How can I create multiple documents from one set of variables?

[stueja]

Description

In our training for medical IT, we use ~30 workbooks which basically describe the same exercises in slightly different order. The exercises have different parameters per system, e. g. IP address, hostname, etc. Some of these parameters change on a yearly basis, e. g. a certain password.

My predecessor created ~30 single, separate MS Word documents for system1, system2, ... system30 with tables, tables-in-tables, and images in tables and out of tables and in between tables and I have now inherited that mess. I dearly want to convert that reproducibility hell into something which is more adjustable, handle-able and reproducible.

So far, I have tried

1. a Book project with project profiles. The workbook-system1.yml allows me to define the system's variables as well as the chapter structure. In this case, I would need ~30 project profiles, one per medical system.
2. a single .qmd file with includes. A workbook-system1.qmd, just like the Book, allows me to define the system's variables as well as the chapter structure, plus I'd end up with one .pdf per .qmd. In this case, I'd need ~30 .qmd files.
3. a single .yml file with system settings for each system, e. g. IP address, plus one .qmd file and/or includes which use {{< var/meta system1.ipaddress >}} and {{< var/meta system2.ipaddress >}} and so on. Here, I'd need one .yml file and ~30 .qmd files.
4. The --metadata command line argument. Allows me to be independent of one or many .yml files, but takes ~30 calls with ~20 parameters each time.

I have read #7805, #7814, #2021, but they seem unrelated to my case.

One thing which came to my mind is whether it is possible to loop over the variables of the .yml file and create one book project from one iteration. Or whether it is possible to tell quarto to render a book project only with a subset of variables from the .yml.

I guess the overarching question is: which is the best way to have the least amount of .yml files with the least amount of .qmd files?

Thank you.

[mcanouil]

I believe the following demo is of interest to you:

• https://github.com/mcanouil/generate-quarto-invoices
  It uses one single Quarto document.

You don't necessarily have to use YAML file as you could set individual value from the command line.

[mcanouil]

Or whether it is possible to tell quarto to render a book project only with a subset of variables from the .yml.

Take a look at conditional content and project profiles:

• https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/conditional.html
• https://quarto.org/docs/projects/profiles.html

[stueja]

Take a look at conditional content and project profiles:

I believe this would require documents like

:::{.content-visible when-project="system1"}
some text/include for system1
:::

:::{.content-visible when-project="system2"}
some text/include for system2
:::
... and so on for every system...

Wouldn't it? And I believe I need that syntax for making the workbooks differ between an expert, intermediate and beginner level, but that is a future step in this project.

I believe the following demo is of interest to you:

* https://github.com/mcanouil/generate-quarto-invoices

This looks very promising. If I understand correctly so far, a kind of pre-processing script before the actual quarto processing takes place. I will have a closer look at that.

The --metadata-file switch is nowhere to be found on the quarto website nor in quarto help render. Thanks for that, I didn't know it existed.

[mcanouil]

Take a look at conditional content and project profiles:

I believe this would require documents like

:::{.content-visible when-project="system1"}

some text/include for system1

:::



:::{.content-visible when-project="system2"}

some text/include for system2

:::

... and so on for every system...

Don't make up things, simply use what is documented in the page I linked, i.e., when-profile: https://quarto.org/docs/projects/profiles.html

The repository I shared is only one of the various ways to achieve what you want.
There is not really one above the other.

[harrelfe]

Sometimes looping at the command line level is simplest, e.g.

for(….) {
  system(paste(‘quarto render’, …))
}

Wwhere paste(…) puts together the right yaml parameter to hand to the template and specifies the name of the output file for the current loop.