Generators

EventCatalog generators are custom scripts executed before the build process begins.

During the catalog build, your configured generators run dynamically, providing the opportunity to utilize open-source generators and plugins or develop your own custom solutions.

Why use generators?

Generators can be used to automate areas of your catalog. Examples of this include API requests to get schemas from a cloud provider, or integrating with brokers. A generator script can be anything you want.

You can also use the EventCatalog SDK within your generators to interact with your catalog.

Getting Started

When configuring a generator you need to define an entry point and it's custom configuration.

In the example below we create a new plugin called plugin.js located in the root of the project. The object below is configuration the plugin will receive.

eventcatalog.config.js

generators: [
    [
        // This generator called 'plugin.js' is located at in the root of your catalog
      '<rootDir>/plugin.js',
      // This is custom configuration your generator can use.
      {
        customValue: true,
        hello: 'world'
      },
    ],
    // more generators...
  ],

/plugin.js

const utils = require('@eventcatalog/sdk');

// Plugins require CJS files at the moment, this is being worked on...
const { getEvent } = utils.default(__dirname);

// The config value is your EventCatalog config
// The options value is the configuration you pass to your plugin
module.exports = async (config, options) => {

    // access to your eventcatalog.config.js file
    const { homepageLink } = config;

    // Get values from your custom configuration
    const { customValue, hello  } = options;

    // Call the EventCatalog SDK
    const event = await getEvent('InventoryAdjusted');
}

Running your generators

To run your generators you need to call the command

npm run generate

Run generators in their debug mode.

npm run generate -- debug

EventCatalog will then run through your generators and call your scripts.