stage-cli

A simple CLI for scaffolding various projects. Forked from vue-cli and using an alternative default templates repo.

Installation

Prerequisites: Node.js (>=4.x, 6.x preferred), npm version 3+ and Git.

NPM

$ npm install -g stage-cli

Yarn

$ yarn global add stage-cli

Usage

$ stage init <template-name> <project-name>

Example:

$ stage init html-simple my-project

The above command pulls the template from stage-templates/html-simple, prompts for some information, and generates the project at ./my-project/.

Official Templates

The purpose of official Vue project templates are to provide opinionated, battery-included development tooling setups so that users can get started with actual app code as fast as possible. However, these templates are un-opinionated in terms of how you structure your app code and what libraries you use in addition to Vue.js.

The purpose of official templates are to provide opinionated, batteries-included development tooling so users can get started with actual code as fast as possible. However, these templates are un-opinionated in terms of how you structure your app code and what libraries you use in addition to the project scaffolding.

The official templates are derived from project types that I personally have used with various frequency using build tools that I prefer. I'm open to alternative contributions for templates. Ultimately, this is a really slick way to setup scaffolding without cloning a boilerplate repo, removing the .git directory and making a lot of additional changes to the boilerplate to personalize it for you're specific project.

All official project templates are repos in the stage-templates organization. When a new template is added to the organization, you will be able to run stage init <template-name> <project-name> to use that template. You can also run stage list to see all available official templates.

See the organization page for all available templates.

Custom Templates

It's unlikely to make everyone happy with the official templates. You can simply fork an official template and then use it via vue-cli with:

stage init username/repo my-project

Where username/repo is the GitHub repo shorthand for your fork.

The shorthand repo notation is passed to download-git-repo so you can also use things like bitbucket:username/repo for a Bitbucket repo and username/repo#branch for tags or branches.

You can use the current vuejs-templates like this.

stage init vuejs-templates/webpack my-project

Private Repo's

If you would like to download from a private repository use the --clone flag and the cli will use git clone so your SSH keys are used.

You are responsible for making sure your SSH keys are setup correctly.

Additionally, avoid using the shorthand notation for private repo's use something like this instead:

stage init bitbucket.org:username/repo --clone my-project

Local Templates

Instead of a GitHub repo, you can also use a template on your local file system:

stage init ~/fs/path/to-custom-template my-project

Writing Custom Templates from Scratch

• A template repo must have a template directory that holds the template files.

• A template repo may have a metadata file for the template which can be either a meta.js or meta.json file. It can contain the following fields:

  • prompts: used to collect user options data;

  • filters: used to conditional filter files to render.

  • metalsmith: used to add custom metalsmith plugins in the chain.

  • completeMessage: the message to be displayed to the user when the template has been generated. You can include custom instruction here.

  • complete: Instead of using completeMessage, you can use a function to run stuffs when the template has been generated.

prompts

The prompts field in the metadata file should be an object hash containing prompts for the user. For each entry, the key is the variable name and the value is an Inquirer.js question object. Example:

{
  "prompts": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "message": "Project name"
    }
  }
}

After all prompts are finished, all files inside template will be rendered using Handlebars, with the prompt results as the data.

Conditional Prompts

A prompt can be made conditional by adding a when field, which should be a JavaScript expression evaluated with data collected from previous prompts. For example:

{
  "prompts": {
    "lint": {
      "type": "confirm",
      "message": "Use a linter?"
    },
    "lintConfig": {
      "when": "lint",
      "type": "list",
      "message": "Pick a lint config",
      "choices": [
        "standard",
        "airbnb",
        "none"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The prompt for lintConfig will only be triggered when the user answered yes to the lint prompt.

Pre-registered Handlebars Helpers

Two commonly used Handlebars helpers, if_eq and unless_eq are pre-registered:

{{#if_eq lintConfig "airbnb"}};{{/if_eq}}

Custom Handlebars Helpers

You may want to register additional Handlebars helpers using the helpers property in the metadata file. The object key is the helper name:

module.exports = {
  helpers: {
    lowercase: str => str.toLowerCase()
  }
}

Upon registration, they can be used as follows:

{{ lowercase name }}

File filters

The filters field in the metadata file should be an object hash containing file filtering rules. For each entry, the key is a minimatch glob pattern and the value is a JavaScript expression evaluated in the context of prompt answers data. Example:

{
  "filters": {
    "test/**/*": "needTests"
  }
}

Files under test will only be generated if the user answered yes to the prompt for needTests.

Note that the dot option for minimatch is set to true so glob patterns would also match dotfiles by default.

Skip rendering

The skipInterpolation field in the metadata file should be a minimatch glob pattern. The files matched should skip rendering. Example:

{
  "skipInterpolation": "src/**/*.vue"
}

Metalsmith

vue-cli uses metalsmith to generate the project.

You may customize the metalsmith builder created by vue-cli to register custom plugins.

{
  "metalsmith": function (metalsmith, opts, helpers) {
    function customMetalsmithPlugin (files, metalsmith, done) {
      // Implement something really custom here.
      done(null, files)
    }

    metalsmith.use(customMetalsmithPlugin)
  }
}

If you need to hook metalsmith before questions are asked, you may use an object with before key.

{
  "metalsmith": {
    before: function (metalsmith, opts, helpers) {},
    after: function (metalsmith, opts, helpers) {}
  }
}

Additional data available in meta.{js,json}

• destDirName - destination directory name

{
  "completeMessage": "To get started:\n\n  cd {{destDirName}}\n  npm install\n  npm run dev"
}

• inPlace - generating template into current directory

{
  "completeMessage": "{{#inPlace}}To get started:\n\n  npm install\n  npm run dev.{{else}}To get started:\n\n  cd {{destDirName}}\n  npm install\n  npm run dev.{{/inPlace}}"
}

complete function

Arguments:

• data: the same data you can access in completeMessage:

  {
    complete (data) {
      if (!data.inPlace) {
        console.log(`cd ${data.destDirName}`)
      }
    }
  }

• helpers: some helpers you can use to log results.

  • chalk: the chalk module
  • logger: the built-in vue-cli logger
  • files: An array of generated files

  {
    complete (data, {logger, chalk}) {
      if (!data.inPlace) {
        logger.log(`cd ${chalk.yellow(data.destDirName)}`)
      }
    }
  }

Installing a specific template version

stage-cli uses the tool download-git-repo to download the official templates used. The download-git-repo tool allows you to indicate a specific branch for a given repository by providing the desired branch name after a pound sign (#).

The format needed for a specific official template is:

stage init '<template-name>#<branch-name>' <project-name>

Example:

Installing the 1.0 branch of the simple stage template:

stage init 'simple#1.0' mynewproject

Note: The surrounding quotes are necessary on zsh shells because of the special meaning of the # character.

Thanks

Thanks to Evan You and Vue.js for creating another awesome tool in vue-cli which made this project possible.

License

MIT