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Instance-level project templates

    • Closed Issue created by Andreas Kämmerle @akaemmerle

    Problem to solve

    Especially in larger projects, setting up new GitLab projects from scratch can be a repetitive task. Often, there is a lot of configuration files and boilerplate required.
    We already have project templates, but these are GitLab-owned and cannot be customized (refered to as "vendor templates"). A solution to set up project templates based on actual GitLab projects is needed.

    Further details

    Relevant use cases for project templates on instance-level:

    • Unchanged, default templates only (you have vendored templates only)
    • As an admin, add your own templates based on a selected group (have both vendored and custom)
    • Add additional custom templates
    • Disable vendored templates (same effect as disable templates)

    Proposal

    Let's add the option for Administrators to select one group in the GitLab instance that holds GitLab projects that are offered as project templates, when creating a new project.

    • As an Admin I can select an (one) existing group whose projects should serve as instance-wide project templates
      • Every project within this group will be available as project template when creating a new project
    • A new default _gitlab group contains the packaged GitLab-delivered project templates
      • Move into separate issue
    • As a users I can choose from built-in vendor templates and custom instance-level project templates (if defined) when creating a new project
      • Template types are separated via individual tabs

    Designs

    Changing template source

    Admin area → Settings → Custom project templates

    set-project-template-source

    Create project from a template

    Built-in Custom
    new-project--built-in new-project--custom

    Implementation details

    • Projects are displayed as templates based on the default branch

    What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

    • If a template group is defined, projects inside this group are made available as project templates when creating a new project.

    Links / references

    • gitlab-ce#32420
    • gitlab-ce#36886
    ✓ 1 of 1 checklist item completed · Edited

    Designs

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      Activity

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