atropa-package-generator

A node.js module for generating templated files and directory structures without gettting heavy with configs and strange language.

Installation

npm install atropa-package-generator

Usage

1. Generate a package
2. Run npm install in the generated package's root.
3. Edit package & publish.

Command Line

The command line interface takes four arguments, the package name, the output directory, template options, and the template to use. Additional properties and the template directory are optional. If no template directory is specified the default template will be used.

atropa-package-generator <package name> <output directory> [[additional property(ies)]...] [template directory]

The following commands should be run from the root of the package where atropa-package-generator is installed.

node_modules/.bin/atropa-package-generator --help

To generate the default package skeleton from the command line do:

node_modules/.bin/atropa-package-generator my-package ./node_modules

To generate a package skeleton from your own template do:

node_modules/.bin/atropa-package-generator my-package ./node_modules ./my-template

Additional properties for the template may be specified on the command line by separating the property and value with a colon extra_property:awesome. You may specify as many additional properties as you want. The template properties are to be specified before the template directory. For the default template you could specify the author name and it would appear in both the package.json file and the Readme.md file generated. The command would look like this:

node_modules/.bin/atropa-package-generator my-package ./node_modules authorName:bill

To do the same in your own template the command would be:

node_modules/.bin/atropa-package-generator my-package ./node_modules authorName:bill ./my-template

Additional properties available in the default template are: packageVersion, packageDescription, githubUserName, organization, authorName, authorEmail, authorUrl, licenseType, licenseUrl, codeLicenseBlock, htmlLicenseBlock

Script

To generate the default package skeleton from scripts do:

var atropaPackageGenerator = require('atropa-package-generator');
atropaPackageGenerator.generate({
        packageName : 'your-package',
        outputDirectory : './node_modules',
        packageVersion : "2013.09.22-1535",
        packageDescription : "Awesome package does awesome things.",
        githubUserName : "My Username on Github",
        organization : "Awesomesauce Labs",
        authorName : "My Name",
        authorEmail : "[e-mail]",
        authorUrl : "http://npmjs.org/~your_name_here",
        licenseType : "gpl-3.0",
        licenseUrl : "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0-standalone.html",
        codeLicenseBlock : "Code Licence Block",
        htmlLicenseBlock : "HTML License Block"
});
// generates your-package in the node_modules folder. Go edit it.

Custom Templates

Templates are just regular directories and files. For a template called bob, the directory structure would look like this:

bob/
  |_defaultOptions.json
  |_static/
  |_dynamic/

The contents of the static and dynamic subdirectories are merged into the generated package. Contents of the dynamic directory are run through mustache.js. Any options given to atropaPackageGenerator.generate are passed to mustache's view and are available for expansion anywhere. File contents, file names, and folder names may contain mustache tags. defaultOptions.json is a JSON file describing the default values for the template. The default options will be merged with the options given to atropaPackageGenerator.generate, with the provided options overriding the defaults. Take a look at the templates in the templates directory. It's easy to make your own.

var atropaPackageGenerator = require('atropa-package-generator');
atropaPackageGenerator.generate({
        packageName : 'your-custom-package',
        outputDirectory : './node_modules',
        TemplateDirectory : './bob',
        hello : 'hello template'
});
// generates your-custom-package in the node_modules folder, using the bob template.

For full documentation see the docs folder. There's advanced stuff in there, like how to use something other than mustache if you'd like.

Hacking

To install the developer scripts, navigate to this module's root and run npm install.

There are several scripts listed in package.json for development and hacking on this module. They can be run with npm run-script followed by the scripts property corresponding to the script you want to run. For example, given a script called buildDocs, it could be run from the package root by:

npm run-script buildDocs