Abee v0.6.3

Abee is a meteor scaffolding application that allows you to use your own (or the build-in) design patterns to build a great meteor app in less time. In Version 0.6.3 it supports now Javascript and Coffeescript as scripting languages.

Abee

• creates your app and builds a "best practice" directory structure that you can choose from different configurations.
• extends your existing meteor app.
• uses Handlebars, so you don't have to learn new stuff.
• adds/removes customizable views/templates to/from your app.
• adds/removes template based models/collections, client-subscriptions and server-publications.
• generates allow/deny stubs for your collections.
• adds routes.

You can configure what is a model or a view, so Abee produces what you think it should.

Why?

I am to lazy to write the same stuff over and over again. Due to the structure of a meteor-app you have to do this stuff in multiple directories and/or multiple files. So i decided to let a bit of software do that work.

Installation

You'll need to have Node >= 0.10.0 installed on your system.

To install:

$ npm install -g abee

To update:

$ npm update -g abee

Usage

Abee operates in your app-directory (the place where you call meteor to start your app). The only exception is create, because there is no app-directory before you call create ;-).

usage: abee command [subcommand] [options]

commands:

abeetize

Extends your meteor app with Abees scaffolding capabilities and generate the chosen directory structure in the choosen scripting language.

usage:

abee abeetize [-p <design-pattern>] [-l <language>] [-d]

options:

-p <design-pattern>: choose a design-pattern to build structure for
                     supported: mvc (Model-View-Controller)
                     default:   mvc
-l <language>:       choose scripting language
                     supported: js (Javascript), coffee (Coffescript)
                     default:   js
-d:                  delete meteor standard .html,.js,.css files 
                     and remove insecure und autopublish modules.

example:

Extend an App with mvc design-pattern (default). Use Coffeescript.

abee abeetize -l coffee

Extend an App with mvc design-pattern (default). Use Javascript (default). Also delete standard meteor app files and remove insecure and autopublish modules.

abee abeetize -d

collection

Adds/removes a collection.

usage:

abee collection add <collectionName1> [attr1,...,attrN] <collectionName2> ...
abee collection remove <collectionName1> ... <collectionNameN>

example:

Adds a collection 'person' with Attributes 'name', 'firstname' and age. Adds another collection 'car' without Attributes.

abee collection add person [name,firstname,age] car 

Removes the collections 'person' and 'car'

abee collection remove person car 

create

Creates an app like meteor does, but extends it with Abees scaffolding capabilities and generate the chosen directory structure in the choosen scripting language.

usage:

abee create <appName> [-p <design-pattern>] [-l <language>]

options:

-p <design-pattern>: choose a design-pattern to build structure for
                     supported: mvc
                     default:   mvc
-l <language>:       choose scripting language
                     supported: js (Javascript), coffee (Coffescript)
                     default:   js

example:

Create a meteor app called 'myNewApp' and abeetize that app with the mvc design-pattern the Coffeescript scripting language.

abee create -p mvc -l coffee myNewApp

help

Prints the help message.

usage:

abee help

template

Creates a template in the clients template directory.

usage:

abee template add <templateName1> ... <templateNameN> [-g <templateGroup>]
abee template remove <templateName1> ... <templateNameN> [-g <templateGroup>]

options:

-g <templateGroup>: groups the added views in the directory <templateGroup>
                    or deletes the specified views in the directory <templateGroup>

example:

abee template add student employee -g persons
abee template add car 
abee template remove student -g persons

route

Creates a route.

usage:

abee route add [<name1>,]<path1>[,<template1>] ... [<nameN>,]<pathN>[,<templateN>]

example:

abee route add myHome,/home,firstPage
abee route add /home

'abee route remove' is not supported at the moment.

