Developers’ Blog

Welcome to the BatConf Developers’ Blog! Here you’ll find development updates, tips, and other insights related to BatConf.

Security: Supply-Chain

Modern Python applications often carry significant supply chain risk through their dependencies. Each additional dependency represents a potential security risk and attack vector.

The BatConf Approach

By providing core functionality through the standard library and additional features through optional extras, BatConf demonstrates how thoughtful dependency management can significantly reduce supply chain risks. This “pay for what you need” approach ensures that applications carry only the dependencies they actually use.

Using batconf in your project does not bring any implicit dependencies

Optional Extras

Optional extras, such as Yaml support, should be explicitly documented in your project’s requirements.

Projects which only require Yaml for BatConf should document this explicitly:

pyproject.toml

dependencies = [
    "batconf[yaml]>=0.2",
]

Projects which require Yaml for their core functionality and for BatConf should make make this explicit.

pyproject.toml

dependencies = [
    "batconf[yaml]>=0.2",
    "pyyaml=*",
]

Big changes coming in 0.2.x

Possible breaking changes and new features

Optional Yaml dependency
- Yaml has been a hard-coded dependency, after 0.2.0 is released it will become an optional extra.
- We are adding more support for more config file types (.ini and .toml)
- Projects which currently utilize .yaml/.yml config files will need to update their dependencies ex: in your pyproject.toml file:
```
dependencies = [
    "batconf"
]
# changes to
dependencies = [
    "batconf[yaml]"
]
```
More Flexible Configuration Structure
- Originally, batconf required the config structure to match the project’s module structure. This worked in the context of the original Basic Automation Tool project, but its limits have become apparent.
- We are still working out the details, more to come as we approach the relase day.
- Objectives:
  - Developers should be able to structure their config as they see fit.
  - A structured config may become entirely optional.
  - Developers should be able to define the config structure independently of the module structure, in a single file, instead of scattered through __init.py__ files.
New Config File Sources
- .ini file support
- .toml file support
- Neither will require any additional dependencies.
- Using either of these options without Yaml support, means BatConf will require no additional dependencis beyond stdlib ;)