@convenience/create-creator

A simple node project generator for creating create scripts.

What are Create Scripts?

If you name a module with a leading create-, then you can invoke it with npm init!

So if you have a module that is published that is called create-applesauce. You can of course invoke it with:

$ npx create-applesauce

...or (because it starts with create) you can...

$ npm init applesauce

A Creator of Create scripts so You can Create your own Create scripts?

Okay, how to use?

1. Create a directory
2. cd into that directory
3. Run: $ npm init @convenience/creator
4. Answer the questions.
5. Build your creator.
6. Publish you creator.
7. Use and share your creator with: $ npm init [insert you creator here]

API

The basic skeleton is this:

const { run } = require('@convenience/create-creator')

const plan = {
  queries: [],
  actions: []
}

run(plan)

You make a plan and run it. A plan is made yp of queries (which are just prompts for inquirer) and actions. Actions can be any of the following types: copy, template, command.

Actions

All actions must have a type and a name, like so:

{
    type: 'copy|template|command',
    name: 'Some descriptive name',
    # ...other stuff...
}

copy Actions

Copy actions should provide 2 functions. One is files and IS REQUIRED, it will get passed the answers from the queries allowing you to determine which files to copy based on those answers. It will return an array of objects that contain source, target, and files.

• source: is the directory to copy from
• target: is the directory to copy to
• files: is a glob expression to filter which files to copy.

The other function is transform and it is optional. It will get passed the target path of a file being copied and the query answers so you can dynamically alter the target path (for renaming files and directories based on the answers to queries).

Here is an example copy action:

{
    type: 'copy',
    name: 'Copy Files',
    files (answers) {
        return [{
            source: Path.join(__dirname, 'copy'),
            target: Path.join(process.cwd(), '.'),
            files: `.${Path.sep}**${Path.sep}*`
        }]
    },
    transform (path, answers) {
        const filename = Path.basename(path)
        const pathname = Path.dirname(path)
        return Path.join(pathname,filename.replace(/^_/, '.'))
    }
}

This will copy files (and will run in windows ;P) from the create script lib/copy directory in where ever the create script is being ran. The transform will convert files with a leading underscore(_) to a dot(.) for things like .gitignore.

template Actions

Exactly like copy. Only instead of just copying the file, it will load each file like an handlebars template and apply the the answers as a context and write the merged result to the target.

Here's an example:

{
    type: 'template',
    name: 'Templates',
    transform (path, answers) {
        const filename = Path.basename(path)
        const pathname = Path.dirname(path)
        return Path.join(pathname, filename
            .replace(/^_/, '')
            .replace(/\.hbs$/, ''))
    },
    files (answers) {
    return [{
        source: Path.join(__dirname, 'template'),
        target: Path.join(process.cwd(), '.'),
        files: `.${Path.sep}*`
        }]
    }
}

Similar to the copy action, but this one also removes the .hbs extensions from the source files.

command Actions

This allows you to execute shell commands, like: npm install. Here is an example action that runs npm install and git init:

{
    type: 'command',
    name: 'Commands',
    commands (answers) {
    return [
        { cmd: 'npm', args: ['install'] },
        { cmd: 'git', args: ['init'] }
    ]
    }
}

This can be dangerous, don't be stupid or mean. Thanks!