template-dumper

template-dumper is an Emacs package for creating new files from yasnippet templates.

Features

• Easily specify file names by providing a function that returns a string.
  • Use case: Create a file according to a specified naming convention in a particular directory.
• Maximum flexibility:
  • Call (save-buffer) after (template-dumper-yas-new-file ...) to create the file
  • Wrap your function in save-window-excursion if you don’t want to modify your current window configuration

Example usage

Here is an example of how to use this package to write a self-contained function to create a file from a Yasnippet template.

(use-package template-dumper
  :ensure nil)

;; Creates '/home/nate/myfile' from yas-snippet template 'elisp-default-file'
(template-dumper-yas-new-file "/home/nate/" "elisp-default-file" "myfile")


(defun create-dynamically-named-file ()
  "Demo of dynamically named file creation"
  (let* ((home (getenv "HOME"))
         (matching (directory-files home t "template-dumper-test\-[0-9]+\.el"))
         (basename (format "template-dumper-test-%s.el" (length matching)))
         (fullpath (file-name-concat home basename)))
    (save-window-excursion
      (template-dumper-yas-new-file home "elisp-default-file" basename)
      (save-buffer)
      (message (format "Created %s" fullpath))
      basename)))

;; Creates "$HOME/template-dumper-test-0.el" from yasnippet template "elisp-default-file"
(create-dynamically-named-file)
;; Creates "$HOME/template-dumper-test-1.el" from yasnippet template "elisp-default-file"
(create-dynamically-named-file)
;; Creates "$HOME/template-dumper-test-2.el" from yasnippet template "elisp-default-file"
(create-dynamically-named-file)
;; Creates "$HOME/template-dumper-test-3.el" from yasnippet template "elisp-default-file"
(create-dynamically-named-file)

Template trees

template-dumper enables specifying a directory of files that are each initialized from a named Yasnippet template.

This feature is subject to the following caveats:

• Missing parent directories are created as needed
• Files are not overwritten if they already exist
• May break if the yas template assigned to a file is interactive (i.e., the template uses $1, $2, ... $n) or other advanced Yasnippet features.

Example usage:

(setq nate/tpl-python '(dir "./"
                            ((file "main.py" "python-default-file")
                             (file "README.org" "org-default-readme")
                             (file "LICENSE" "license-expat")
                             (file ".gitignore" "gitignore-default-file")
                             (cmd "chmod +x \"$DIR/main.py\"")
                             (cmd "git init \"$DIR\"")
                             (cmd "git add \"$DIR\"")
                             (cmd "git commit -m \"initial\""))))

(setq nate/tpl-html '(dir "./"
                          ((file "index.html" "html-default-file-1")
                           (file "README.org" "org-default-readme")
                           (file "LICENSE" "license-expat")
                           (file ".gitignore" "gitignore-default-file"))))

(defun nate/tpl-callback-1 () (interactive) (template-dumper-mk-proj-tree-rel nate/tpl-python))
(defun nate/tpl-callback-2 () (interactive) (template-dumper-mk-proj-tree-rel nate/tpl-html))

(transient-define-prefix nate/project-template ()
  "Create org-notepad file or open the most recent"
  [["This is a transient:"
    ("1" "Python default project" nate/tpl-callback-1)
    ("2" "HTML default project" nate/tpl-callback-2)
    ("q" "exit" transient-noop)
    ]])

(define-key (current-global-map) (kbd "C-c <f2>") #'nate/project-template)