@jamen/new-common

Base functions for project generators.

Install

npm i @jamen/new-common

Usage

create(output, questions, templates)

Prompts for the questions then writes to the output using templates.

• output is the directory where templates created.
• questions is a function of questions(output) -> Promise<Array<question>> (see propmts)
• templates is a function of templates(answers) -> Promise<Array<template>> (see Templates)

create(
    process.cwd(),
    questions,
    templates
)

preview(output, questions, templates)

Like create(), but doesn't create any files. Just runs the prompts and displays a file tree at the end. This is helpful, because answers can often affect the structure of the output.

Templates

Each template is:

templates : {
    input: String,
    create: Function<answers> -> Promise<Array<template>>
}

template : {
    from: String,
    to: String,
    use: Function<from, to, answers>
}

The function in use is called a "directive" or simply a "use", and its job is to copy or create the source (if there is one) to the destination, using prompt answers to add variance to the output.

Note that from can be absent, since the files wont always have static contents (i.e. empty contents, or completely dynamic contents).

Uses

The package has common uses for templating, merging, and creating files.

• createTemplateNormal: Templates with lodash.template
• createTemplateJson: Templates and then merges into destination (e.g. a package.json)
• createTemplateUniq: Templates and enforces unique lines (e.g. a .gitignore)
• createLicense: Creates a license file given a license type answer.
• createFile: Creates any file.

An example of how two variations of these functions would look:

const templates = answers => [
    {
        from: 'package.json',
        to: 'package.json',
        use: createTemplateJson
    },
    {
        from: 'lib/project.js',
        to: `lib/${basename(answers.name)}.js`,
        use: createTemplateNormal
    },
    {
        to: 'license',
        use: createLicense
    },
]

Utils

The package has other utility functions for common tasks

• exactTemplates(input, templates) is used for composing templates from a different generator.
• installNpmPackages(dir, packages, dev) is to install dependencies (with yarn, pnpm, or npm).
• templateFile(from, answers) is used for reading and templating a file without writing it yet.
• message are functions to create any message logged by the core functions.
• prompts is prompts.

Other utils are functions from Node core that have been promisified.