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+.. _scaffolding_chapter:
+
+Creating Pyramid Scaffolds
+==========================
+
+You can extend Pyramid by creating a :term:`scaffold` template.  A scaffold
+template is useful if you'd like to distribute a customizable configuration of
+Pyramid to other users.  Once you've created a scaffold, and someone has
+installed the distribution that houses the scaffold, they can use the
+``pcreate`` script to create a custom version of your scaffold's template.
+Pyramid itself uses scaffolds to allow people to bootstrap new projects.  For
+example, ``pcreate -s alchemy MyStuff`` causes Pyramid to render the
+``alchemy`` scaffold template to the ``MyStuff`` directory.
+
+Basics
+------
+
+A scaffold template is just a bunch of source files and directories on disk. A
+small definition class points at this directory.  It is in turn pointed at by a
+:term:`setuptools` "entry point" which registers the scaffold so it can be
+found by the ``pcreate`` command.
+
+To create a scaffold template, create a Python :term:`distribution` to house
+the scaffold which includes a ``setup.py`` that relies on the ``setuptools``
+package.  See `Packaging and Distributing Projects
+<https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/distributing/>`_ for more information
+about how to do this.  For example, we'll pretend the distribution you create
+is named ``CoolExtension``, and it has a package directory within it named
+``coolextension``.
+
+Once you've created the distribution, put a "scaffolds" directory within your
+distribution's package directory, and create a file within that directory named
+``__init__.py`` with something like the following:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+   :linenos:
+
+   # CoolExtension/coolextension/scaffolds/__init__.py
+
+   from pyramid.scaffolds import PyramidTemplate
+
+   class CoolExtensionTemplate(PyramidTemplate):
+       _template_dir = 'coolextension_scaffold'
+       summary = 'My cool extension'
+
+Once this is done, within the ``scaffolds`` directory, create a template
+directory.  Our example used a template directory named
+``coolextension_scaffold``.
+
+As you create files and directories within the template directory, note that:
+
+- Files which have a name which are suffixed with the value ``_tmpl`` will be
+  rendered, and replacing any instance of the literal string ``{{var}}`` with
+  the string value of the variable named ``var`` provided to the scaffold.
+
+- Files and directories with filenames that contain the string ``+var+`` will
+  have that string replaced with the value of the ``var`` variable provided to
+  the scaffold.
+
+- Files that start with a dot (e.g., ``.env``) are ignored and will not be
+  copied over to the destination directory. If you want to include a file with
+  a leading dot, then you must replace the dot with ``+dot+`` (e.g.,
+  ``+dot+env``).
+
+Otherwise, files and directories which live in the template directory will be
+copied directly without modification to the ``pcreate`` output location.
+
+The variables provided by the default ``PyramidTemplate`` include ``project``
+(the project name provided by the user as an argument to ``pcreate``),
+``package`` (a lowercasing and normalizing of the project name provided by the
+user), ``random_string`` (a long random string), and ``package_logger`` (the
+name of the package's logger).
+
+See Pyramid's "scaffolds" package
+(https://github.com/Pylons/pyramid/tree/master/pyramid/scaffolds) for concrete
+examples of scaffold directories (``zodb``, ``alchemy``, and ``starter``, for
+example).
+
+After you've created the template directory, add the following to the
+``entry_points`` value of your distribution's ``setup.py``:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [pyramid.scaffold]
+   coolextension=coolextension.scaffolds:CoolExtensionTemplate
+
+For example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    def setup(
+          ...,
+          entry_points = """\
+            [pyramid.scaffold]
+            coolextension=coolextension.scaffolds:CoolExtensionTemplate
+          """
+        )
+
+Run your distribution's ``setup.py develop`` or ``setup.py install`` command.
+After that, you should be able to see your scaffolding template listed when you
+run ``pcreate -l``.  It will be named ``coolextension`` because that's the name
+we gave it in the entry point setup.  Running ``pcreate -s coolextension
+MyStuff`` will then render your scaffold to an output directory named
+``MyStuff``.
+
+See the module documentation for :mod:`pyramid.scaffolds` for information about
+the API of the :class:`pyramid.scaffolds.Template` class and related classes.
+You can override methods of this class to get special behavior.
+
+Supporting Older Pyramid Versions
+---------------------------------
+
+Because different versions of Pyramid handled scaffolding differently, if you
+want to have extension scaffolds that can work across Pyramid 1.0.X, 1.1.X,
+1.2.X and 1.3.X, you'll need to use something like this bit of horror while
+defining your scaffold template:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+     :linenos:
+
+     try: # pyramid 1.0.X
+         # "pyramid.paster.paste_script..." doesn't exist past 1.0.X
+         from pyramid.paster import paste_script_template_renderer
+         from pyramid.paster import PyramidTemplate
+     except ImportError:
+         try: # pyramid 1.1.X, 1.2.X
+             # trying to import "paste_script_template_renderer" fails on 1.3.X
+             from pyramid.scaffolds import paste_script_template_renderer
+             from pyramid.scaffolds import PyramidTemplate
+         except ImportError: # pyramid >=1.3a2
+             paste_script_template_renderer = None
+             from pyramid.scaffolds import PyramidTemplate
+
+     class CoolExtensionTemplate(PyramidTemplate):
+         _template_dir = 'coolextension_scaffold'
+         summary = 'My cool extension'
+         template_renderer = staticmethod(paste_script_template_renderer)
+
+And then in the setup.py of the package that contains your scaffold, define
+the template as a target of both ``paste.paster_create_template`` (for
+``paster create``) and ``pyramid.scaffold`` (for ``pcreate``).
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+    [paste.paster_create_template]
+    coolextension=coolextension.scaffolds:CoolExtensionTemplate
+    [pyramid.scaffold]
+    coolextension=coolextension.scaffolds:CoolExtensionTemplate
+
+Doing this hideousness will allow your scaffold to work as a ``paster create``
+target (under 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2) or as a ``pcreate`` target (under 1.3).  If an
+invoker tries to run ``paster create`` against a scaffold defined this way
+under 1.3, an error is raised instructing them to use ``pcreate`` instead.
+
+If you want to support Pyramid 1.3 only, it's much cleaner, and the API is
+stable:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+   :linenos:
+
+   from pyramid.scaffolds import PyramidTemplate
+
+   class CoolExtensionTemplate(PyramidTemplate):
+       _template_dir = 'coolextension_scaffold'
+       summary = 'My cool_extension'
+
+You only need to specify a ``paste.paster_create_template`` entry point target
+in your ``setup.py`` if you want your scaffold to be consumable by users of
+Pyramid 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2.  To support only 1.3, specifying only the
+``pyramid.scaffold`` entry point is good enough.  If you want to support both
+``paster create`` and ``pcreate`` (meaning you want to support Pyramid 1.2 and
+some older version), you'll need to define both.
+
+Examples
+--------
+
+Existing third-party distributions which house scaffolding are available via
+:term:`PyPI`.  The ``pyramid_jqm``, ``pyramid_zcml``, and ``pyramid_jinja2``
+packages house scaffolds.  You can install and examine these packages to see
+how they work in the quest to develop your own scaffolding.