From 0d31edfdf924db134abef933e4bfe63c10468cb7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Commenter <c@commenter.cc>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2024 21:23:08 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Document anchor/alias functionality

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 docs/users/presets/subpresets.md | 97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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+
+# Aliases & Subpresets
+
+If you're making more than one preset, you probably have things you'd prefer to not copy to every preset. Maybe some finely tuned quality settings, or different variations and crops. Thankfully, YAML has an anchor & alias feature to help with this.
+
+Anchors are defined with a `&` and a name, placed after a key, but before the value. For the sake of example, we've defined a quality for JPEG, and given it the anchor "high_quality".
+
+```yml
+  default: 
+    format_quality:
+      jpg: &high_quality 90
+```
+
+With our anchor added, we can refer back to it with an alias. These are in the same format, but we use a `*` instead. (and we don't place a value, since we're making the alias our value!)
+
+```yml
+  logo: 
+    format_quality:
+      jpg: *high_quality
+```
+
+Now any time we change our default quality, the quality in the logo preset will be updated too!
+
+
+## Subpresets
+
+Where this feature really gets powerful, is the ability to base a preset entirely off another.
+
+In the block below, we've created a base preset, which we'll build every other one upon. We can override any of the values later on, if we want to.
+
+```yml
+  base: &base
+    formats: [webp, original]
+    format_quality:
+      webp: 90
+    attributes:
+      img: 'loading="lazy"'
+```
+
+Now we can use the special merge key, `<<`, which will copy all values from an aliased map into the new one.
+
+```yml
+  default:
+    <<: *base
+    widths: [500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1200, 1600]
+    link_source: true
+
+  project_showcase:
+    <<: *base
+    widths: [700, 864, 900, 1296, 1600, 1728]
+```
+
+Since both of these new presets merge our base preset, the final result will be parsed like this:
+
+```yml
+  default:
+    formats: [webp, original]
+    format_quality:
+      webp: 90
+    attributes:
+      img: 'loading="lazy"'
+    widths: [500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1200, 1600]
+    link_source: true
+
+  project_showcase:
+    formats: [webp, original]
+    format_quality:
+      webp: 90
+    attributes:
+      img: 'loading="lazy"'
+    widths: [700, 864, 900, 1296, 1600, 1728]
+```
+
+Note however, this is **not a deep merge**, only a shallow merge. What that means is, any values nested in the preset will be overwritten by the presence of a key. If we bring back our previous example, but add an attribute to it:
+
+```yml
+  project_showcase:
+    <<: *base
+    widths: [700, 864, 900, 1296, 1600, 1728]
+    attributes:
+      picture: 'class="showcase"'
+```
+
+You'll notice that, although we didn't change the `img` attributes, the parsed result will be **missing the attributes from the parent preset**, like this:
+
+```yml
+  project_showcase:
+    formats: [webp, original]
+    format_quality:
+      webp: 90
+    attributes:
+      picture: 'class="showcase"'
+    widths: [700, 864, 900, 1296, 1600, 1728]
+```