yeoman-generator

What is yeoman-generator?

Yeoman Generator is a scaffolding tool for building web applications. It provides a powerful and flexible way to create and manage project templates, allowing developers to quickly set up new projects with a consistent structure and configuration.

What are yeoman-generator's main functionalities?

Creating a Basic Generator

This feature allows you to create a basic Yeoman generator that copies a template file to the destination directory. The `copyTpl` method is used to process the template with provided data.

const Generator = require('yeoman-generator');

module.exports = class extends Generator {
  writing() {
    this.fs.copyTpl(
      this.templatePath('index.html'),
      this.destinationPath('index.html'),
      { title: 'Templated HTML' }
    );
  }
};

Prompting User Input

This feature allows you to prompt the user for input during the generator's execution. The `prompt` method is used to ask questions and store the answers.

const Generator = require('yeoman-generator');

module.exports = class extends Generator {
  async prompting() {
    this.answers = await this.prompt([{
      type: 'input',
      name: 'name',
      message: 'Your project name',
      default: this.appname // Default to current folder name
    }]);
  }
};

Composing with Other Generators

This feature allows you to compose your generator with other generators. The `composeWith` method is used to integrate another generator into your own.

const Generator = require('yeoman-generator');

module.exports = class extends Generator {
  initializing() {
    this.composeWith(require.resolve('generator-other/generators/app'));
  }
};

Other packages similar to yeoman-generator

plop

Plop is a micro-generator framework that makes it easy to create code generators that are specific to your project. It is simpler and more lightweight compared to Yeoman Generator, focusing on generating files based on templates and user prompts.

hygen

Hygen is a fast and lightweight code generator that is designed to be easy to use and integrate into existing projects. It emphasizes simplicity and speed, making it a good alternative to Yeoman Generator for smaller or more focused tasks.

slush

Slush is a scaffolding tool that uses Gulp for its build system. It allows you to create and run generators similar to Yeoman Generator but leverages the Gulp ecosystem for task automation and file manipulation.

README

Generator

Rails-inspired generator system that provides scaffolding for your apps

Getting Started

If you're interested in writing your own Yeoman generator we recommend reading the official getting started guide. The guide covers all the basics you need to get started.

A generator can be as complex as you want it to be. It can simply copy a bunch of boilerplate files, or it can be more advanced asking the user's preferences to scaffold a tailor made project. This decision is up to you.

The fastest way to get started is to use generator-generator, a Yeoman generator to generate a Yeoman generator.

After reading the getting started guide, you might want to read the code source or visit our API documentation for a list of all methods available.

API documentation for v4.x.

Debugging

See the debugging guide.

Contributing

We love contributors! See our contribution guideline to get started.

Sponsors

Love Yeoman work and community? Help us keep it alive by donating funds to cover project expenses!
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License

BSD license Copyright (c) Google