Linxcommerce-cli NPM

Node CLI Boilerplate

This is a boilerplate for creating cli applications using node.

1. Adapting to your Application:

Find and rename all the lccli occurances to whatever your application name is. Ex: shiny-cli-app

2. Development Commands

# To link the cli app, start the watch and rebuild process.
$> npm run start

# to just build the cli app:
$> npm run build
$> npm run clean:build

# This will build and link the cli app into your machine.
$> npm run setup

# use this to remove the cli app from your machine.
$> npm run remove

# see all available commands
$> npm run

3. Running the CLI app.

Once you start the watch and rebuild process, you should be able to run the cli app from the command line like so:

# Running the cli app
$> lccli disguise "Captian America"

3.1 Code Setup

All the commands go in the /src/commands folder. Ex: lccli.js
Each root level command needs to be configured in the package.json folder.
The sub-commands need to be present in the same level as the main command. Ex: lccli-disguise.js
If you have more than one root level command, then consider putting them in their own folders.
The commands need to have #!/usr/bin/env node as the first line in the file.
The commands need to be executable. chmod +x ./src/commands/lccli/lccli.js

3.2 What is the `./lib` directory?

NOTE: As of boilerplate v2, this lib folder is excluded from git. The code in the ./src folder gets compiled down into the ./lib directory.
Do not manually change anything in the ./lib directory.

3.3 Project structure for Single Root level command

  /src
      /helpers
      /commands
          | - lccli.js
          | - lccli-program.js
          | - lccli-disguise.js

In package.json we would setup the entry points like so:

  "bin": {
    "lccli": "./lib/commands/lccli.js"
  }

3.4 Project structure for Multiple Root level command

  /src
      /helpers
      /commands
          /lccli
              | - lccli.js
              | - lccli-program.js
              | - lccli-disguise.js
          /thor
              | - thor.js
              | - thor-hammer.js
              | - thor-hair.js

In package.json we would setup the entry points like so:

  "bin": {
    "lccli": "./lib/commands/lccli/lccli.js",
    "thor": "./lib/commands/thor/thor.js"
  }

3.5 Using the commands

# once you run the: npm run start you should have the
# commands liked up and ready to be used like so:
$> lccli disguise "Thor"
$> thor hammer "smash"

3.6 Documentation for the libraries used:

Check the package.json file for exact versions for packages used.

commander: https://github.com/tj/commander.js
lodash: https://lodash.com/docs/4.17.10
Other interesting CLI packages:
- Check the Command-line apps section here: https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome-nodejs#command-line-apps

4. FAQ

4.1 The link process fails.

It is probably due to the ./lib folder not containing the file that you are trying to link. Run the build process first. (See Commands Section above).

4.2 The link process fails after I changed my `bin` configuration in `package.json`

This is probably due to the old link remaining on your machine. You can revert your bin config in package.json and run npm unlink. This should remove the old link.