generator-evergrow

Opinionated web application generator

This generator is time-saver when you want to quickly bootstrap a web application based on my opinionated code structure. It's based on Express 4, uses MongoDB for persistence and Redis for session storage.

Installation

First, install Yeoman and generator-evergrow using npm (we assume you have pre-installed node.js).

npm install -g yo
npm install -g generator-evergrow

Web Application Bootstrap

Then create a new folder which serves as your new web application folder. Generate your new web application in that folder through below command. It will prompt you to provide the project name and git url:

yo evergrow

After it completes, perform below two steps before running the application:

1. Duplicate file config/base/sample.js and rename to config/base/development.js. Change any option you need to match your MongoDB, Redis URL, etc.
2. Type npm install and it knows how to install all the dependencies.

After all dependent packages are installed, you can start the application by node index.js (Don't forget to start MongoDB first). You can see the home page immediately by accessing the application through URL http://localhost:3000 (assuming you have not changed port in config).

This application already supports local user signup, signin and signout functiontalities. You can see below user profile page after you signup and login.

New Module Generation

There are three sub-generators: module, model and view. Actually, the module sub-generator is composed by the other two. What are the difference between them and when to use them?

1. Create a new module with backend model, controller and business layer only, type command: yo evergrow:model Demo. Demo is the module name.
2. Create a new module with all backend stuff and views, type command: yo evergrow:module Demo.
3. If you only want to have sample views, type yo evergrow:view Demo

If you create a complete module, you can see below files are automatically generated:

What are those files for? Take a look after you generate it. You should have some sense if you have basic web development background.

New to web application development? I will write tutorials later. Cheers. :)

License

MIT © Ken Chen