Use Profiles to streamline Python client setup

What problem do profiles solve?

Profiles provide a shorthand for constructing clients. A profile stores client parameters in a file and gives them an alias, so that something like this:

from tiled.client import from_uri
from tiled.client.cache import Cache

client = from_uri("https://tiled-demo.blueskyproject.io")

can be replaced with the more memorable and succinct

from tiled.client import from_profile

client = from_profile("demo")

Create a profile

$ tiled profile create --name demo https://tiled-demo.blueskyproject.io

Review and edit profiles

To list the names of the profiles on your system, along with the path to the file where each one is defined…

$ tiled profile list

To show the contents of a profile…

$ tiled profile show PROFILE_NAME

To open a profile in your default plain text editor…

$ tiled profile edit PROFILE_NAME

See $ tiled profile --help for more commands.

Advanced Options

You can edit the profile in a text editor to apply more advanced options. See Client Profiles Reference for a comprehensive reference.

Where are profiles stored?

Profiles are specified in YAML files located in any of several locations, including:

/etc/tiled/profiles
~/.config/tiled/profiles

Tiled will also look for profiles in locations specific to the operating system and the software environment, in accordance with standards. To see the full list on your system:

$ tiled profile paths

Within these directories, you may have:

  • Any number of configuration files

  • Named whatever you want

  • With one or more profiles per configuration file

That is, you can keep one file with all your profiles or organize them by grouping them into several separate files, named whatever you want.

The paths later in the list—“closer to the user”—take precedence in the event of name collisions. See the section on Merging Rules below for details.

Note

Tiled always looks in three places for profiles:

  1. A system-wide directory. This is used by administrators to distribute profiles that all users can see.

  2. A directory in the currently active Python software environment (for example, the conda environment). This is used by software packages to distribute profiles that support their software.

  3. A user-controlled directory (a subdirectory of $HOME). This is for users’ personal productivity.

The default locations for (1) and (3) can be overridden by setting the environment variables TILED_SITE_PROFILES and TILED_PROFILES, respectively, to the desired path.

Merging rules

Situation #1: In the event of a name collision within one file like:

my_profile:
   ...
my_proifile:  # oops, reused the same name
   ...

the second one will win. (This is just how YAML works. We wish we could issue a warning or something to let you know that something looks off, but we have no way to do that without going to great lengths.)

Situation #2: In the event of a name collision between files in different directories, the one in the directory “closer to the user”—later in the list of paths—will take precedence. No warning will be issued. This the normal way for users to override a default system- or environment-level configuration with their own preferences.

Situation #3: In the event of a name collision between two files in the same directory:

# some/directory/some_profiles.yaml
my_profile:
    ...

# some/directory/yet_more_profiles.yaml
my_profile:
    ...

Tiled has no way of guessing which is “right” so it refuses to load either one, and it issues a warning indicating that this profile will be skipped until the issue is resolved.

If the collision occurs in the system or software environment directory and you do not have the access necessary to edit those configurations and resolve the issue, you can override the problematic name by defining a new profile with that name in your user configuration directory. As described in Situation #2, the version in the user configuration directory will take precedence. The collision will therefore become irrelevant and will be ignored.

If the collision occurs in the user directory, then you (of course) have the access necessary to fix it, and you should.

Advanced: “Direct” Profiles

Note

Return to this section after reading Use Tiled in Python without an HTTP server.

For development and debugging, it can be convenient to place service and client configuration together in a profile. To do this, include the special key direct: with the service-side configuration nested inside of it.

Here is a complete example.

# profiles.yml
my_profile:
  direct:
     trees:
       - path: /
         tree: tiled.catalog:from_uri
         args:
           uri: "/path/to/catalog.db"

This takes the place of the uri: parameter. A profile must contain either uri: or direct: but not both. It can sit alongside other usual client-side configuration, such as

# profiles.yml
my_profile:
  direct:
    trees:
      - path: /
        tree: tiled.catalog:from_uri
        args:
          directory: "/path/to/catalog.db"
  cache:
    capacity: 2_000_000_000 # 2 GB

Reference

See Client Profiles Reference for a comprehensive reference.