LaxarJS generator

A simple way to create LaxarJS applications and artifacts

Installation

First you have to install the required npm modules for yeoman and install the package with the LaxarJS generator:

npm install -g yo bower grunt-cli generator-laxarjs

Alternatively you can install the packages locally in the application directory. Take a look below to the section "Local Installation" .

Generators

The Yeoman generator laxarjs comes up with the main generator for scaffolding an application and three sub generators for widgets, activities and controls.

Available generators:

laxarjs
laxarjs:widget
laxarjs:activity
laxarjs:control

Application

To scaffold a new LaxarJS application, create a directory and run the generator:

mkdir my-application
cd my-application
yo laxarjs

After answering several questions, the generator creates the bare-bones application scaffolding for you. Now you can fetch your project's dependencies using npm install and start the application development server by running grunt laxar-develop.

Option for the App-Generator

The app generator has one option for a custom banner. You can pass the path to a file including your custom banner as an option. The files the generator creates will have this banner.

mkdir my-application
cd my-application
yo laxarjs --banner=my-custom-banner.txt

The banner will be saved in the Yeoman configuration file (.yo-rc.json) and will be used by the sub-generators.

Sub-Generators

The sub-generators expect a Yeoman configuration file .yo-rc.json in the root directory of the application. If you created your application using the Yeoman generator as described above, a Yeoman configuration file was already created for you.

If the application has no Yeoman configuration file, just create one by running:

echo {} > .yo-rc.json

To generate the scaffold for a LaxarJS widget use the following command:

yo laxarjs:widget

The generator creates the new widget in a directory named like the widget. If the current directory is the root directory of the application, the generator places the new widget into the default directory for widgets, includes/widgets. Otherwise, the widget scaffolding is created within the current directory.

Activity

To generate the scaffolding for a LaxarJS activity use either the command

yo laxarjs:activity

or use the widget generator with the option activity:

yo laxarjs:widget --activity

The generator creates the new activity in a directory named like the activity, just as described above for widgets.

Control

To generate the scaffolding for a LaxarJS control use the following command:

yo laxarjs:control

The generator creates the new control in a directory named by the control. If the current directory is the root directory of the application, the generator places the new widget into the default directory for controls, includes/controls. Otherwise, a new directory with the scaffolding is created in the current directory.

Arguments and Options for Sub-Generators

Each of the three sub-generators accepts the name for the artifact as an argument, the destination path as an option and an option for a custom header. The following examples are for the widget generator but the others behave accordingly.

You can pass the name for a new widget as an argument from the command line:

yo laxarjs:widget my-widget

In this case the generator creates the scaffold in the directory includes/widgets/my-widget independently from the working directory.

Using the option directory, it is possible to change the destination. Using this command, the generator creates the files in a directory named by the new widget in the directory includes/widgets/destination:

yo laxarjs:widget --directory=includes/widgets/destination

It is possible to set the directory option and pass the name as argument:

yo laxarjs:widget my-widget --directory=includes/my-app

Using this pattern, the full path can be specified when running the generator. The command above creates the new widget in the directory includes/my-app/my-widget.

If you want a custom banner for the files the generator creates, you can pass the path to a file including your banner as option:

yo laxarjs:widget my-widget --banner=my-custom-banner.txt

Local Installation

Alternatively to the global installation of the npm modules you can install the packages locally in the application directory:

mkdir my-application
cd my-application
npm install yo bower grunt-cli generator-laxarjs

Create a simple npm configuration file for bootstrapping:

echo '{ "scripts": { "yo": "yo" } }' > package.json

The LaxarJS generator will ask if it should overwrite the package.json and you should agree.

Documentation