inside Abee

Directory structure

the abee directory looks like this

-- abee             
 |-- cmds               // commands that added here where automaticaly load by Abee
 | |-- collection.js   
 | |-- config.js       // NOT ACTIVE
 | |-- create.js
 | |-- page.js         // NOT ACTIVE 
 | |-- route.js
 | |-- template.js
 |
 |-- configs            // this folder holds the configurations for the design-patterns
 | |-- languages        // configs for scripting languages
 | | |-- coffee.js      // coffeescript configuration
 | | |-- js.js          // jacascript configuration
 | |
 | |-- patterns         // design-patterns
 | | |-- mvc.js         // Model View Controller Pattern
 | | |-- osimvc.js      // NOT ACTIVE SUPPORTED AT THE MOMENT
 | 
 |-- lib                // core libaries and helper functions
 | |-- abee.js   
 | |-- cmdhelper.js
 | |-- colors.js
 | |-- config.js
 | |-- fshelper.js
 | |-- helper.js
 | |-- tplhelper.js
 |
 |-- templates           // here is the directory to store the templates for different 
 | |-- mvc               // design-patterns. First Abee looks for the templates specified 
 | | |-- coffee
 | | | |-- <template files>
 | | |  
 | | |-- js
 | |   |-- <template files>
 | |
 | |-- osimvc
 |   |-- coffee
 |   | |-- <template files>
 |   |      
 |   |-- js
 |     |-- <template files>
 |
 |-- abee                // the command-line interface
 |-- changelog.md        // 
 |-- LICENSE             // license file
 |-- package.json        // npm description
 |-- README.md           // this file

Design pattern config

pattern: 'mvc',                   // name of the configuration 
                                  // (same as filename without .js)
language: '{{templateSubFolder}}' // get set via language configuraion
structure:{                       // the file and directory structure
  'emptyDir':{},                  // empty directory
  'dir':{                         // directory
    'subdir':{},                  // empty subdirectory
    'emptyFile.{{ext}}': null.        // empty file
    'fromTpl.{{ext}}': 'template.{{ext}}' // generates fromTpl.ext with 
                                  // template.ext as template
  }
},
<command>:{                       // config section for the <command> (for example 'model')
  createFiles: [                  // this files will be generated when 
  {                               // '<command> add' is called
    'name': '\{{filename}}.html',  // name of the file
    'dir' :'client/views',        // directory to store file
    'template' : {          
      'names': ["\{{filename}}.html", "view.html"], // look for these templates in the template dir
                                                   // pick the first that matchs
      'dir'  : ''                 // subdirectory in template dir (not implemented yet)!
    },
  },
  {
   ... (nextFile)
  }],
  addToFiles:[                    // this adds code snippets to 
  {
    'file' : 'router.js',         // this file
    'dir'  : 'client/lib/meteor', // in this directory
    'mark' : '//ABEE:ADDROUTE',   // above this mark 
    'template' : {
      'names' : ["\{{name}}Route.js", "route.js"], //here are the snippets templates
      'dir' : ''                  // subdirectory in template dir (not implemented yet)!
    }
  },
  {
    ... (nextSnippet)
  }]
},
<nextcommand>:{
  ...
}

Templates

hint: when you create an handlebars template for meteor with handlebars in Abee you have to escape the handlebars variables in the template like this

\{{meteorVariable}}  => {{meteorVariable}}
\{{meteor{{abeeVariable}}Variable}} => {{meteorHEREABEEINSERTEDVariable}}

command	config vars		template vars
create			{{appName}}	name of your app
model	{{filename}}	name of the model	{{Model}}	capitalized name of your model
			{{model}}	name of your model in lowercase
			{{attr}}	attributes of the model {{name}} (lowercase) and {{Name}} (capitalized) available
			{{collection}}	name of the collection (equal to '{{Model}}Collection')
route	{{name}}	name of the route	{{name}}	name of the route
			{{path}}	path that is routed
			{{template}}	template to render
template	{{filename}}	name of the template	{{view}}	name of the view
	{{group}}	group for the views (when delivered)

License

MIT