plopjs

Command Line Interface for creating and implementing project scaffolding and boilerplate code.

What is plopjs

plopjs was created to simplify project development setup time. plopjs can easily save developers and companies countless man hours and reduce inconsistency and debugging across teams. Once a template is installed, it can be accessed locally or distributed and shared. Now that you have a sweet raise for showing your boss how to cut production costs and have more free time, what are you going to do?

What you will need

plopjs is a Node module. Node will need to be installed and running correctly on your client for plopjs to function.

If you are not sure what node is please visit https://nodejs.org/en/. Alternatively you can type:

which node

If you have node, this will show you the directory in which your instance of Node is installed.

/Users/example/.node/bin/node

How to install

installation of plopjs is a simple npm install. Plopjs should be installed globally to work correctly. To install, run

npm install -g plopjs  

How to Start your plop$

Starting your plop$ repl is very simple. Just type:

plop

Once plop$ is started, you should see:

plop$  

From plop$, you can run any of the efficient plop$ commands.

How to use

plop$ install

plop$ install <template_url> [options]

Example of install

plop$ install https://github.com/PLOPdotJS/plop-test.git test1

template_url is the GitHub repo url for the template that you are choosing.

[options] is the name that you may choose to give your template.

plop$ install will create a new plopjs template that will be stored locally in a plopjs directory that is created for you. Once the plopjs template is installed, it will be accessible by any of the plop$ commands.

Please note that if you do not name your plopjs repo on install it will default to the name of the repo.

plop$ install also has an alias i.

Example of the alias

plop$ i <template_url> [options]

plop$ use

plop$ use <template>   

template is the name of installed plopjs template.

plop$ use test1

plop$ use will load what ever template you choose into your working directory.

For Node projects, run npm i to install all the required dependencies that are used in the plopjs template.

plop$ init

plop$ init  

The plop$ init command creates a starting point for building custom plopjs templates.

Prompts in the plop$ repl will walk you through making a new plop.json file. It will also make an empty README.md and an empty template directory.

Example

of the plop.json prompt

plop$ Template name: <name>
plop$ Description: <description of template>
plop$ Author: <name of author>
plop$ License: <license type>
plop$ Version: 0.1.0

After the init prompts are completed, you will be shown the files you created and the repl will close. Make sure to build your custom template inside the new template directory. Any files other than the plop.json and README.md that are outside the template directory will not be included in your plopjs when saved.

plop$ init
Template name? My_First_Plop
Description? It will make coding faster and easier
Author? Smart Dev 3001
License? MIT
Version? 0.1.0
Here is your README.md, plop.json, and template directory:
​
README.md
plop.json
template
​
Change directories into your template and start building your plopjs!

Once you have your template built out, you may either:

• create a new https://github.com/ repository and push your template.
  or
• git init and initialize a github repository from your working directory.
  or
• use plop$ save command.

plop$ save

plop$ save [name]

plop$ save will take the plopjs template that you created from scratch and save it locally to your plopjs directory. You can then use plop$ list to verify that your template has been saved. Now, that new plopjs template will be available for any future projects.

[name] is the name you choose to name the new plopjs template you created.

save also has an alias s.

Example of the alias

plop$ s [name]

plop$ list

plop$ list

plop$ list prints a list of plopjs templates that are saved and available on your local machine. Once a new plopjs is installed using plop$ install, it will be added to the list of plopjs templates displayed by this command.

plop$ list also has a shorthand alias ls.

Example of alias

plop$ ls

plop$ delete

plop$ delete [name]

plop$ delete can delete any plopjs that is saved on your local client.

Please note that delete WILL delete the file so double check that you are using the correct plopjs name.

plop$ exit

plop$ exit

plop$ exit will exit the plop$ repl and return you to your default shell. Exit does have an alias k, as in "K. I'm done," and the more common alias q that will also take you out of the plop$ repl.

Example of the alias

plop$ k

plop$ q  

plop$ help

plop$ help [command]

plop$ help will bring up a list of plop$ commands and options. If followed by a specific command, it will display the help text for that command. As is common in CLI environments, you may also enter --h.

Dependencies

• vorpal
• fs-extra
• nodegit

Dev Dependencies

• chai
• eslint
• gulp
• gulp-eslint
• gulp-mocha
• mocha

Development Team

Chris Perez
Dan Stineback
Stephen Schroder