Questions.yaml is the file which get rendered by TrueNAS to create the UI. When not creating new charts, most of what this project does is stitching together questions.yaml files to turn existing Helm Charts into Apps.
### Syntax
In this document we give you a short reference guide (ported from IX Official) which lays out the settings available in questions.yaml.
| variable | string | true | define the variable name specified in the `values.yaml`file. |
| label | string | true | define the UI label. |
| description | string | false | specify the description of the variable. |
| group | string | false | group questions by input value. |
| schema | dictionary | true | specify schema details for the `variable` |
| schema.type | string | true | specify type of value for `variable` (current supported types are string, int, boolean, path, hostpath, list, dict, ipaddr, and cron).|
| schema.required | bool | false | define if the variable is required or not (true \ false), defaults to false |
| schema.min_length | int | false | min character length for string type variable.|
| schema.max_length | int | false | max character length for string type variable.|
| schema.min | int | false | min integer length. |
| schema.max | int | false | max integer length. |
| schema.enum | []dictionary | false | specify the options when the variable type is `string`, for example, <br><br>enum:<br> - value: "RollingUpdate" <br> description: "Create new pods and then kill old ones"<br> - value: "Recreate"<br> description: "Kill existing pods before creating new ones"|
| schema.subquestions | []subquestion | false | add an array of subquestions.|
| schema.show_if | string | false | show current variable if condition specified is true, for example `show_if: [["workloadType", "=", "CronJob"]]` |
| schema.show_subquestions_if | string | false | show subquestions if is true or equal to one of the options. for example `show_subquestion_if: "static"`. system will convert this to the filters format specifid for `shcema.show_if` automatically.|
| schema.attrs | []variables | false | specified when `schema.type` is dictionary to declare attributes allowed in the dictionary. |
| schema.items | []variables | false | specified when `schema.type` is list to declare attributes allowed in the list. |
| schema.private | bool | false | specified for declaring information sensitive fields. |
| schema.null | bool | false | specifies if the value for the variable can be null. defaults to false. |
`subquestions[]` cannot contain `subquestions` or `show_subquestions_if` keys, but all other keys in the above table are supported. Also variables having `schema.type` list do not support `subquestions`.
##### Special Questions
There are some novel cases where we would like to provide ability to configure / manage resources for workloads with getting some data from system dynamically.
So a chart can specify certain actions to be performed by the system for a variable by defining a reference. An example better illustrates this concept:
```
- variable: volume
label: "Volume"
schema:
type: dict
$ref:
- "normalize/ixVolume"
attrs:
- variable: mountPath
label: "Mount Path"
description: "Path where the volume will be mounted inside the pod"
schema:
type: path
required: true
- variable: datasetName
label: "Dataset Name"
schema:
type: string
required: true
```
In the above variable we define a `$ref` in schema which specifies that the system should take some action for normalising the value specified for the variable.
In this specific case, `ix_volume` is a concept introduced where we recommend using a volume which we are able to rollback automatically on chart release rollback. In essence,
it is just a `hostPath` volume for which the system automatically creates the dataset specified.
We have following types of actions supported in `$ref` right now:
1) definitions
2) normalize
For (1), system will automatically update schema for a particular definition. For example,
```
- variable: hostInterface
description: "Please specify host interface"
label: "Host Interface"
schema:
type: string
required: true
$ref:
- "definitions/interface"
```
System will automatically populate available interfaces for the user based on what interfaces are available on the system.
For (2), system will normalize values or perform some actions as discussed above.
### Standardised questions.yaml sections
To minimise the maintenance load of our App collection, we always aim to standardise as much as possible. The same goes for questions.yaml. Included here are some code standardised code-snippets that are expected to be included in every App.
Be aware that sometimes specific functions might or might not completely function. Leaving them out would, however, everely increase the maintenance load and often said functionality will be added in the common-chart later on anyway.
To make sure all apps stay somewhat the same, we use a list of standardised groups for the groups section. Please make sure to use these groups in your Apps:
They are called general options, because they affect the basic functionalities of a chart. For example: Custom User environment variables, permissions and timezones.
