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Express 3.0 framework-less app structure generator<br> Documentation • Blog post

Usage

Installation

$ npm install -g skeleton

Generate a project

$ skeleton myapp
$ skeleton --directory ~/Desktop myapp
$ skeleton --renderer jade --css less myapp
$ skeleton myapp --js js

Start your application

$ node server.js
$ node server.js -p 1337

Help

$ skeleton --help

  Usage: skeleton [options] myapp

  -h, --help       display this help message
  -v, --version    display the version number
  -f, --force      force on non-empty directory
  -n, --nolog      do not print any message to process.stdout
  -d, --directory  the output directory (default: ./)
  -r, --renderer   template engine [ejs, jade] (default: ejs)
  -c, --css        stylesheet engine [stylus, less, css] (default: stylus)
  -j, --js         javascript engine [coffee, js] (default: coffee)

Running tests

$ npm test

Features

• Clean encapsulated Object-Oriented framework base (see #not-quite-a-framework)
• CoffeeScript only. No js/compilation whatsoever
• Automatically load lib/** & app/controllers/** files
• Use connect-assets; The “Rails 3.1-style asset pipeline for Node.js”
• Partials/layout (removed from Express 3.0) via express-partials*
  • *At least until layout support is added to ejs
  • *Not in the package when using Jade
• Heroku-ready (see https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/nodejs)

Not quite a framework

I guess this could be considered the generator part of a framework. It does create a view-controller user interface which does a bunch of things a framework would do, but once your project is generated it is up to you.

Generated app structure

See example.

myapp
├─┬ app
│ ├── app.coffee
│ ├─┬ assets
│ │ ├─┬ css
│ │ │ └── styles.styl
│ │ └─┬ js
│ │   └── scripts.coffee
│ ├─┬ controllers
│ │ └── application_controller.coffee
│ ├─┬ helpers
│ │ └── index.coffee
│ ├─┬ routes
│ │ └── index.coffee
│ └─┬ views
│   ├── 404.ejs
│   ├── index.ejs
│   └── layout.ejs
├─┬ config
│ └── boot.coffee
├─┬ lib
│ └─┬ myapp
│   └── my_custom_class.coffee
├── package.json
├── Procfile
├── public
├── README.md
└── server.js

Todo

• Add Haml support
• Add Sass support

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Etienne Lemay etienne@heliom.ca, @EtienneLem

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.