npmgenerate

npmgenerate is a scaffolding module used to scaffold out any kind of project.

Creating a template for ngen

ngen is a tool that creates the new files for your project.

You author an ngen template and you can then use ngen to create a new folder based on the template.

An ngen template is a folder with an index.js and a content folder inside it. For example:

./my-template
    content/*
    index.js

The content folder.

One of the simplest content folders might look like

./content
    index.js
    README.md
    package.json
    test/
        {{project}}.js

You basically specify what kind of files you want in a new project.

Note that the content of a template can contain nested folders and that you can use template variables in the file names to have dynamic file names.

The content files

Each one of the files should just have the default text that you would want in it. For example a package.json might look like:

{
    "name": "{{project}}",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "scripts": {
        "test": "node test/{{project}}.js"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "tape": "^2.0.0"
    }
}

Note that we can use {{variableName}} as template variables inside the files.

The top level index.js

Adjacent to your content folder you want to specify an index.js. The index.js will define all the variables available in your content folder.

For example:

module.exports = {
    project: 'Project name: ',
    year: function (values, callback) {
        callback(null, new Date().getFullYear())
    }
};

Here we are saying that this template will have two variables available in the content folder, namely {{project}} and {{year}}.

When you specify your variables they can be either a string or a function.

If the variable definition is a string then we will asynchronously prompt the user with the string and then assign the user input on the CLI into that variable.

If the variable defintion is a function then we will call your function with all the current variable values we have and a callback. You are then expected to eventually return us the result.

We will call your functions in property order on your module.exports. So if one variable depends on another it's recommended you list them in that order.

Docs

npmgenerate can also be called directly

var ngen = require('npmgenerate/bin/ngen.js')
 
ngen({
    directory: '/directory/to/template',
    template: 'name-of-template',
 
    name: 'name of new project'
}, function (err) {
    /* finished scaffolding. */
 
    /* will write new project to `process.cwd()/{options.name}` */
})

update JSON

You can pass an update-json boolean to Template i.e.

var t = Template(name, { "update-json": true })

Or

npmgenerate --update-json=true

Normally the scaffolder will not overwrite existing files in the destination folder.

If you set --update-json to true, the scaffolder will overwrite existing JSON files in the destination folder.

The way it overwrites is by merging the new version of the JSON file from the scaffolder into the destination folder.

It is not recommended you commit these new JSON files, the scaffolder will probably have overwritten or deleted JSON fields you wanted to keep. It's recommended you use git add -p to cherry pick the new changes you want from the scaffolder.

Installation

npm install npmgenerate

MIT Licenced