OpenStack SDK Developer Coding Standards
========================================

In the beginning, there were no guidelines. And it was good. But that
didn't last long. As more and more people added more and more code,
we realized that we needed a set of coding standards to make sure that
the *openstacksdk* API at least *attempted* to display some form of
consistency.

Thus, these coding standards/guidelines were developed. Note that not
all of *openstacksdk* adheres to these standards just yet. Some older code has
not been updated because we need to maintain backward compatibility.
Some of it just hasn't been changed yet. But be clear, all new code
*must* adhere to these guidelines.

Below are the patterns that we expect *openstacksdk* developers to follow.


Release Notes
-------------

*openstacksdk* uses `reno <https://docs.openstack.org/reno/latest/>`_ for
managing its release notes. A new release note should be added to
your contribution anytime you add new API calls, fix significant bugs,
add new functionality or parameters to existing API calls, or make any
other significant changes to the code base that we should draw attention
to for the user base.

It is *not* necessary to add release notes for minor fixes, such as
correction of documentation typos, minor code cleanup or reorganization,
or any other change that a user would not notice through normal usage.


Exceptions
----------

Exceptions should NEVER be wrapped and re-raised inside of a new exception.
This removes important debug information from the user. All of the exceptions
should be raised correctly the first time.


openstack.cloud API Methods
---------------------------

The ``openstack.cloud`` layer has some specific rules:

- When an API call acts on a resource that has both a unique ID and a
  name, that API call should accept either identifier with a name_or_id
  parameter.

- All resources should adhere to the get/list/search interface that
  control retrieval of those resources. E.g., ``get_image()``,
  ``list_images()``, ``search_images()``.

- Resources should have ``create_RESOURCE()``, ``delete_RESOURCE()``,
  ``update_RESOURCE()`` API methods (as it makes sense).

- For those methods that should behave differently for omitted or None-valued
  parameters, use the ``_utils.valid_kwargs`` decorator. This includes all
  Neutron ``update_*`` functions.

- Deleting a resource should return True if the delete succeeded, or False
  if the resource was not found.

Returned Resources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``openstack.cloud`` layer should rely on the proxy layer for the given
service. This will ensure complex objects returned to the caller are of
``openstack.resource.Resource`` type.

Nova vs. Neutron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Recognize that not all cloud providers support Neutron, so never
  assume it will be present. If a task can be handled by either
  Neutron or Nova, code it to be handled by either.

- For methods that accept either a Nova pool or Neutron network, the
  parameter should just refer to the network, but documentation of it
  should explain about the pool. See: ``create_floating_ip()`` and
  ``available_floating_ip()`` methods.


Tests
-----

- New API methods *must* have unit tests!

- New unit tests should only mock at the REST layer using ``requests_mock``.
  Any mocking of *openstacksdk* itself should be considered legacy and to be
  avoided. Exceptions to this rule can be made when attempting to test the
  internals of a logical shim where the inputs and output of the method aren't
  actually impacted by remote content.

- Functional tests should be added, when possible.

- In functional tests, always use unique names (for resources that have this
  attribute) and use it for clean up (see next point).

- In functional tests, always define cleanup functions to delete data added
  by your test, should something go wrong. Data removal should be wrapped in
  a try except block and try to delete as many entries added by the test as
  possible.
