4.1. Prepare Config Building Instance

  • We will start by building an object instance of PrepareConfig.

  • Keep a few things handy like ( excel database, jinja template, )

  • To override var tab databse, we will need a custom (regional_file) database, and a regional_class (ex: Region) to work on it.

  • custom regional_class should inherit ABSRegion class from j2config package. And must define a property called frames which should return a list containing pandas DataFrame object

# --------------------------------------------
# IMPORTS
# --------------------------------------------
from nettoolkit.j2config import PrepareConfig

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Custom Regional information & Imports (Optional/Additional), sample project imports mentioned as below. (modify as per own)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from custom.custom_j2config.regional import Region      # Regional class definition, works with regional_file provided in step1. And override device 'var' data
regional_file = 'global.xlsx'                           # regional file defining static var variable/values

# --------------------------------------------
# Provide necessary inputs
# --------------------------------------------
data_file = "excel-datafile.xlsx"       # provide Excel database file  ( Mandatory )
template_file = "text_template.j2"      # provide text jinja template file. ( Mandatory )
output_path = "./output/"               # provide path where new config to be stored.(Default: ".") Folder must exist if provided.

# --------------------------------------------
#    Define PrepareConfig class instance
# --------------------------------------------
PrCfg = PrepareConfig(
    data_file=data_file,          # (str): Excel database
    jtemplate_file=template_file, # (str): Jinja Template
    output_folder=output_path,    # (str, optional): output path. (default: ".")
    # provide below to custom regional data override
    regional_file=regional_file,  # (str, optional): custom static regional variable file. (Default: None).
    regional_class=Region,        # (class, optional): custom class returning frames to be merge with device var . (Default: None)
)

Attention

Excel Data File

  • It is advisable to generate the facts using facts_finder package. So manual editing will be minimal. Otherwise a fresh manually prepared database will work either.

  • There must be a var tab in excel file. with var as jinja variable and default as replacement value of the jinja variable.

    • multiple values for a single variable can be added in a same cell by separating either by comma or enter

  • There must be atleast one tab with tabular column consisting interfaces details. * multiple type interface details can be in separate sheet as well. sheet name can be arbitrary any thing. * There can be a vrf tab consisting of instances details of device. * There can be a bgp tab consisting of bgp and its properties of device.

  • regional_file can be identical to var tab of data file, with two columns as var and default.

Make a Note of above Instance variable PrCfg. We are going to use it in next steps.

Continue Next page to customize jinja filters, skip the step otherwise.