Publish a Project Template Programmatically
“Hey, we should <bright idea>!”
When we write that idea down there are several questions we’ll want to answer before we do much else with it. When we make a Repository on GitHub for one of these bright ideas, we can populate some Issues and a Project by default.
A project template includes …
Several Issues
- What is the problem?
{"title": "What is the problem?", "body": "The problem we imagine is ...", "labels": ["question"]} - Who has this problem?
{"title": "Who has this problem?", "body": "Describe the people or personas who have this problem.", "labels": ["question"]} - What solutions exist?
{"title": "What solutions exist?", "body": "What work has already been done to solve this problem?", "labels": ["question"]} - What will we do about it?
{"title": "What will we do about it?", "body": "How will we solve this problem? (How) Will our solution be better?", "labels": ["question"]}
A Project with Columns
Create a Project named <repo-name> board in the Repository. Add these Columns to it:
- Now - Add all four Issues to this Column
- Next
- Later
Other / Misc / Future / ???
- (?) README.md template with links to Project and Issues areas
- (?) Customized Labels
Manual walkthrough …
This walkthrough uses curl and bash
For this walkthrough we’ll use curl and shell environment variables. Substitute tools of your choice.
Know where to find the instructions
I started with https://developer.github.com/v3/ and https://google.com
Note: Some GitHub APIs, like the Projects API, have special access requirements.
Create a Repository
Create a project Repository with .gitignore, LICENSE.md, and README.md
I made https://github.com/solvaholic/projecter
Get a Personal Access Token
You can get yours here: https://github.com/settings/tokens
The API calls we’re using require the repo scope.
For convenience let’s make some variables:
$ mytoken=YOURTOKENHERE
$ head1='Authorization: token '$mytoken
$ head2='Accept: application/vnd.github.inertia-preview+json'
Get Repository metadata
https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/#get
When you script this solution, grab data about the Repository from the API responses.
$ curl -H "$head1" https://api.github.com/repos/solvaholic/projecter
That will return, for example:
"name": "projecter",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/solvaholic/projecter",
"issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/solvaholic/projecter/issues{/number}",
Create templated Issues
https://developer.github.com/v3/issues/
$ issues_url='https://api.github.com/repos/solvaholic/projecter/issues'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head1" $issues_url -d '{"title": "What is the problem?", "body": "The problem we imagine is ...", "labels": ["question"]}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head1" $issues_url -d '{"title": "Who has this problem?", "body": "Describe the people or personas who have this problem.", "labels": ["question"]}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head1" $issues_url -d '{"title": "What solutions exist?", "body": "What work has already been done to solve this problem?", "labels": ["question"]}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head1" $issues_url -d '{"title": "What will we do about it?", "body": "How will we solve this problem? (How) Will our solution be better?", "labels": ["question"]}'
We’re going to need those id’s later:
"id": 221928483,
"number": 1,
"id": 221928730,
"number": 2,
"id": 221928817,
"number": 3,
"id": 221928833,
"number": 4,
Create Project and Columns
https://developer.github.com/v3/projects/
$ projects_url='https://api.github.com/repos/solvaholic/projecter/projects'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $projects_url -d '{"name": "projecter board"}'
Grab that columns_url so we can add Columns to our new Project:
"columns_url": "https://api.github.com/projects/538568/columns",
https://developer.github.com/v3/projects/columns/
$ columns_url='https://api.github.com/projects/538568/columns'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $columns_url -d '{"name": "Now"}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $columns_url -d '{"name": "Next"}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $columns_url -d '{"name": "Later"}'
Next we’ll need the cards_url of the Now column:
"cards_url": "https://api.github.com/projects/columns/911205/cards",
Add Issue Cards to Project Columns
https://developer.github.com/v3/projects/cards/
When you add cards they will push into the top of the column:
$ now_cards_url='https://api.github.com/projects/columns/911205/cards'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $now_cards_url -d '{"content_type": "Issue", "content_id": 221928833}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $now_cards_url -d '{"content_type": "Issue", "content_id": 221928817}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $now_cards_url -d '{"content_type": "Issue", "content_id": 221928730}'
$ curl -X POST -H "$head2" -H "$head1" $now_cards_url -d '{"content_type": "Issue", "content_id": 221928483}'