@nrwl/devkit

What is @nrwl/devkit?

The @nrwl/devkit package is a set of utilities designed to improve the developer experience by providing tools for building, testing, and managing Angular and React projects within a monorepo setup. It is part of the Nx ecosystem, which focuses on bringing a unified approach to working with modern web technologies.

What are @nrwl/devkit's main functionalities?

Generating Components

This feature allows developers to programmatically generate components or other files within their project. The code sample demonstrates how to use the `generateFiles` function to create a new component in a library within the monorepo.

import { generateFiles } from '@nrwl/devkit';
function generateMyComponent(tree, schema) {
  generateFiles(tree, path.join(__dirname, './files'), '/libs/mylib/src/lib', {
    tmpl: '',
    name: schema.name
  });
}

Updating JSON Configuration

This feature provides a straightforward way to update JSON files, such as `tsconfig.json` or `.eslintrc.json`, programmatically. The code sample shows how to modify the `tsconfig.base.json` to add a new path mapping for a library.

import { updateJson } from '@nrwl/devkit';
function updateTsConfig(tree) {
  updateJson(tree, 'tsconfig.base.json', (json) => {
    json.compilerOptions.paths['@myorg/mylib'] = ['libs/mylib/src/index.ts'];
    return json;
  });
}

Executing Schematic Tasks

This feature enables developers to execute tasks such as adding project configurations or formatting files. The code sample illustrates how to add a new library configuration to the workspace and then format all files according to the workspace's prettier or eslint configurations.

import { addProjectConfiguration, Tree, formatFiles } from '@nrwl/devkit';
function addMyLib(tree: Tree) {
  addProjectConfiguration(tree, 'my-lib', {
    root: './libs/my-lib',
    projectType: 'library',
    targets: {},
  });
  formatFiles(tree);
}

Other packages similar to @nrwl/devkit

lerna

Lerna is a tool for managing JavaScript projects with multiple packages, similar to the Nx workspace concept. While Lerna focuses on multi-package repositories (monorepos), it does not provide the same level of integration for Angular and React projects or the same developer tools and utilities as @nrwl/devkit.

yeoman-generator

Yeoman is a generic scaffolding system allowing the creation of any kind of app. It provides generators for a wide variety of applications and frameworks. Compared to @nrwl/devkit, Yeoman is more flexible but lacks the specific optimizations and integrations for Angular and React projects within a monorepo setup.

README

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Nx Devkit

What is Nx?

🔎 Extensible Dev Tools for Monorepos.

Nx Helps You

Develop like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft

Nx helps scale your development from one team building one application to many teams building multiple frontend and backend applications all in the same workspace. When using Nx, developers have a holistic dev experience powered by an advanced CLI (with editor plugins), capabilities for controlled code sharing and consistent code generation.

Use Intelligent Build System with Distributed Caching

Nx is smart. It analyzes your workspace and figures out what can be affected by every code change. That's why Nx doesn't rebuild and retest everything on every commit--it only rebuilds what is necessary.

Nx also uses a distributed computation cache. If someone has already built or tested similar code, Nx will use their results to speed up the command for everyone else instead of rebuilding or retesting the code from scratch. This, in combination with Nx’s support for distributed and incremental builds, can help teams see up to 10x reduction in build and test times.

Use Modern Tools

Nx is an open platform with plugins for many modern tools and frameworks. It has support for TypeScript, React, Angular, Cypress, Jest, Prettier, Nest.js, Next.js, Storybook, Ionic among others. With Nx, you get a consistent dev experience regardless of the tools used.

Getting Started

Creating an Nx Workspace

Using npx

npx create-nx-workspace

Using npm init

npm init nx-workspace

Using yarn create

yarn create nx-workspace

The create-nx-workspace command will ask you to select a preset, which will configure some plugins and create your applications to help you get started.

? What to create in the new workspace (Use arrow keys)
❯ empty             [an empty workspace with a layout that works best for building apps]
  oss               [an empty workspace with a layout that works best for open-source projects]
  web components    [a workspace with a single app built using web components]
  angular           [a workspace with a single Angular application]
  angular-nest      [a workspace with a full stack application (Angular + Nest)]
  react             [a workspace with a single React application]
  react-express     [a workspace with a full stack application (React + Express)]
  next.js           [a workspace with a single Next.js application]

Select the preset that works best for you.

Documentation

• Nx Repo
• Nx Documentation and Guides

Courses

Scale React Development with Nx	Nx Workspaces	Advanced Nx Workspaces

Nx Demo & Tutorial Videos

• Nx Dev Tools for Monorepos, In-Depth Explainer (React)

• Nx Dev Tools for Monorepos, In-Depth Explainer (Angular)

• Storybook Integration with Nx

• Building Custom Plugins for Nx

• Improved Dependency Graph Visualization for Nx

• Group all your stories into a single viewable Storybook with Nx

• Debug Nx with Node and VSCode

• Debug your Jest tests in Nx with VSCode

• Nx Console - A Must-Have Visual Studio Code Extension for Angular Developers

• Introducing Nx Cloud

• Setting up distributed caching using Nx Cloud, @nrwl/nx-cloud

• High Quality React apps with Nx & Cypress

Books and Blogs

• Nx blog posts

• Angular Enterprise Monorepo Patterns Book (free)

• High Quality React apps with Nx & Cypress (April 2020)

• Shell Library patterns with Nx and Monorepo Architectures (March 2020)

• Tiny Angular application projects in Nx workspaces (March 2020)

Additional Resources

• nx-examples repo has branches for different nx comments to display expected behavior and example app and libraries. Check out the branch (workspace, ngrx...) to see what gets created for you. More info on readme.

• xplat - Cross-platform tools for Nx workspaces

• Nrwl Talks, Presentations, and Podcasts playlist on YouTube

• Nx Office Hours playlist on YouTube