JS Boilerplate for PS

This application is intended as a toolkit for the Node.js hosting platform. It includes a considerable amount of standard build tools and core configuration.

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Installing & Development

• Install node.js
• Run npm install
• To build the development app: npm start
• To build the development app: npm run build

What will I see when I stand up the application?

If you ran npm start for development, you will see:

• A toolbar signifying you built for development
• The rendered API data from the mock json file
• A link to toggle the variables stored in process.env

If you ran npm run build for production, you will see:

• A toolbar signifying you built for production
• The rendered API data from the external API endpoint
• A link to toggle the variables stored in process.env

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Features

Message Logging

When printing output to the node, the buildScripts/devMessage.js file and other build scripts are using both the chalk module to format console. messages. Since the linting settings for .eslintrc.json is set to warn against console.log, we use the command /*eslint-disable no-console*/ to skip warnings.

Security

The npm script for security initiates the nsp check from the nsp module. This check is included within the npm start command to check for security issues as part of the local build.

ES6 Compiling

Transpiling for ES6 is accomplished with the babel-node package. This is then designated by prefixing build scripts with babel-node for npm commands.

Sass / CSS

The npm script sass compiles uses the node-sass module. The src/sass folder contain the sass files. The main.scss file serves as the manifest file and contains the imports for the sub-directories. The final CSS is compiled into the main.css files, with Webpack using the dev file webpack.config.dev.js to bundle and incorporate the sourcemaps.

Local Server

The npm script build-dev initiates the buildScripts/srcServer.js which uses express.js to create the homepage at http://localhost:4200. This script serves as the central location for routing and incorporating other centralized web tasks as well.

Code Linting

JavaScript code linting is provided by the eslint-watch module and is called with the esw command and targeted for development or production using the appropriate webpack config: webpack.config.*. The development standards are matching according .eslintrc.json file. During local dev builds, the linting is watching the core JS pipelines.

Testing

The Mocha test framework to target unit testing with Chai as the assertion library. The testSetup.js build script first sets up initial adjustments by compiling with Babel and skipping CSS validation. The test files are targeted according to the *.test.js naming convention, rather than by a specific folder when watching the files.

API Interaction

Initial mock APIs are included by default and switch based on environment variables. The initial generate-mock-data fires the generateMockData.js build script. This build script uses the module json-schema-faker and the build script mockDataSchema.js. A file is then generated to /src/api/db.json to emulate as a API call for dev tasks. A new file is created each time npm start is ran. Other common operations are included in the /src/api/ folder, such as deleting records for the development file. The start-mockapi tasks then uses the json-server module to serve the localhost:4201/users endpoint for consumption. For production builds, the API location switches to an external API url to emulate a real API call.

Environment Variables

For the sake of testing, node processes which are stored in process.env are exposed in runtime by webpack by the DefinePlugin value which is exported for switch statements in the DOM. These currently are passed thru the NPM commands as NODE_ENV= for development or production.

CI Integration

The continuous integration is validated thru TravisCI as part of the normal github workflow. The local storage reference for TravisCI is stored in the .travis.yml file.

Production Builds

The npm run build starts the process of a deployment build. This starts by cleaning dist/ folder in the clean-dist command as part of the prebuild command. The subsequent tasks then include build and postbuild commands which follow the normal methods or compiling thru express and bundled with the production webpack file webpack.config.prod.js The webpack settings for production include specific tasks such as bundle splitting, cache bustings, and compression.

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NPM Commands

This starter-kit utilizes NPM scripts in the packages.json file for workflow items. These scripts run implicit commands from the file, but also reference build scripts located in “buildScripts/”.

npm start command sequence for dev

• prestart runs creates a dev message to your terminal
• npm start runs in parallel with the code npm-run-all --parallel a collection of commands
• security-check module security scan for packages
• build-sass compiles and watches for sass changes to css
• build-dev fires build tasks with stands up the local website
• env-detect utility build tasks for delineating between dev and prod
• lint:watch linting by firing lint and appends the command with an additional watch parameter using --
• test:watch - runs tests by firing test and appends the command with an additional watch parameter using --
• generate-mock-data starts process of creating mock data for the API
• prestart-mockapi runs generate-mock-data as pre-task
• start-mockapi starts the json-server and points to the local db.json file

npm run build command sequence for production

• clean-dist clear out existing /dist folder
• prebuild preparation tasks around messaging, testing dev code, and linting
• build build tasks to prepare deployment code structure
• postbuild serving up local assets thru completed codebase
• deploy empty and waiting on TODO