generator-empty-web-app

A generator for scaffolding a basic web app

Builds a basic structure of the web application

The project folder has the following structure

*root*
├─*index.html*
├─*gruntfile.js*
├─*package.json*
├─*bower.json*
├─**css**
├─ ...
assets
├─ ...
src
├─ app.js
scripts
└─ app.js

After installing the module use yo empty-web-app inside of your project folder (Yeoman is required).

During the scaffolding process, the generator will automatically install all node dependencies (Though bower.json is presented, the generator doesn't call for bower install. It's up to the developer what bower modules to install). At the end of the scaffolding process, the generator spawns the command grunt compile which translates scripts from the "src" folder using babelify module and place them into the "scripts" folder.

Gruntfile.js has several built-in tasks to maintain your project ( Grunt module is required).

You can run following commands from the root directory of your project:

grunt default or just grunt

This task will compile all scripts in the "src" folder and its subfolders (The entry for the babelify module is the app.js), then the lightweight server and the watch module will be launched (this allows to automatically compile and update all your scripts onec they are changed). DO NOT close the command prompt if you want the lightweight server and the watch continue working. From your browser you can go to localhost:9001 or 127.0.0.1:9001 to test your project.

grunt compile

Translate javascript files from the ECMAScript6 to ECMAScript5 standard (not all browsers support new JavaScript standards)

grunt bower

Copies all plain dependencies to the "scripts" folder (if no dependencies are installed, the bower module will throw a fatal error - it is the standard behaviour of the bower module).

grunt build

Creates the final version of the project with minified javascript files and place it to the build folder. (During this process all previous files presented in the build folder will be deleted)