Inquiry about the Role and Necessity of .yaml Files in nRF9160 Cellular IoT Application Development

RE: Inquiry about the Role and Necessity of .yaml Files in nRF9160 Cellular IoT Application Development

AHaug — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 08:14:10 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="purushothaman"]One particular area of confusion for me is the varying .yaml configurations across different sample projects. While I understand that these configurations are tailored to specific project requirements, the differences make it challenging to determine which configurations to follow, especially when working on new projects.[/quote]

This subpage of https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/zephyr/samples/sample_definition_and_criteria.html explains my previous comment better. It says that Twister, a test runner, needs to be able to build every sample developer.nordicsemi.com/.../twister.html configuration of the .yaml in both the samples and in the academy samples are created according to these configurations.

[quote user="purushothaman"]However, I'm curious to know if there's a similar rationale behind the differences in LED-related configurations between different projects.[/quote]

Yes, there's a similar rationale between how these two .yaml are set up, where the major difference is the platforms supported. In the LTE Cellular academy course the samples are only supported for nRF91 family devices, while the samples found in the SDK, such as the Blinky samples, should support all frdm_k64f platforms (which includes all other nRF SoCs and more that are supported in NCS and Zephyr)

In general, you don't need the sample.yaml for a custom project in your own custom firmware that will go into your custom hardware. It is however important to add if this should be tested with Twister at any point in time, such as with the samples found in nRF Connect SDK

I hope this answers your questions

Kind regards,
Andreas

RE: Inquiry about the Role and Necessity of .yaml Files in nRF9160 Cellular IoT Application Development

purushothaman — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 13:40:48 GMT

Hi,

I've encountered some queries regarding the .yaml configurations across different projects within the nRF ecosystem. Your previous response shed some light on the usage of the sample.yaml file, which was greatly appreciated.

One particular area of confusion for me is the varying .yaml configurations across different sample projects. While I understand that these configurations are tailored to specific project requirements, the differences make it challenging to determine which configurations to follow, especially when working on new projects.

However, I still seek further clarification, particularly regarding the absence of LED-related configurations in the "Cellular IoT Fundamentals Course .yaml" compared to the explicit LED configurations present in the "Blinky Sample .yaml".

Your explanation regarding the sample.yaml file's role in listing supported kits was insightful. I understand that it forms a crucial part of the documentation for maintaining and managing the SDK and samples. However, I'm curious to know if there's a similar rationale behind the differences in LED-related configurations between different projects.

Could you kindly provide insights into why LED-related configurations are present in one project but not in the other? Understanding this discrepancy will greatly assist me in effectively utilizing the provided resources for my development tasks.

Additionally, you mentioned that everything needed to understand how this works is documented in the parent page to template_sample. I will certainly explore the provided documentation for further clarification. Nevertheless, any additional guidance or pointers regarding LED-related configurations would be immensely helpful.

For better context, below are the specific .yaml configurations for the "Cellular IoT Fundamentals Course" and the "Blinky Sample":

Cellular IoT Fundamentals Course .yaml:
- Name: Cellular IoT Fundamentals Course
- Configuration:
  
  yamlCopy code
  
  tests:
  samples.cellular.fundamentals_course:
  build_only: true
  platform_allow: nrf9161dk_nrf9161_ns nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns thingy91_nrf9160_ns
  integration_platforms:
  - nrf9161dk_nrf9161_ns
  - nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns
  - thingy91_nrf9160_ns
  tags: ci_build
Blinky Sample .yaml:
- Name: Blinky Sample
- Configuration:
  
  yamlCopy code
  
  sample:
  name: Blinky Sample
  tests:
  sample.basic.blinky:
  tags:
  - LED
  - gpio
  filter: dt_enabled_alias_with_parent_compat("led0", "gpio-leds")
  depends_on: gpio
  harness: led
  integration_platforms:
  - frdm_k64f

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I eagerly await your response.

Warm regards,
Purushothaman

RE: Inquiry about the Role and Necessity of .yaml Files in nRF9160 Cellular IoT Application Development

AHaug — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:41:10 GMT

Hi,

The sample.yaml that are used cointains a list of supported kits. It is explained as "Supported kits are listed in a table, which is composed of rows from the doc/nrf/includes/sample_board_rows.txt file. Select the required rows in the :rows: configuration, or use the .. table-from-sample-yaml:: directive to include all build targets specified in the sample.yaml file." in https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/templates/sample_README.html which is a part of the documentation we have for maintaining and managing a SDK and samples.

Everything you should ever need to know about how this works is documented in the parent page to template_sample, i.e in https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/dev_model_and_contributions.html

Kind regards,
Andreas