From c1d90e3f2d8d866946ed48f2fca676ef0fa41fc4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dag Wieers <dag@wieers.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 16:37:48 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Added a section wrt. hybrid plugins and provide an example
 for lookup plugins

---
 docsite/rst/porting_guide_2.0.rst | 124 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 124 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docsite/rst/porting_guide_2.0.rst b/docsite/rst/porting_guide_2.0.rst
index b2b6b15dd1c..6f08bd01c45 100644
--- a/docsite/rst/porting_guide_2.0.rst
+++ b/docsite/rst/porting_guide_2.0.rst
@@ -254,6 +254,130 @@ Connection plugins
 * connection plugins
 
 
+Hybrid plugins
+==============
+In specific cases you may want a plugin that supports both ansible-1.9.x *and*
+ansible-2.0. Much like porting plugins from v1 to v2, you need to understand
+how plugins work in each version and support both requirements. It may mean
+playing tricks on Ansible.
+
+Since the ansible-2.0 plugin system is more advanced, it is easier to adapt
+your plugin to provide similar pieces (subclasses, methods) for ansible-1.9.x
+as ansible-2.0 expects. This way your code will look a lot cleaner.
+
+You may find the following tips useful:
+
+* Check whether the ansible-2.0 class(es) are available and if they are missing
+  (ansible-1.9.x) mimic them with the needed methods (e.g. `__init__`)
+
+* When ansible-2.0 python modules are imported, and they fail (ansible-1.9.x),
+  catch the `ImportError` exception and perform the equivalent imports for
+  ansible-1.9.x. With possible translations (e.g. importing specific methods).
+
+* Use the existence of these methods as a qualifier to what version of Ansible
+  you are running. So rather than using version checks, you can do capability
+  checks instead. (See examples below)
+
+* Document for each if-then-else case for which specific version each block is
+  needed. This will help others to understand how they have to adapt their
+  plugins, but it will also help you to remove the older ansible-1.9.x support
+  when it is deprecated.
+
+* When doing plugin development, it is very useful to have the `warning()`
+  method during development, but it is also important to emit warnings for
+  deadends (cases that you expect should never be triggered) or corner cases
+  (e.g. cases where you expect misconfigurations).
+
+
+Lookup plugins
+--------------
+As a simple example we are going to make a hybrid `fileglob` lookup plugin.
+The `fileglob` lookup plugin is pretty simple to understand::
+
+    from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
+    __metaclass__ = type
+
+    import os
+    import glob
+
+    try:
+        # ansible-2.0
+        from ansible.plugins.lookup import LookupBase
+    except ImportError:
+        # ansible-1.9.x
+
+        class LookupBase(object):
+            def __init__(self, basedir=None, runner=None, **kwargs):
+                self.runner = runner
+                self.basedir = self.runner.basedir
+
+            def get_basedir(self, variables):
+                return self.basedir
+
+    try:
+        # ansible-1.9.x
+        from ansible.utils import (listify_lookup_plugin_terms, path_dwim, warning)
+    except ImportError:
+        # ansible-2.0
+        from __main__ import display
+        warning = display.warning
+
+    class LookupModule(LookupBase):
+
+        # For ansible-1.9.x, we added inject=None as valid arguments
+        def run(self, terms, inject=None, variables=None, **kwargs):
+
+            # ansible-2.0, but we made this work for ansible-1.9.x too !
+            basedir = self.get_basedir(variables)
+
+            # ansible-1.9.x
+            if 'listify_lookup_plugin_terms' in globals():
+                terms = listify_lookup_plugin_terms(terms, basedir, inject)
+
+            ret = []
+            for term in terms:
+                term_file = os.path.basename(term)
+
+                # For ansible-1.9.x, we imported path_dwim() from ansible.utils
+                if 'path_dwim' in globals():
+                    # ansible-1.9.x
+                    dwimmed_path = path_dwim(basedir, os.path.dirname(term))
+                else:
+                    # ansible-2.0
+                    dwimmed_path = self._loader.path_dwim_relative(basedir, 'files', os.path.dirname(term))
+
+                globbed = glob.glob(os.path.join(dwimmed_path, term_file))
+                ret.extend(g for g in globbed if os.path.isfile(g))
+
+            return ret
+
+Note that in the above example we did not use the `warning()` method as we
+had no direct use for it in the final version. However we left this code in
+so people can use this part during development/porting/use.
+
+
+
+Connection plugins
+------------------
+
+* connection plugins
+
+Action plugins
+--------------
+
+* action plugins
+
+Callback plugins
+----------------
+
+* callback plugins
+
+Connection plugins
+------------------
+
+* connection plugins
+
+
 Porting custom scripts
 ======================