Integration of snippets with macros variables

[hellt]

I am a heavy user of snippets, where I embed config files in the docs like this:

```yaml
--8<-- "docs/test.yml"
```

But I also use the macros plugin to define global and local variables in my markdown to parametrize docs and avoid drift.

For example:

---
latest_version: 2.0.0
---

# Hi reader

The latest version is {{latest_version}}

The challenge is to combine the two. I would love to see if that is technically possible to do this:

---
latest_version: 2.0.0
---

```yaml
--8<-- "docs/test.yml"
```

where in the docs/test.yml the variable {{latest_version}} would have been substituted

[facelessuser]

I'm not sure I understand. You mention macros, is this a specific package that offers you this functionality (I know there are probably a couple, so specifics are important).

Ultimately, what this comes down to is a matter of which preprocessor runs first. If macros is run before snippets, then macros would be replaced before snippets handle the file insertion, but be warned, macros would probably only see the top-level snippet inclusion in a specific page. Snippets will grab nested snippets, but ultimately, every other plugin will only see the main document's content either before Snippets does its thing or the final result after Snippets does its thing, depending on when those other plugins are run.

In your case, I get the impression that maybe your macros plugin is running before Snippets? Because it doesn't see the content in your Snippet. There are probably a number of plugins that all feel like they should be run before all other plugins, so then you can get into a war where one plugins changes to run earlier, and then someone with a specific use case goes, "oh, no I need to run mine even earlier". This can become subjective depending on your use case.

Since I don't know what macros plugin you are talking about, I don't know when it runs, so I don't know the specifics. You would need to provide more information, but at least what I've described above lays a foundation for understanding the problem. Once you provide more info, we can talk specifics.

[hellt]

right, I think I never linked the macros plugin I am using

It is https://mkdocs-macros-plugin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

And, indeed, it runs first, according to the log:

❯ ./run.sh serve-docs-full
INFO    -  DeprecationWarning: warning_filter doesn't do anything since MkDocs 1.2 and will be removed soon. All messages on the `mkdocs` logger get counted automatically.
             File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mkdocs_macros/util.py", line 20, in <module>
               from mkdocs.utils import warning_filter
             File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mkdocs/utils/__init__.py", line 403, in __getattr__
               warnings.warn(
INFO    -  Building documentation...
INFO    -  [macros] - Macros arguments: {'module_name': 'macros/main', 'modules': [], 'include_dir': 'macros', 'include_yaml': [], 'j2_block_start_string': '-{{%', 'j2_block_end_string': '%}}-', 'j2_variable_start_string': '-{{', 'j2_variable_end_string': '}}-', 'on_undefined': 'keep',
           'on_error_fail': False, 'verbose': False}
INFO    -  [macros] - Found local Python module 'macros/main' in: /docs
INFO    -  [macros] - Found external Python module 'macros/main' in: /docs
INFO    -  [macros] - Extra variables (config file): ['social', 'annotate']
INFO    -  [macros] - Extra filters (module): ['pretty']
INFO    -  [macros] - Includes directory: macros
INFO    -  [macros] - Found j2 variable 'block_start_string': '-{{%'
INFO    -  [macros] - Found j2 variable 'block_end_string': '%}}-'
INFO    -  [macros] - Found j2 variable 'variable_start_string': '-{{'
INFO    -  [macros] - Found j2 variable 'variable_end_string': '}}-'
INFO    -  git-committers plugin DISABLED
INFO    -  git-committers: found page authors cache file - loading it
INFO    -  Cleaning site directory
INFO    -  Documentation built in 2.79 seconds
INFO    -  [macros] - We will also watch: ['macros']
INFO    -  [18:15:47] Watching paths for changes: 'docs', 'mkdocs.yml', 'macros', 'layouts'
INFO    -  [18:15:47] Serving on http://0.0.0.0:8000/
INFO    -  [18:15:53] Browser connected: http://clab.orb.local:8000/

The reason I was asking this question here is to check if there are options to provide the vars to the snippets plugin via some sort of a metadata

[facelessuser]

MkDocs Macros is not only run first but it would be run on the file before the Python Markdown process is even run. So Snippets won't even know anything about what macros replaced because everything is replaced long before Python Markdown and its plugins (which Snippets is part of) is even run. I'm unaware of whether MkDocs Macros even provides anything to Python Markdown afterward.

Honestly, if you need these things to work together and you are doing templating via macros, it may make sense to just include files with macros. I don't know how possible that is or not as I've never used macros.

The TL;DR of it all is that you could do something like below to pick a certain file to include, but you can't expect the nested file to know anything about about those macros variables.

---
latest_version: 2.0.0
---

```yaml
--8<-- "docs/test{latest_version}.yml"
```

Snippets does not apply Jinja templating and is not integrated with Macro's Jinja templating.