Creating script templates
=========================

Godot provides a way to use script templates as seen in the
`Script Create Dialog` while creating a new script:

![](img/script_create_dialog_templates.png)

A set of default script templates is provided by default, but it's also possible
to modify existing and create new ones, both per project and the editor.

Locating the templates
----------------------

There are two places where templates can be managed.

Editor-defined templates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are available globally throughout any project. The location of these
templates are determined per each OS:

-  Windows: `%APPDATA%\Godot\script_templates\`
-  Linux: `$HOME/.config/godot/script_templates/`
-  macOS: `$HOME/Library/Application Support/Godot/script_templates/`

If no `script_templates` is detected, Godot will create a default set of
built-in templates automatically, so this logic can be used to reset the default
templates in case you've accidentally overwritten them.

Project-defined templates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The default path to search for templates is the
`res://script_templates/` directory. The path can be changed by configuring
the `editor/script_templates_search_path` setting in the
`ProjectSettings`, both via code and the editor.

If no `script_templates` directory is found within a project, it is simply
ignored.

Language support and overriding behavior
----------------------------------------

Depending on whether a particular language implements a way to generate scripts
out of templates, it's possible to create a template which can be recognized by
that language according to template's file extension. For GDScript and C#, the
extensions must be `gd` and `cs` respectively.

Note:
 The script templates have the same extension as the regular script
          files. This may lead to an issue of a script parser treating those templates as
          actual scripts within a project. To avoid this, make sure to ignore the
          directory containing them by creating an empty `.gdignore` file. The directory won't be
          visible throughout the project's filesystem anymore, yet the templates can be
          modified by an external text editor anytime.

The built-in editor templates are automatically shadowed by the project-specific
templates given both scripts have the same filename.

Default template
----------------

The `Default` template is always generated dynamically per language and cannot
be configured nor overridden, but you can use these as the base for creating
other templates.


gdscript GDScript

```
    extends %BASE%


    # Declare member variables here. Examples:
    # var a%INT_TYPE% = 2
    # var b%STRING_TYPE% = "text"


    # Called when the node enters the scene tree for the first time.
    func _ready()%VOID_RETURN%:
        pass # Replace with function body.


    # Called every frame. 'delta' is the elapsed time since the previous frame.
    #func _process(delta%FLOAT_TYPE%)%VOID_RETURN%:
    #	pass
```

List of template placeholders
-----------------------------

The following describes the complete list of built-in template placeholders
which are currently implemented.

Base placeholders
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Placeholder | Description                                                    |
+=============+================================================================+
| `%CLASS%` | The name of the new class (used in C# only).                   |
+-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| `%BASE%`  | The base type a new script inherits from.                      |
+-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| `%TS%`    | Indentation placeholder. The exact type and number of          |
|             | whitespace characters used for indentation is determined by    |
|             | the `text_editor/indent/type` and `text_editor/indent/size`|
|             | settings in the `EditorSettings`   |
|             | respectively.                                                  |
+-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Type placeholders
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are only relevant for GDScript with static typing. Whether these
placeholders are actually replaced is determined by the
`text_editor/completion/add_type_hints` setting in the
`EditorSettings`.

+-------------------+--------------+
| Placeholder       | Value        |
+===================+==============+
| `%INT_TYPE%`    | `: int`    |
+-------------------+--------------+
| `%STRING_TYPE%` | `: String` |
+-------------------+--------------+
| `%FLOAT_TYPE%`  | `: float`  |
+-------------------+--------------+
| `%VOID_RETURN%` | `-> void`  |
+-------------------+--------------+