title: add_build_program
---
type: method
---
signature: cls, program
---
summary: Registers a build program for a source object.
---
body:

This is very experimental API and used to register build programs for
custom source objects.  This can be used to implement virtual items.  This
works in combination with [generator :ref](../generator/) and
[urlresolver :ref](../urlresolver/) and is responsible for generating
artifacts out of source objects.

## Example

```python
from lektor.sourceobj import VirtualSourceObject
from lektor.build_programs import BuildProgram

class Source(VirtualSourceObject):

    @property
    def source_content(self):
        with open(self.parent.source_filename) as f:
            return f.read().decode('utf-8')

    @property
    def url_path(self):
        return self.parent.url_path + 'source.txt'

class SourceBuildProgram(BuildProgram):

    def produce_artifacts(self):
        self.declare_artifact(
            self.source.url_path,
            sources=list(self.source.iter_source_filenames()))

    def build_artifact(self, artifact):
        artifact.render_template_into('view_source.html',
                                      this=self.source)

env.add_build_program(Source, SourceBuildProgram)
```

And here the example `view_source.html` template:

```html+jinja
<h2>Source for {{ this.parent.path }}</h2>
<pre>{{ this.source_content }}</pre>
```