Generator-a3 NPM

AngularJS Full-Stack generator

Yeoman generator for creating MEAN stack applications, using MongoDB, Express, AngularJS, and Node - lets you quickly set up a project following best practices.

Usage

Install generator-a3:

npm install -g generator-a3

Make a new directory, and cd into it:

mkdir my-new-project && cd $_

Run yo a3, optionally passing an app name:

yo a3 [app-name]

Run grunt for building, grunt serve for preview, and grunt serve:dist for a preview of the built app.

Prerequisites

MongoDB - Download and Install MongoDB - If you plan on scaffolding your project with mongoose, you'll need mongoDB to be installed and have the mongod process running.

Supported Configurations

Client

Scripts: JavaScript, CoffeeScript
Markup: HTML, Jade
Stylesheets: CSS, Stylus, Sass, Less,
Angular Routers: ngRoute, ui-router

Server

Database: None, MongoDB
Authentication boilerplate: Yes, No
oAuth integrations: Facebook Twitter Google
Socket.io integration: Yes, No

Injection

A grunt task looks for new files in your client/app and client/sdk folder and automatically injects them in the appropriate places based on an injection block.

less files into client/app.less
scss files into client/app.scss
stylus files into client/app.styl
css files into client/index.html
js files into client/index.html
coffeescript temp js files into client/index.html

Generators

Available generators:

App

Sets up a new AngularJS + Express app, generating all the boilerplate you need to get started.

Example:

yo a3

Endpoint

Generates a new API endpoint.

Example:

yo a3:endpoint message
[?] What will the url of your endpoint be? /api/messages

Produces:

server/api/message/index.js
server/api/message/message.spec.js
server/api/message/message.controller.js
server/api/message/message.model.js  (optional)
server/api/message/message.socket.js (optional)

Route

Generates a new route.

Example:

yo a3:route myroute
[?] Where would you like to create this route? client/app/
[?] What will the url of your route be? /myroute

Produces:

client/app/myroute/myroute.js
client/app/myroute/myroute.controller.js
client/app/myroute/myroute.controller.spec.js
client/app/myroute/myroute.html
client/app/myroute/myroute.scss

Controller

Generates a controller.

Example:

yo a3:controller user
[?] Where would you like to create this controller? client/app/

Produces:

client/app/user/user.controller.js
client/app/user/user.controller.spec.js

Directive

Generates a directive.

Example:

yo a3:directive myDirective
[?] Where would you like to create this directive? client/app/
[?] Does this directive need an external html file? Yes

Produces:

client/app/myDirective/myDirective.directive.js
client/app/myDirective/myDirective.directive.spec.js
client/app/myDirective/myDirective.html
client/app/myDirective/myDirective.scss

Simple directive without an html file

Example:

yo a3:directive simple
[?] Where would you like to create this directive? client/app/
[?] Does this directive need an external html file? No

Produces:

client/app/simple/simple.directive.js
client/app/simple/simple.directive.spec.js

Filter

Generates a filter.

Example:

yo a3:filter myFilter
[?] Where would you like to create this filter? client/app/

Produces:

client/app/myFilter/myFilter.filter.js
client/app/myFilter/myFilter.filter.spec.js

Service

Generates an AngularJS service.

Example:

yo a3:service myService
[?] Where would you like to create this service? client/app/

Produces:

client/app/myService/myService.service.js
client/app/myService/myService.service.spec.js

You can also do yo a3:factory and yo a3:provider for other types of services.

Decorator

Generates an AngularJS service decorator.

Example:

yo a3:decorator serviceName
[?] Where would you like to create this decorator? client/app/

Produces

client/app/serviceName/serviceName.decorator.js

Bower sdk

The following packages are always installed by the app generator:

angular
angular-cookies
angular-mocks
angular-resource
angular-sanitize
angular-scenario
es5-shim
font-awesome
json3
jquery
lodash

These packages are installed optionally depending on your configuration:

angular-route
angular-ui-router
angular-socket-io
angular-bootstrap
bootstrap

All of these can be updated with bower update as new versions are released.

Configuration

Yeoman generated projects can be further tweaked according to your needs by modifying project files appropriately.

A .yo-rc file is generated for helping you copy configuration across projects, and to allow you to keep track of your settings. You can change this as you see fit.

Testing

Running grunt test will run the client and server unit tests with karma and mocha.

Use grunt test:server to only run server tests.

Use grunt test:client to only run client tests.

Protractor tests

To setup protractor e2e tests, you must first run

npm run update-webdriver

Use grunt test:e2e to have protractor go through tests located in the e2e folder.

Environment Variables

Keeping your app secrets and other sensitive information in source control isn't a good idea. To have grunt launch your app with specific environment variables, add them to the git ignored environment config file: server/config/local.env.js.

Project Structure

Overview

├── client
│   ├── app                 - All of our app specific sdk go in here
│   ├── assets              - Custom assets: fonts, images, etc…
│   ├── sdk          - Our reusable sdk, non-specific to to our app
│
├── e2e                     - Our protractor end to end tests
│
└── server
    ├── api                 - Our apps server api
    ├── auth                - For handling authentication with different auth strategies
    ├── sdk          - Our reusable or app-wide sdk
    ├── config              - Where we do the bulk of our apps configuration
    │   └── local.env.js    - Keep our environment variables out of source control
    │   └── environment     - Configuration specific to the node environment
    └── views               - Server rendered views

An example client component in client/app

main
├── main.js                 - Routes
├── main.controller.js      - Controller for our main route
├── main.controller.spec.js - Test
├── main.html               - View
└── main.less               - Styles

An example server component in server/api

thing
├── index.js                - Routes
├── thing.controller.js     - Controller for our `thing` endpoint
├── thing.model.js          - Database model
├── thing.socket.js         - Register socket events
└── thing.spec.js           - Test