Yeoman generator for applications on VA.gov

Installation

The generator is already installed as a devDependency of vets-website.

Usage

From vets-website, run npm run new:app.

Follow the instructions on screen.

For more details on answering the prompts, the following documentation might be helpful.

• Guide on using this Yeoman generator with example answers for each prompt
• Basic tutorial for creating and modifying a form application

These resources are also provided by the generator at startup.

Contributing

Making changes

There are two generators: one for general (non-form) apps and one for form apps.

• The latter runs on top of the former if certain prompts are answered to generate a form app.
• Each generator has its own set of templates from which it generates files in the app structure.

For specifics on writing a generator, refer to the official Yeoman documentation.

Testing changes

1. Make your modified generator available as a global module.

   From the root of this repo (generator-vets-website):

   # Create a symlink in your global node_modules to this module.
   npm link

2. Run your modified generator in your local vets-website.

   From the root of vets-website:

   # Point vets-website's local generator to your newly linked global module.
   npm link @department-of-veterans-affairs/generator-vets-website
   
   # Start up Yeoman.
   npx yo
   
   # Choose to run generator-vets-website in the Yeoman prompt.

   Due to the link, any further changes to the generator will automatically be included when you run it within your local vets-website repo.

3. When you're done testing your changes, clean up the links:

   # From the root of vets-website:
   npm unlink --no-save @department-of-veterans-affairs/generator-vets-website
   
   # From the root of generator-vets-website:
   npm unlink