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Add comprehensive getting started guides for collections and playbooks#4512

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Add comprehensive getting started guides for collections and playbooks#4512
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cidrblock:introdocs

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@cidrblock cidrblock commented Aug 12, 2025

Summary

Provides complete getting started documentation for both major Molecule use cases: collection development and playbook testing. Reorganizes existing collection guide and adds new comprehensive playbook testing guide with modern ansible-native patterns.

Changes

Documentation Structure

  • Added: docs/getting-started-collections.md - Collection testing guide
  • Added: docs/getting-started-playbooks.md - Complete playbook testing guide
  • Removed: docs/getting-started.md
  • Updated: mkdocs.yml navigation to reflect new structure

Collection Testing Guide (docs/getting-started-collections.md)

  • Collection-focused testing for roles, plugins, and modules
  • Testing within collection structure (extensions/molecule/)
  • Comprehensive coverage of collection development workflows
  • Modern ansible-native configuration patterns

Playbook Testing Guide (docs/getting-started-playbooks.md) - NEW

  • Playbook-focused testing for ansible-creator projects
  • Linux container testing with Podman and network device testing with Arista EOS
  • Complete test lifecycle: create/prepare/converge/verify/cleanup/destroy
  • Advanced patterns: environment-specific testing, multi-playbook scenarios
  • Realistic CLI examples with --report --command-borders flags

Technical Features

Both Guides

  • Ansible-native approach: No legacy driver/platforms/provisioner constructs
  • Schema-valid configurations: All examples pass Molecule validation
  • Modern CLI patterns: Proper flags and realistic output examples
  • Best practices: FQCN usage, proper cleanup patterns, co-located requirements

Collection Guide Specifics

  • Collection development within extensions/molecule/ structure
  • Role and plugin testing patterns
  • Collection-specific dependency management

Playbook Guide Specifics

  • ansible-creator playbook project integration
  • Container (Linux) and network (EOS) testing examples
  • Molecule requirements in molecule/requirements.yml
  • Complete playbook examples with realistic verification

Target Workflows

  • Collection Developers: Testing roles, plugins, modules within collections
  • Playbook Engineers: Testing individual playbooks and combinations
  • Infrastructure Teams: Both containerized and network device testing

Benefits

  • Complete workflow coverage: From project creation to test execution
  • Technology diversity: Supports multiple testing scenarios (containers, network devices)
  • Modern approach: Uses current Molecule best practices and ansible-native patterns
  • Practical examples: Copy-paste ready configurations and playbooks

This PR provides engineers with comprehensive, working documentation for both major Molecule testing workflows while maintaining clear separation and modern technical patterns throughout.

@cidrblock cidrblock requested a review from a team as a code owner August 12, 2025 20:29
@github-actions github-actions Bot added the dependencies Pull requests that update a dependency file label Aug 12, 2025
@cidrblock cidrblock added enhancement and removed dependencies Pull requests that update a dependency file labels Aug 12, 2025
@cidrblock cidrblock marked this pull request as draft August 12, 2025 20:32
@cidrblock cidrblock marked this pull request as ready for review August 13, 2025 13:50
@cidrblock cidrblock requested a review from Copilot August 13, 2025 13:50
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Pull Request Overview

This PR refactors the getting-started documentation to demonstrate comprehensive collection testing patterns rather than simple role-only testing. It introduces a new approach that emphasizes testing multiple collection components with shared state management and resource orchestration.

  • Adds integration test infrastructure with ansible-creator collection scaffolding
  • Transforms documentation to focus on collection-level testing with multiple components and scenarios
  • Introduces shared state testing patterns for efficient resource management

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
tests/integration/test_introduction.py New integration test that validates collection scaffolding via shell script execution
tests/integration/collection.sh Shell script that creates complete collection testing scaffolding with multiple scenarios
docs/getting-started.md Complete rewrite focusing on collection testing patterns, shared state, and comprehensive component testing
.config/requirements-test.txt Adds ansible-creator dependency for test infrastructure
.config/dictionary.txt Adds terms for new testing patterns
.config/constraints.txt Updates constraints to include ansible-creator and its dependencies

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Comment thread tests/integration/collection.sh Outdated
Comment thread tests/integration/collection.sh Outdated
Comment thread docs/getting-started.md Outdated
Comment thread docs/getting-started.md Outdated
@cidrblock cidrblock changed the title Refactor getting-started.md for collection testing patterns Refactor getting-started into playbook and collection Aug 15, 2025
@cidrblock cidrblock changed the title Refactor getting-started into playbook and collection docs: Add comprehensive getting started guides for collections and playbooks Aug 15, 2025
@cidrblock cidrblock changed the title docs: Add comprehensive getting started guides for collections and playbooks Add comprehensive getting started guides for collections and playbooks Aug 15, 2025
@cidrblock cidrblock closed this Aug 15, 2025
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2 participants