Refactor documentation on variables

- Create new page to cover all variables usage
- Extra vars docs combined with new variables page

docs/index.rst

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Welcome to Ansible Rulebook documentation
    rules
    conditions
    events_and_facts
+   variables
    host_limit
    multi_events
    actions

docs/introduction.rst

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Introduction
 ====================
 
 What is Event-Driven Ansible?
------------
+-----------------------------
 
 Event-Driven Ansible is a new way to enhance and expand automation. It
 improves IT speed and agility, while enabling consistency and

docs/variables.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+=========
+Variables
+=========
+
+Variables can be parsed into a rulebook using one or both of these command line arguments::
+
+    --vars VARS           Variables file
+    --env-vars ENV_VARS   Comma separated list of variables to import from the environment
+
+To import variables from a JSON or YAML formatted file, the `--vars` argument should be used.
+To import environment variables the `--env-vars` argument should be used. It is possible to specify
+multiple environment variables separated by a comma.
+
+.. important::
+    Variables that are supplied using the `--vars` argument will have their data type preserved, but environment
+    variables parsed via `--env-vars` are always treated as strings. This is important to consider when parsing
+    variables into your rulebook.
+
+.. note::
+    In cases where the same variable is supplied via `--env-vars` and `--vars`, the one from
+    `--env-vars` will always take precedence.
+
+
+Accessing variables in your rulebook
+------------------------------------
+
+The are two important considerations to take into account when accessing variables in a rulebook:
+
+    1. In order to use variables in conditions, the variables supplied at runtime will be placed into a namespace
+    called **vars**. You must use the **vars.** prefix followed by the variable name to use variables in conditions.
+
+    2. Jinja substitution should be used when accessing variables in any other part of the rulebook, such as in
+    the source configuration or in actions.
+
+Let's take the following example rulebook:
+
+    .. code-block:: yaml
+
+        ---
+        - name: Testing vars
+          hosts: all
+          sources:
+            - ansible.eda.range:
+                limit: "{{ src_range_limit }}"
+          rules:
+            - name: Say Hello
+              condition: event.i == vars.match_this_int
+              action:
+                echo:
+                  message: "Hi, I'm {{ MY_NAME }}."
+
+In this rulebook we use three different variables. One, **MY_NAME**, we will supply using an environment variable.
+The other two will be supplied in a file called `vars.yml` which looks like this:
+
+    .. code-block:: yaml
+
+        ---
+        src_range_limit: 4
+        match_this_int: 2
+
+To run this rulebook we will need to use both `--vars` and `--env-vars` to parse the variables into the rulebook. Therefore,
+we would execute the rulebook as follows:
+
+    .. code-block:: console
+
+        $ MY_NAME="Bob" ansible-rulebook -i inventory.yml --rulebook hello_there.yml --vars vars.yml --env-vars MY_NAME
+
+Which would return the following output:
+
+    .. code-block:: console
+
+        2023-02-09 13:37:73.311337 : Hi, I'm Bob
+
+.. note::
+    - To avoid potential issues with variable expansion, we recommend enclosing any value that contains Jinja substituted
+      variables in quotation marks, as shown in the above example.
+    - Note the use of the **vars.** prefix in the condition instead of Jinja substitution, which does not work when used in
+      conditions. Refer to the `Conditions <conditions.html>`_ page for more information.
+
+
+Providing extra vars to actions
+-------------------------------
+
+The `run_playbook` and `run_job_template` actions include an optional parameter called **extra_vars** which can be used
+for sending extra variables to the respective action. For example, you may have a playbook that runs remediation
+tasks when an issue with a host is detected, but the playbook requires some variables to be provided at runtime
+for it to execute properly. This is where the **extra_vars** parameter comes in.
+
+Extra vars needed by each playbook or job template should be explicitly specified in the **extra_vars** section
+under the action in your rulebook. The values of extra vars may be literals, or references to other rulebook
+variables. In addition to the user supplied runtime variables described above, the rulebook engine will automatically
+insert event (single match) or events (multiple matches), ruleset and rule under the top level key **ansible_eda**.
+
+Example run_playbook action:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+      action:
+        run_playbook:
+          name: playbooks/hello.yml
+          extra_vars:
+            foo: "{{ FOO }}"
+            bar: BAR
+
+Example run_job_template action:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+      action:
+        run_job_template:
+          name: Demo
+          organization: Default
+          job_args:
+            extra_vars:
+                foo: "{{ FOO }}"
+                bar: BAR
+
+Example playbook that uses the extra_vars:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+    - name: Print extra_vars
+      hosts: localhost
+      gather_facts: false
+      tasks:
+        - name: Print variable foo set by user
+          ansible.builtin.debug:
+            msg: '{{ foo }}'
+        - name: Print variable event set by rulebook engine
+          ansible.builtin.debug:
+            msg: '{{ ansible_eda.event }}'