System Properties

System properties are values CodeBaker fills in for you, so a template can use today's date, your user name, the project name or the folder you generate into without declaring anything. They are available in every template. There is nothing to configure.

In the generation dialog they appear in a collapsed System Properties section, where you can also change a value for a single run (see Step 1).

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Using them

Write a system property like any other variable. The names are upper case:

Where	How
File contents	{{ DATE }}, or ___DATE___ once you declare that style under placeholders
File and folder names	{{ YEAR }}-report.md becomes 2026-report.md

<?php
// Generated by {{ USER }} on {{ DATE }} for {{ PROJECT_NAME }}

generates

<?php
// Generated by alex on 2026-10-03 for my-shop

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The full list

The sample values below assume that user alex generates into the folder app/Models of the project my-shop, on Saturday 3 October 2026 at 14:05:09.

Date and time

Property	Meaning	Sample value
DATE	Today's date	2026-10-03
TIME	Current time	14:05:09
DATE_TIME	Date and time together	2026-10-03 14:05:09
YEAR	Year	2026
MONTH	Month, zero-padded	10
DAY	Day of the month, zero-padded	03
HOUR	Hour (24-hour clock), zero-padded	14
MINUTE	Minute, zero-padded	05
SECOND	Second, zero-padded	09
DAY_NAME_SHORT	Abbreviated day name, always English	Sat
DAY_NAME_FULL	Full day name, in your system language	Saturday
MONTH_NAME_SHORT	Abbreviated month name, always English	Oct
MONTH_NAME_FULL	Full month name, in your system language	October
YYYYMMDDHHMMSS	Compact date and time, handy for migration file names	20261003140509
TIMESTAMP	Unix time in seconds: the same instant in every time zone. The sample is for a clock set to UTC	1791036309

Project and user

Property	Meaning	Sample value
USER	Your operating system user name	alex
PROJECT_NAME	The name of the IDE project	my-shop
PRODUCT_NAME	The IDE you generate in	PhpStorm

The folder you generate into

These describe the folder you right-clicked.

Property	Meaning	Sample value
DIR_SLASH	Path relative to the project root, with /. Empty for the project root	app/Models
DIR_BACKSLASH	The same path with \	app\Models
FILE_NAME	The folder's name	Models (for a folder reports.v2: reports.v2)
NAME	The folder's name without an extension, which is everything after its last dot	Models (for a folder reports.v2: reports)

Other

Property	Meaning	Sample value
NAMESPACE	The namespace of the folder you generate into. It exists only in an IDE that can work one out (PHP projects, with the PHP plugin installed). In the PHP plugin the composer.json PSR-4 mapping is used first, then a namespace written in a PHP file of the folder, then the folder path	App\Models
DS	A literal dollar sign	$

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Good to know

• Names are case-sensitive. ___date___ is a different variable from ___DATE___ and is left as it is unless you define a variable called date.
• You can override them for one run. Edit the value in the System Properties section of the dialog.
• You can give one your own default. Declare a property with the same name in vars (for example USER: ""): it moves from System Properties to Custom Properties. An empty value there means "use the system value", and any other value is your default. Like every custom field it is remembered in the history and brought back from it, and Reset returns it to your default. A system property you do not declare always shows the current value, whatever the history holds.
• NAMESPACE is special. In an IDE with PHP support an automatic NAMESPACE field is also placed in Custom Properties unless your template defines its own. Other IDEs do not show it. See Configuration Reference.
• Dates are plain text. To format them differently (a different order, another separator), build the value from the parts, for example ___DAY___.___MONTH___.___YEAR___.

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Next steps

• Configuration Reference: declare your own variables with vars
• Inflection & Case Filters: reshape a value, such as the name of the folder you generate into