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https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine

An experiment in simplicity for complex environments
https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine

azure-cli bash markdown-parser

Last synced: 5 months ago
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An experiment in simplicity for complex environments

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README 

          
# Overview



Innovation Engine is a tool for rapid innovation and simplification. Innovation Engine is 

a CLI tool known as ie that enables execution and testing of Executable Documentation.



Executable Documentation is a shell script, leveraging any tools available in the shell and embedding it within documentation. That is, it takes standard markdown language and amplifies it by allowing the code commands within the document to be executed interacted with an executed.

This means that for the first time documentation is also code. 



Using Innovation Engine you can:



  * Describe the intent and expected behaviour of your shell scripts in markdown rather than comments. This means you documentation can contain hyperlinks, images, formatting etc. It can be rendered as standard markdown, e.g. as a `README.md` or a wiki page in GitHub, or as a web page. It also means that there is no need to keep two separate documents in sync. Editing code and documentation is now done in a single file.

  * Execute the code within your documentation just like any other shell script. The Innovation Engine CLI tool will parse out your script and execute it for you, as if it were a standard shell script.

  * Execute in "learn mode" onboarding new team members can be hard. Telling them to learn from a script is often going too deep too quickly, while starting from documentation presents the challenge of finding the right starting point for all skill levels. Innovation Engine allows individuals to work through the documented script at their own pace. Telling the engine to execute up to the point that they can follow and then working through step by step guided by the documentation.

  * Test the intended results of a script through the inclusion of self-documenting results blocks. This allows you to test your documentation/scripts in the CLI before merging, or in your CI/CD environment using, for example, GitHub Actions.

  * Extract the executable script from the documentation for use without Innovation Engine in the workflow.



Innovation Engine is designed to be reused in custom user experiences. For example, Microsoft Azure uses Innovation Engine to provide documentation on their Learn site, which can also be executed in the Azure Portal. This allows users to explore "good practice" documentation at the pace they prefer. They can simply read the documentation, they can interactively work through it in a customer Portal interface or they can simply go ahead and run it in order to deploy the architecture described within the document.



## Install Innovation Engine CLI



To install the Innovation Engine CLI, run the following commands. To install a specific version, set VERSION to the desired release number, such as "v0.1.3".

You can find all releases [here](https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine/releases).



```bash

VERSION="latest"

wget -q -O ie https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine/releases/download/$VERSION/ie



# Setup permissions & move to the local bin

chmod +x ie

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

mv ie ~/.local/bin

```



## Build Innovation Engine from Source



Paste the following commands into the shell. This will 

clone the Innovation Engine repo, install the requirements, and build out the 

Innovation Engine executable.



```bash

git clone https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine;

cd InnovationEngine;

make build-ie;

```



Now you can run the Innovation Engine tutorial with the following 

command:



```bash

./bin/ie execute tutorial.md

```



## Testing Innovation Engine



Innovation Engine is self-documenting, that is all our documentation is written to be executable. Since Innovation Engine can test the actual results of an execution against the intended reslts this means our documentation is also part of our test suite. In our `scripts` folder you will find a `test_ie.sh` script. Running this will run through all of our documentation in test mode.



If you make any changes to the IE code (see Contributing below) we would encourage you to tun the full test suite before issuing a PR.



To manual test a document it is best to run in `interactive` mode (see below). This mode provides an interactive console for reading and executing the content of Executable Documentation.



# How to Use Innovation Engine

The general format to run an executable document is: 

`ie  `



## Modes of Operation

Today, executable documentation can be run in 3 modes of operation:



Interactive: Displays the descriptive text of the tutorial and pauses at code 

blocks and headings to allow user interaction 

`ie interactive tutorial.md`



Test: Runs the commands and then verifies that the output is sufficiently 

similar to the expected results (recorded in the markdown file) to be 

considered correct. `ie test tutorial.md`



Execute: Reads the document and executes all of the code blocks not pausing for 

input or testing output. Essentially executes a markdown file as a script. 

`ie execute tutorial.md`



## Use Innovation Engine with any URL



Documentation does not need to be stored locally in order to run IE with it. With v0.1.3 and greater, you can run `ie execute`, `ie interactive`, and `ie test` with any URL that points to a public markdown file, including raw GitHub URLs. See the below demo:



https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine/assets/55719566/ce37f53c-9876-42b9-a033-1e4acaeb9d50



## Use Executable documentation for Automated Testing

One of the core benefits of executable documentation is the ability to run 

automated testing on markdown file. This can be used to ensure freshness of 

content.



In order to do this one will need to combine innovation engine executable 

documentation syntax with GitHub actions. 



In order to test if a command or action ran correctly executable documentation 

needs something to compare the results against. This requirement is met with 

result blocks.



### Result Blocks

Result blocks are distinguished in Executable documentation by a custom 

expected_similarity comment tag followed by a code block. For example



\



```text

Hello world

```

In the above example we have escaped the comment syntax so that it shows up in 

markdown. Otherwise, the tag of expected_similarity is completely invisible.



The expected similarity value is a floating point number between 0 and 1 which 

specifies how closely the output needs to match the results block. 0 being no 

similarity, 1 being an exact match.



>**Note** It may take a little bit of trial and error to find the exact value for expected_similarity.



### Environment Variables



You can pass in variable declarations as an argument to the ie CLI command using the 'var' parameter. For example:

```bash

ie execute tutorial.md --var REGION=eastus

```



CLI argument variables override environment variables declared within the markdown document,

which override preexisting environment variables.



Local variables declared within the markdown document will override CLI argument variables.



Local variables (ex: `REGION=eastus`) will not persist across code blocks. It is recommended

to instead use environment variables (ex: `export REGION=eastus`).



### Setting Up GitHub Actions to use Innovation Engine



After documentation is set up to take advantage of automated testing a github 

action will need to be created to run testing on a recurring basis. The action 

will simply create a basic Linux container, install Innovation Engine 

Executable Documentation and run Executable documentation in the Test mode on 

whatever markdown files are specified.



It is important to note that if you require any specific access or cli tools 

not included in standard bash that will need to be installed in the container. 

The following example is how this may be done for a document which runs Azure 

commands.



```yml

name: 00-testing



on:

  push:

    branches:

    - main



  workflow_dispatch:



jobs:

  deploy:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

    - uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - uses: azure/login@v1

      with:

        creds: ${{ secrets.AZURE_CREDENTIALS }}

    - name: Deploy

      env:

        AZURE_CREDENTIALS: ${{ secrets.AZURE_CREDENTIALS }}

        GITHUB_SHA: ${{ github.sha }}

      run: |

        cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/

        git clone https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine/tree/ParserAndExecutor

        cd innovationEngine

        pip3 install -r requirements.txt

        cp ../../articles/quick-create-cli.md README.md

        python3 main.py test README.md

```



## Contributing



This is an open source project. Don't keep your code improvements,

features and cool ideas to yourself. Please issue pull requests

against our [GitHub repo](https://github.com/Azure/innovationengine).



Be sure to use our Git pre-commit script to test your contributions

before committing, simply run the following command: `python3 main.py test test`



This project welcomes contributions and suggestions.  Most

contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement

(CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us

the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit

https://cla.microsoft.com.



When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine

whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately

(e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the

bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our

CLA.



This project has adopted

the

[Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/).

For more information see

the

[Code of Conduct FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or

contact [opencode@microsoft.com](mailto:opencode@microsoft.com) with

any additional questions or comments.



## Trademarks



This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or 

services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and 

must follow [Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/trademarks/usage/general).

Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must 

not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party 

trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.