Scaffolder CLI

For a brief introduction and motivation for this tool, read this.

TOC

• Getting started
  • Setup
  • Usage
    • Create a templates folder in your project root directory
• API
  • interactive, i
  • create <templateName>
  • list, ls
  • show <templateName>

  ---

Getting started

Setup

Install scaffolder globally

npm i -g scaffolder-cli

this will make the scaff command available globally, you can now type scaff i in the terminal, to enter the cli in interactive mode.

You can also use npx for example npx scaffolder-cli i will start scaffolder in interactive mode.

Usage

Create a templates folder in your project root directory

The templates folder should be named scaffolder and should contain folders where each folder represents a different template and inside of that folder, there is the template structure you wish to create.

The templates available are the templates defined in the scaffolder folder.

If you have more scaffolder folders in the current file system hierarchy then all of them will be included with precedence to the nearest scaffolder folder.
For example:
In our current project root

scaffolder
├── component
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── {{componentName}}.js
│   └── {{componentName}}.spec.js
└── index
    └── index.js

In our desktop

scaffolder
├── component
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── {{lol}}.js
│   └── {{wattt}}.spec.js
└── coolFile
    └── coolFile.sh

From the above structure, we will have three commands component (from the project scaffolder), index (from the project scaffolder) and coolFile (from the desktop scaffolder).
Lets look at the content of {{componentName}}.js and {{componentName}}.spec.js. {{componentName}}.js from the current project scaffolder folder.

import React from 'react'

export const {{componentName}} = (props) => {
  return (
    <div>
      Such a cool component
    </div>
  )
}

{{componentName}}.spec.js

import React from 'react';
import { mount } from 'enzyme';
import { {{componentName}} } from './{{componentName}}';

describe('{{componentName}}', () => {
  it('should have a div', () => {
    const wrapper = mount(
      <{{componentName}} />
    );
   expect(wrapper.find('div').exists()).toBeTruthy()
  });
});

Now let's run the following command somewhere in our project

scaff create component componentName=CoolAFComponent --folder MyCoolComp

A new folder will be created under our current working directory, let's look at what we got.

MyCoolComp
├── CoolAFComponent.js
├── CoolAFComponent.spec.js
└── index.js

CoolAFComponent.js

import React from "react";

export const CoolAFComponent = (props) => {
  return <div>Such a cool component</div>;
};

CoolAFComponent.spec.js

import React from "react";
import { mount } from "enzyme";
import { CoolAFComponent } from "./CoolAFComponent";

describe("CoolAFComponent", () => {
  it("should have a div", () => {
    const wrapper = mount(<CoolAFComponent />);
    expect(wrapper.find("div").exists()).toBeTruthy();
  });
});

This could also be achieved using the interactive mode!

How cool is this, right?
As you can see our params got injected to the right places and we created our template with little effort.
Hooray!! ✨ 🎆 🎇 ✨

API

interactive, i

Run Scaffolder in interactive mode, meaning, it will prompt the user to choose a template and a value for each parameter.

This command is the most recommended one as it simplifies the process for the user a lot.

options:

• --from-github <?repositorySource>
  Passing this flag without repositorySource will cause a prompt to appear, asking the user to enter a github repository (https/ssh) and consume the templates defined on that repository. More info about sharing templates.
• --entry-point <absolutePath>
  Generate the template to a specified location.
• --load-from <absolutePath>
  Load the templates from a specific location.
• --path-prefix <relativePath>
  Path that will be appended the the location the script is generated into.
• --template <templateName>
  Start the interactive mode with a preselected template.
• --values <commaSeparatedParametersValue>
  Predefine values for specific parameters param1=val1,param2=val2...

create <templateName>

<templateName>: One of the templates defined in the scaffolder folder.

options:

• --load-from <absolutePath>
  Load the templates from a specific location.
• --entry-point <absolutePath>
  Generate the template to a specified location.
• --path-prefix <relativePath>
  Path that will be appended the the location the script is generated into.
• --folder, -f <folderName>
  <folderName>: The name of the folder you want the template to be generated into. If none is supplied the template will be generated to the current working directory.
• <parameter>=<value>
  <parameter>: One of the parameters for a specific template
  <value>: The value you want the parameter to be replaced with.

list, ls

Show the available templates from the current working directory.

show <templateName>

Show a specific template files
options:

• --show-content
  Also show the full content of the template files.