Expand types of variable data sources

[ang-zeyu]

Is your request related to a problem?

#1117 added support for json variables from an external file. This is handy if you have a such a file to be reused in multiple pages.

Describe the solution you'd like

Let's also support inline json variables for a start, allowing definition in the page itself, or within variables.md:

Some other files can also be transformed into similar formats with appropriate processing ( can be done in multiple PRs ):

• excel files
• csvs
• ❔
• web requests - possibly out of scope?

Describe alternatives you've considered
na

Additional context
na

[ang-zeyu]

on hold per #1353, can be done just after external variables are reimplemented though

[raysonkoh]

Hi @ang-zeyu , I am not sure about the use-case in your example for the key "a" which has a json object as a value. This means that something like would be valid?

<variable type="json">
{ 
  a: {
    b: {
      c: {
        d: "some value"
      }
    }
  }
}
</variable>

[ang-zeyu]

sorry @raysonkoh, I forgot to update this issue after #1353 (2nd item)

this issue should be adjusted to support just the latter few checkboxes (excel, csvs, ...) in {% ext %} tags (nunjucks' {% set %} already allows inline json)

Hi @ang-zeyu , I am not sure about the use-case in your example for the key "a" which has a json object as a value. This means that something like would be valid?

but to answer your question, that would be valid too. (nunjucks allows assigning any object to a variable)

[raysonkoh]

I see, okay I shall work on the other file types. Thanks for the clarification @ang-zeyu !