AngularJS generator

Maintainer: Brian Ford

Based on angular-seed

Usage

Install generator-angular:

npm install -g generator-angular

Make a new directory, and cd into it:

mkdir my-new-project && cd $_

Run yo angular, optionally passing an app name:

yo angular [app-name]

Generators

Available generators:

• angular (aka angular:app)
• angular:controller
• angular:directive
• angular:filter
• angular:route
• angular:service
• angular: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 angular

Route

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

Example:

yo angular: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 angular: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 angular: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 angular: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 angular:view user

Produces app/views/user.html:

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

Service

Generates an AngularJS service.

Example:

yo angular:service myService

Produces app/scripts/services/myService.js:

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

Options

There are options for each of the methods for registering services. For more on using these services, see the module API AngularJS documentation.

Factory

Invoked with --factory

This is the default method when creating a service. Running yo angular:service myService --factory is the same as running yo angular:service myService

Service

Invoked with --service

Value

Invoked with --value

Constant

Invoked with --constant

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 angular:controller user --coffee

Produces app/scripts/controller/user.coffee:

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

A project can mix CoffeScript and JavaScript files.

Minification Safe

By default, generators produce unannotated code. Without annotations, AngularJS's DI system will break when minified. Typically, these annotations the 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 angular: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.

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

For tests to work properly, karma needs the angular-mocks bower package. This script is included in the bower.json in the devDependencies section, which will be available very soon, probably with the next minor release of bower.

While bower devDependencies are not yet implemented, you can fix it by running:

bower install angular-mocks

By running grunt test you should now be able to run your 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