AngularJS with an Express server generator

Based on generator-angular

It generates a simple Express server in server/main.js

grunt server will watch files inside server/ and will restart the Express server when a change is detected.

It also add the option to use Jade to generate html files. Jade files are generated in app/jade

Usage

Install generator-angularexpress:

npm install -g generator-angularexpress

Make a new directory, and cd into it:

mkdir my-new-project && cd $_

Run yo angularexpress, optionally passing an app name:

yo angularexpress [app-name]

Generators

Available generators:

• angularexpress (aka angularexpress:app)
• angularexpress:controller
• angularexpress:directive
• angularexpress:filter
• angularexpress:route
• angularexpress:service
• angularexpress:provider
• angularexpress:factory
• angularexpress:value
• angularexpress:constant
• angularexpress:decorator
• angularexpress:view

Note: Generators are to be run from the root directory of your app.

App

Sets up a new AngularJS app, generating all the boilerplate you need to get started. The app generator also optionally installs Twitter Bootstrap and additional AngularJS modules, such as angular-resource.

Example:

yo angularexpress

Route

Generates a controller and view, and configures a route in app/scripts/app.js connecting them.

Example:

yo angularexpress:route myroute

Produces app/scripts/controllers/myroute.js:

angular.module('myMod').controller('MyrouteCtrl', function ($scope) {
  // ...
});

Produces app/views/myroute.html:

<p>This is the myroute view</p>

Controller

Generates a controller in app/scripts/controllers.

Example:

yo angularexpress:controller user

Produces app/scripts/controllers/user.js:

angular.module('myMod').controller('UserCtrl', function ($scope) {
  // ...
});

Directive

Generates a directive in app/scripts/directives.

Example:

yo angularexpress:directive myDirective

Produces app/scripts/directives/myDirective.js:

angular.module('myMod').directive('myDirective', function () {
  return {
    template: '<div></div>',
    restrict: 'E',
    link: function postLink(scope, element, attrs) {
      element.text('this is the myDirective directive');
    }
  };
});

Filter

Generates a filter in app/scripts/filters.

Example:

yo angularexpress:filter myFilter

Produces app/scripts/filters/myFilter.js:

angular.module('myMod').filter('myFilter', function () {
  return function (input) {
    return 'myFilter filter:' + input;
  };
});

View

Generates an HTML view file in app/views.

Example:

yo angularexpress:view user

Produces app/views/user.html:

<p>This is the user view</p>

Service

Generates an AngularJS service.

Example:

yo angularexpress:service myService

Produces app/scripts/services/myService.js:

angular.module('myMod').service('myService', function () {
  // ...
});

You can also do yo angularexpress:factory, yo angularexpress:provider, yo angularexpress:value, and yo angularexpress:constant for other types of services.

Decorator

Generates an AngularJS service decorator.

Example:

yo angularexpress:decorator serviceName

Produces app/scripts/decorators/serviceNameDecorator.js:

angular.module('myMod').config(function ($provide) {
    $provide.decorator('serviceName', function ($delegate) {
      // ...
      return $delegate;
    });
  });

Options

In general, these options can be applied to any generator, though they only affect generators that produce scripts.

CoffeeScript

For generators that output scripts, the --coffee option will output CoffeeScript instead of JavaScript.

For example:

yo angularexpress:controller user --coffee

Produces app/scripts/controller/user.coffee:

angular.module('myMod')
  .controller 'UserCtrl', ($scope) ->

A project can mix CoffeScript and JavaScript files.

To output JavaScript files, even if CoffeeScript files exist (the default is to output CoffeeScript files if the generator finds any in the project), use --coffee=false.

Minification Safe

By default, generators produce unannotated code. Without annotations, AngularJS's DI system will break when minified. Typically, these annotations that make minification safe are added automatically at build-time, after application files are concatenated, but before they are minified. By providing the --minsafe option, the code generated will out-of-the-box be ready for minification. The trade-off is between amount of boilerplate, and build process complexity.

Example

yo angularexpress:controller user --minsafe

Produces app/controller/user.js:

angular.module('myMod').controller('UserCtrl', ['$scope', function ($scope) {
  // ...
}]);

Background

Unannotated:

angular.module('myMod').controller('MyCtrl', function ($scope, $http, myService) {
  // ...
});

Annotated:

angular.module('myMod').controller('MyCtrl',
  ['$scope', '$http', 'myService', function ($scope, $http, myService) {

    // ...
  }]);

The annotations are important because minified code will rename variables, making it impossible for AngularJS to infer module names based solely on function parameters.

The recommended build process uses ngmin, a tool that automatically adds these annotations. However, if you'd rather not use ngmin, you have to add these annotations manually yourself.

Add to Index

By default, new scripts are added to the index.html or index.jade file. However, this may not always be suitable. Some use cases:

• Manually added to the file
• Auto-added by a 3rd party plugin
• Using this generator as a subgenerator

To skip adding them to the index, pass in the skip-add argument:

yo angularexpress:service serviceName --skip-add

Bower Components

The following packages are always installed by the app generator:

• angular
• angular-mocks
• angular-scenario

The following additional modules are available as components on bower, and installable via bower install:

• angular-cookies
• angular-loader
• angular-resource
• angular-sanitize

All of these can be updated with bower update as new versions of AngularJS are released.

Configuration

Yeoman generated projects can be further tweaked according to your needs by modifying project files appropriately.

Output

You can change the app directory by adding a appPath property to bower.json. For instance, if you wanted to easily integrate with Express.js, you could add the following:

{
  "name": "yo-test",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  ...
  "appPath": "public"
}

This will cause Yeoman-generated client-side files to be placed in public.

Testing

Running grunt test will run the unit tests with karma.

Contribute

See the contributing docs

When submitting an issue, please follow the guidelines. Especially important is to make sure Yeoman is up-to-date, and providing the command or commands that cause the issue.

When submitting a PR, make sure that the commit messages match the AngularJS conventions.

When submitting a bugfix, write a test that exposes the bug and fails before applying your fix. Submit the test alongside the fix.

When submitting a new feature, add tests that cover the feature.

License

BSD license