Rygr

Simple scaffolding CLI to setup up a build tool and server to support thick web clients.

Rygr is based on the idea of getting developers writing their web app as fast as possible. It scaffolds a foundational layer that provides a battle-tested stack, and then gets out of the way.

Everything generated by Rygr is customizable to the developer's needs. Towards that end, it utilizes popular open source projects like Bower, Gulp, npm, and Express, to make it easy to add, remove, and change any behavior of the server, build tasks, languages, compilers and dependencies.

Prerequisites

Rygr is written in CoffeeScript and generates Node projects that utilize Bower and Gulp.

To install Node via Homebrew, run:

brew update
brew install node

Rygr is intended to be run as a global npm:

npm install -g rygr

Init

To initialize a new Rygr project, go to the directory and run:

rygr init

Alternatively, you can have Rygr create the directory as part of the scaffolding by including the project name:

rygr init <name>

What's generated?

Rygr generates a new project that is supported by npm, Gulp, and Bower.

Front end:

• RequireJS
• CoffeeScript
• SASS w/Bourbon (using LibSass)
• Jade JS templates
• Jade HTML pages
• Static files
• Image optimization
• Bower for 3rd party dependencies

Server:

• Express server with middleware and Jade views

The thick client is supported by a simple Express server. It uses middleware options to properly load a build of the client and support and push state URLs. The server can also be extended with additional functionality (like an API) with no problems.

Build tool

Rygr uses Gulp.js as it's build tool.

To build the npm:

gulp build

To build, watch for changes, and develop locally:

gulp build && npm link && gulp watch

Rygr also provides a blank test command via Gulp that is accessible by either running npm test or gulp test.