Project templates

You can bootstrap your teams' Git-based projects using project templates. A project template helps you achieve better outcomes and more reliable results through these benefits:

Increased consistency between projects
Faster project setup
Better adherence to best practices
Stronger collaboration

In your Git-based projects, you can leverage a Git repository as your project template. Organize your repository and your project following the best practices for your field. Every team member can get started on a new project by making a copy of the project template.

Which project artifacts are copied?

When you copy a Git-based project, certain configurations and materials are copied to the new Project while others are not:

	Copied	Not copied
Project overview	Tags, description, goals, and README	Entity links to goals (Workspaces, Jobs, Apps, Model APIs, files)
Project materials	Files, artifacts, code, datasets and imported Git repository, imported projects	External data sources, audit data, run history, discussion history
Project settings	Environment variables, hardware tier, environment, results, exports, integrations, and visibility (public, searchable, private) , Project goal stages	Access and sharing
Other		Published applications, Model APIs, and Launchers

Copied

Not copied

Project overview

Tags, description, goals, and README

Entity links to goals (Workspaces, Jobs, Apps, Model APIs, files)

Project materials

Files, artifacts, code, datasets and imported Git repository, imported projects

External data sources, audit data, run history, discussion history

Project settings

Environment variables, hardware tier, environment, results, exports, integrations, and visibility (public, searchable, private) , Project goal stages

Access and sharing

Other

Published applications, Model APIs, and Launchers

Note	Datasets can only be copied to a new project through the Domino API with the parameter `copyDatasets:true`. See the code examples below.

Deep copy vs. reference copy

To support different needs, Git-based projects support two modes of copy: reference copy and deep copy.

Deep copy: This creates an independent copy of the original repository. Use this when building a brand new project from a template. You can create a deep copy using the Domino UI or the API.
Reference copy: All the changes in one project are reflected in all the referenced projects. Use this when multiple parallel projects rely on the same main Git repository. For example, this is a common scenario for statistical analysis in the pharmaceutical field. You can only create a reference copy using the Domino API.

Create a deep copy

Using the Domino UI or the API, you can create a deep copy of any Git-based project. This creates a copy of the original repository that you can modify independently.

Deep copy using the Domino UI

Navigate to the Git-based project you want to copy as your project template, then click the Copy button.
Enter the name for your new project, then click Next.
Enter your Git credentials, then click Copy.

Deep copy using the Domino API

import requests

project_id = 'asdf1234'
code_repo_credential_id = 'asdf123'
domino_project_name = 'my_new_project'
shared_repo_url = 'https://github.com/user/repo.git'
url = f'https://host.com/api/projects/v1/projects/{project_id}/copy-project'
body = {
	'name': domino_project_name,
    'visibility': 'private',
	'copyDatasets': true,
	'gitCodeRepoSpec': {
		'credentialId': code_repo_credential_id,
        'deepCopy': {
            'visibility': 'private',
            'newRepoName': 'new_git_repo',
            'newRepoOwnerName': 'git_user'
		}
	}
}

requests.post(url, data=body)

Create a reference copy

When you create a reference copy, all the changes in one project are reflected in all the referenced projects. Use this when multiple parallel projects rely on the same main Git repository.

The Python example below illustrates how you can automatically create a reference copy of a project template using the Domino API.

import requests

project_id = 'asdf1234'
code_repo_credential_id = 'asdf123'
domino_project_name = 'my_new_project'
shared_repo_url = 'https://github.com/user/repo.git'
url = f'https://host.com/api/projects/v1/projects/{project_id}/copy-project'
body = {
	'name': domino_project_name,
    'visibility': 'private',
	'copyDatasets': true,
	'gitCodeRepoSpec': {
		'credentialId': code_repo_credential_id,
		'referenceCopy': {
			'mainRepoUrl': shared_repo_url
		}
	}
}

requests.post(url, data=body)

Troubleshooting: Dataset copy error

java.lang.RuntimeException: One or more of the datasets in this project are already being copied elsewhere.
Please wait for them to copy and then try again.

When you copy a dataset from one project to another, it is locked in a “copying” state until the copying operation finishes. To maintain the integrity of the dataset, it cannot be copied anywhere else while in this state.

If you receive the error above, your new project was not created. Wait for the datasets to finish copying into the previous project and then try again with the same API call. The error can occur if the dataset is already being copied into a different project, or if you try to copy the same project several times in a short interval with copyDatasets=true.

Limitations & requirements

Only GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, and GitLab Enterprise are supported providers. Other providers such as Bitbucket are not supported.
SSH credentials are not supported. You must use a Personal Access Token with repository read and write permissions enabled.
In order to copy a Git-based project, the GitHub repository you want to copy must be a template repository:

Collaborators on the parent project are not copied to the new dataset or project.