Using the ez-template plugin for Jenkins through the Jenkins Job DSL doesn't apply the template after creation - jenkins

Question

I am working on automating the creation of Jenkins jobs by using the Jenkins Job DSL (Groovy). Right now, I am trying to automate the creation of a job that uses the ez-template plugin to use an already existing template and apply that to my newly created job. However, after I am done writing the necessary configuration:
job('foo') {
properties {
templateImplementationProperty {
exclusions(['ez-templates', 'job-params', 'disabled', 'description'])
syncAssignedLabel(true)
syncBuildTriggers(true)
syncDescription(false)
syncDisabled(false)
syncMatrixAxis(true)
syncOwnership(true)
syncScm(true)
syncSecurity(true)
templateJobName('template')
}
}
}
the job gets created alright... except the template is never applied until AFTER I manually hit the save button on the UI in the newly created job. Checking the config.xml of the created job I can see that the xml contains the configuration I specified, but it was never applied.
Looking at the ez-template code, I can see that this is due to the silentSave feature that was implemented in that plugin - it writes configuration to disk without triggering any save events.
I've tried methods available to the Jenkins API but I've had no success there. Any ideas on how I can apply my configuration?

Answer 1

Full disclosure: I'm a co-worker, and was able to help shredmasteryjm solve this. I figured it'd be best to put this out on the net for others.
The Groovy code needed to trigger template implementation contents to be updated is:
import hudson.model.*;
import jenkins.model.*;
import com.joelj.jenkins.eztemplates.utils.TemplateUtils;
import com.joelj.jenkins.eztemplates.TemplateImplementationProperty;
Jenkins j = Jenkins.getInstance()
Item job = j.getItemByFullName('foo')
TemplateImplementationProperty template = TemplateUtils.getTemplateImplementationProperty(job)
TemplateUtils.handleTemplateImplementationSaved(job, template)
This utilizes the EZ-Templates TemplateUtils class to trigger the actual save event, using the template that the job uses. Of note, if job 'foo' doesn't implement a template, then the 'template' variable will be null, causing this code to error. YMMV
In our case, we needed to also add in some useful information from another question: Access to build environment variables from a groovy script in a Jenkins build step ( Windows)
in order to utilize a parameterized job name. As such our completed script looks like this:
import hudson.model.*;
import jenkins.model.*;
import com.joelj.jenkins.eztemplates.utils.TemplateUtils;
import com.joelj.jenkins.eztemplates.TemplateImplementationProperty;
// get current thread / Executor
def thr = Thread.currentThread()
// get current build
def build = thr?.executable
def hardcoded_param = "parameter_job_name"
def resolver = build.buildVariableResolver
def hardcoded_param_value = resolver.resolve(hardcoded_param)
Jenkins j = Jenkins.getInstance()
Item job = j.getItemByFullName(hardcoded_param_value)
TemplateImplementationProperty template = TemplateUtils.getTemplateImplementationProperty(job)
TemplateUtils.handleTemplateImplementationSaved(job, template)

Answer 2

FYI ez-templates 1.3.0 now triggers off additional save events such that you do not need the above trick.