpreter is used to first import the module. This means that in order for the python interpreter to find the modules, PYTHONPATH needs to be set accordingly.

In a *nix system (using bash), you can set PYTHONPATH like this:

export PYTHONPATH=/PATH/TO/FIGURA/docs/guide/

Also, the directory (and subdirectories) containing Figura files must contain a __init__.fig file. This is required for the same reason – to make the modules python-importable.

File Extension

Since version 2, the default extension of figura config files is “.fig”.

Users using Figura version>=1.1.0 are encouraged to use Figura in a forward-compatible way, by setting the extension explicitly to “.fig”. This is done by running:

# Run this once, before reading any figura files:
from figura.settings import set_extension_fig; set_extension_fig()

Documentation

For an easy start, check out the Tutorial and Reference Guide.

A discussion about the pros and cons of the Figura language.

Also refer to the documentation of the Figura Python package.

Indices and tables