@dhuebner/dev-cli NPM

dev-cli

Development CLI made with Node.js that includes tools created to help improve development efficiency.

To Install:

npm i -g @dhuebner/dev-cli

To Install locally for development:

Clone this Repo and cd into it to install:

npm i -g .

To Configure the Generate command:

The generate command can be configured to reference your own generatable templates directory.

dev config generate

Help

See available commands:

dev help

See details on generator command:

dev help generate

See details on snippet command:

dev help snip

See details on config command:

dev help config

See details on generate command configuration:

dev help config-generate

Generate

The shorthand command is dev g

See details on generator command:

dev help generate

Generating a New Project

The generate command generates a new project based on a template project with any number of custom variables.

Upon entering the command, you will be prompted to provide values for each custom variable for that particular template.

Generate a new project:

dev generate <project_type> <new_project_name>

Once you provide values for each prompt you will be able to cd into your newly generated project and install any package dependencies.

Creating a New Generator Template Project

Generator Template projects are boiler plate projects that include custom variables delimited with {% %} by default for example, {%someCustomVar%}.

Custom Delimiters:

You can also specify a custom delimiter for each generatable template instead of the default delimiter {% %}. For example, if you want to create a generatable template for a Django project (Django uses {% %} as framework syntax) you can specify a different delimiter for that template such as '==|| ||==' or '<) (>', etc. Your custom delimiter can be any series of characters separated by one or more spaces. To set a custom delimiter for a given generator template you just have to add a "delimiter" property to the corresponding object in the seedProjectsDirectory.json file and give it a string value with any series of characters separated by one or more spaces. See the "example" generatable template in the templates directory within the dev-cli project for reference.

To Create a Generator Template

To Create a Generator Template, create a base project that you want to be able to generate, and replace file names and file content with as many custom variables as needed (delimited with {% %} by default or a specified custom delimiter).

Variable Casing

You can also specify casing for any custom variables such as model names that may need to be in several cases throughout your project. You specify casing in your template projects by adding a case (in camelCase) inside brackets at the end of the variable. See example below:

Ex) If you have a model in a file that you want to be represented with a custom variable {%firstModel%} with a value of 'fooBar', you may have a need to express that variable value in camelCase, as well as capitalized, in lowerCase, in kebabCase, in underscoreCase, etc.

capitalized

You can add a capitalized permutation of {%firstModel%} within the template project like this: {%firstModelcapitalized%} which would result in a value of 'FooBar'.

kebabCase

You can add a kebab-case permutation of {%firstModel%} within the template project like this: {%firstModelkebabCase%} which would result in a value of 'foo-bar'.

underscoreCase

You can add an underscore_case permutation of {%firstModel%} within the template project like this: {%firstModelunderscoreCase%} which would result in a value of 'foo_bar'.

lowerCase

You can add a lowercase permutation of {%firstModel%} within the template project like this: {%firstModellowerCase%} which would result in a value of 'foobar'.

upperCase

You can add an UPPERCASE permutation of {%firstModel%} within the template project like this: {%firstModelupperCase%} which would result in a value of 'FOOBAR'.

If you have not configured the generate command to use your own custom seed templates directory, New Template Projects must be added to the "templates" directory within the dev-cli project in order to be used. Otherwise, they should be added to your own custom generatable templates directory.

New Template Projects' meta-data (name, description, custom variables, etc.) must be added to the seedProjectsDirectory.json file in the "templates" directory (either internal or custom depending on how the generate command is configured).

*Functionality to automatically add new Template Projects coming soon!

Snippet

The shorthand command is dev snip or dev s

The snippet command lets you select and copy saved snippets to your clipboard, or create new snippets from the current content copied to your clipboard.

See details on snippet command:

dev help snip

Selecting a Snippet

Select a saved snippet to copy to your clipboard.

dev snip

Creating a new Snippet

Create a new snippet from the current content copied to your clipboard.

To make a new snippet, copy the content you would like to save as a snippet to your clipboard and type the command below.

You will be prompted to add a name and a description.

dev snip new

Once you enter values for the name and description, your new snippet will be saved and ready to use.

Config

The shorthand command is dev config

The config command lets you configure settings for a given CLI command.

See details on config command:

dev help config

Configuring Generate command

Enter a custom templates directory for the generate command to use. A custom generatable templates directory should include at least one generatable template project and a seedProjectsDirectory.json file that looks something like this:

{
  "seedProjects": [
    {
      "name": "example",
      "description": "Example seed project - just text files",
      "delimiter": "==|| ||==",
      "customVariables": {
        "exampleVar": "A example variable",
        "anotherVar": "Another example variable"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "node-cli",
      "description": "Pure Node.js CLI seed project - No dependencies",
      "customVariables": {
        "projectTitle": "Project Title",
        "projectAuthor": "Project Author",
        "projectDescription": "Description of project"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "node-api",
      "description": "Pure Node.js API seed project - No dependencies",
      "customVariables": {
        "projectTitle": "Project Title",
        "projectAuthor": "Project Author",
        "projectDescription": "Description of project"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "node-express-api",
      "description": "Node.js Express API with full CRUD operations for the first model provided",
      "customVariables": {
        "projectTitle": "Project Title",
        "projectAuthor": "Project Author",
        "projectDescription": "Description of project",
        "firstModel": "First model name camelCase (foo)"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "angular-material-spa",
      "description": "An Angular Material SPA with navbar",
      "customHelp": "This is some extra help information specific to the angular-material-spa generatable template. Any special instructions should be included here.",
      "customVariables": {
        "projectTitle": "Project Title",
        "projectAuthor": "Project Author",
        "projectDescription": "Description of project"
      }
    }
  ]
}

IMPORTANT: The name of each generatable template project must match the name of the corresponding template meta-data object in the array within the seedProjectsDirectory.json file.

For the example above:

The templates directory should look like this: (The '>' indicates a directory)

templates/
   > example
   > node-cli
   > node-api
   > node-express-api
   > angular-material-spa
     seedProjectsDirectory.json

To point dev-cli generate command to your custom generatable templates directory:

dev config generate

Enter the path to the directory you want the generate command to use:

Ex. /Users/someuser/Code/templates/generatables

To check if a custom templates directory is set:

dev help config-generate

To reset the generatable templates directory to the default, internal templates directory:

dev config generate reset

Generate with CI/CD workflow:

-args flag

The generate command can take a -args flag to provide the values up front for the variables for the type of project you want to generate.

This functionality is included to make it easier to use the dev-cli generate command in a CI/CD workflow (You don't have to work with the command line prompts, you can just provide the variable arguments to the generate command up front).

To Use

Note - In the example below we are using the node-express-api template which has 4 variables: projectTitle, projectAuthor, projectDescription, and firstModel.

dev generate node-express-api new-node-api -args="New Node API, Author, Some Description, someModel"

To use the -args flag, put -args after your new project name and set it equal to a string with each argument value separated by a comma (","). The arguments should match up with the variables for the project you are generating. For the example above, the node-express-api generatable has the 4 variables listed above. The number of arguments you pass to the -args flag must match the number of variables for that generatable.