• Usage Example
  • Vue Component
  • Template
  • The result
  • The commit step
• Component API Reference
  • Props
  • Events
  • Template file location
• Template Reference
  • Template
  • step Reference
  • input Reference
  • Widgets
    • Text
    • List
    • Checklist
      • Checklist Item

Pipeline Wizard

The Pipeline Wizard is a Vue frontend component that helps users create a pipeline by using input fields. The type of input fields and the form of the final pipeline is configured by a YAML template.

The Pipeline Wizard expects a single template file that configures the user flow. The wizard is agnostic with regards to the contents of the file, so you can use the wizard to display a range of different flows. For example, there could be one template file for static sites, one for Docker images, one for mobile apps, and so on. As a first iteration, these templates are part of the GitLab source code.

The template file defines multiple steps. The last step shown to the user is always the commit, and is not part of the template definition. An ideal user experience consists of 2-3 steps, for a total of 3-4 steps visible to the user.

Usage Example

Vue Component

<!-- ~/my_feature/my_component.vue -->

<script>
  import PipelineWizard from '~/pipeline_wizard/pipeline_wizard.vue'
  import template from '~/pipeline_wizard/templates/my_template.yml';

  export default {
    name: "MyComponent",
    components: { PipelineWizard },
    data() {
      return { template }
    },
    methods: {
      onDone() {
        // redirect
      }
     }
  }
</script>

<template>
  <pipeline-wizard :template="template"
                   project-path="foo/bar"
                   default-branch="main"
                   @done="onDone" />
</template>

Template

# ~/pipeline_wizard/templates/my_template.yml
id: gitlab/my-template
title: Set up my specific tech pipeline
description: Here's two or three introductory sentences that help the user understand what this wizard is going to set up.
steps:
  # Step 1
  - inputs:
      # First input widget
      - label: Select your build image
        description: A Docker image that we can use to build your image
        placeholder: node:lts
        widget: text
        target: $BUILD_IMAGE
        required: true
        pattern: "^(?:(?=[^:\/]{1,253})(?!-)[a-zA-Z0-9-]{1,63}(?<!-)(?:\.(?!-)[a-zA-Z0-9-]{1,63}(?<!-))*(?::[0-9]{1,5})?\/)?((?![._-])(?:[a-z0-9._-]*)(?<![._-])(?:\/(?![._-])[a-z0-9._-]*(?<![._-]))*)(?::(?![.-])[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]{1,128})?$"
        invalid-feedback: Please enter a valid docker image

      # Second input widget
      - label: Installation Steps
        description: "Enter the steps that need to run to set up a local build
          environment, for example installing dependencies."
        placeholder: npm ci
        widget: list
        target: $INSTALLATION_STEPS

    # This is the template to copy to the final pipeline file and updated with
    # the values input by the user. Comments are copied as-is.
    template:
      my-job:
        # The Docker image that will be used to build your app
        image: $BUILD_IMAGE

        before_script: $INSTALLATION_STEPS

        artifacts:
          paths:
            - foo

  # Step 2
  - inputs:
      # This is the only input widget for this step
      - label: Installation Steps
        description: "Enter the steps that need to run to set up a local build
          environment, for example installing dependencies."
        placeholder: npm ci
        widget: list
        target: $INSTALLATION_STEPS

    template:
      # Functions that should be executed before the build script runs
      before_script: $INSTALLATION_STEPS

The result

The commit step

The last step of the wizard is always the commit step. Users can commit the newly created file to the repository defined by the wizard’s props. The user has the option to change the branch to commit to. A future iteration is planned to add the ability to create a MR from here.

Component API Reference

Props

• template (required): The template content as an un-parsed string. See Template file location for more information.
• project-path (required): The full path of the project the final file should be committed to
• default-branch (required): The branch that will be pre-selected during the commit step. This can be changed by the user.
• default-filename (optional, default: .gitlab-ci.yml): The filename to be used for the file. This can be overridden in the template file.

Events

• done - Emitted after the file has been committed. Use this to redirect the user to the pipeline, for example.

Template file location

Template files are usually stored as YAML files in ~/pipeline_wizard/templates/.

The PipelineWizard component expects the template property as an un-parsed String, and Webpack is configured to load .yml files from the above folder as strings. If you must load the file from a different place, make sure Webpack does not parse it as an Object.

Template Reference

Template

In the root element of the template file, you can define the following properties:

step Reference

A step makes up one page in a multi-step (or page) process. It consists of one or more related input fields that build a part of the final .gitlab-ci.yml.

Steps include two properties:

input Reference

Each step can contain one or more inputs. For an ideal user experience, it should not contain more than three.

The look and feel of the input, as well as the YAML type it produces (string, list, and so on) depends on the widget used. widget: text displays a text input and inserts the user’s input as a string into the template. widget: list displays one or more input fields and inserts a list.

All inputs must have a label, widget, and optionally target, but most properties are dependent on the widget being used:

Widgets

Text

Use as widget: text. This inserts a string in the YAML file.

List

Use as widget: list. This inserts a list in the YAML file.

Checklist

Use as widget: checklist. This inserts a list of checkboxes that need to be checked before proceeding to the next step.

Checklist Item