Model

The core part of cfgtree is the definition of the model. A “model” is a Python dictionary that describes the hierarchical organization of your settings, like JSON Schema.

For example, if I want to organize my settings into two groups, one “general” and one “others”, I would place the descriptions in a model such as:

model = {
    "general" {
        # ...
    },
    "others": {
        # ...
    },
}

Various setting types are provided, covering most of the data types to be stored in configuration a file.

For example, StringCfg descrive a string value, IntCfg any integer, BoolCfg a boolean and so on.

Each type has the same base arguments, such as:

• summary: human readable short description
• description: human readable long and exhauxtive description
• short_param: which short command line argument to expose (ex: -c)
• long_param: which long command line argument to expose (ex: --config-file)

Here an example of a complex model:

{
    "configfile": ConfigFileCfg(
        default_filename=config,
        long_param="--config-file",
        summary="Config file"),
    "version": ConfigVersionCfg(),
    "group1": {
        "string_opt": StringCfg(
            short_param='-s',
            long_param="--string-opt",
            summary='Help msg string'),
        "int_opt": IntCfg(
            short_param='-i',
            long_param="--int-opt",
            summary='Help msg int'),
        "float_opt": FloatCfg(
            short_param='-f',
            long_param="--float-opt",
            summary='Help msg float'),
        "bool_opt": BoolCfg(
            short_param='-b',
            long_param="--bool-opt",
            summary='Help msg bool'),
        "list_opt": ListOfStringCfg(
            short_param='-l',
            long_param="--list-opt",
            summary='Help msg lst'),
        "dict_opt": {
            "key1": StringCfg(summary='Help msg string'),
            "key2": StringCfg(summary='Help msg string'),
        }
    }
}

This model matches a configuration JSON file such as:

{
    "version": 1,
    "group1": {
        "string_opt": "a string",
        "int_opt": 123,
        "float_opt": 2.0,
        "bool_opt": true,
        "list_opt": [
            "a",
            "b",
            "c"
        ],
        "dict_opt": {
            "key1": "val1",
            "key2": "val2"
        }
    }
}

Or this TOML file:

version = 1

[group1]
string_opt = "a string"
int_opt = 123
float_opt = 2.0
bool_opt = true
list_opt = [ "a", "b", "c",]

[group1.dict_opt]
key1 = "val1"
key2 = "val2"