README.md

aurelia-cli

The command line tooling for Aurelia, used for creating projects, scaffolding, bundling and more.

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Install

Run the following command to install aurelia-cli

npm install aurelia-cli -g

Configuration

The cli uses Aureliafile.js for various configuration. An example config file looks like:

  var aurelia = require('aurelia-cli');

  aurelia.command('bundle', {
    js: {
      app: {
        modules: [
          'aurelia-skeleton-navigation/*',
        ],
        options: {
          inject: true
        }
      },
      'aurelia-bundle': {
        modules: [
          'aurelia-bootstrapper',
          'aurelia-router',
          'aurelia-http-client'
        ],
        options: {
          inject: false
        }
      }
    },
    template: {
      app: {
        pattern: 'dist/*.html',
        options: {
          inject: true,
        }
      }
    }
  });

Commands

The following section explains how to use the different CLI commands. In order to get help inside your command line just type

aurelia COMMANDNAME -h

Generate

This is used to scaffold new elements for your application. Currently it supports creating a ViewModel alongside a View. The minimal necessary command is:

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME

This will show you the generated template and prompt you whether you want to continue the file creation. The resulting file YOURNAME.js will be placed inside the src folder.

Adding a View

In order to create an additional View along your ViewModel add the -v attribute:

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME -v

This time you'll get both templates presented and prompted whether you want to create them. Same as the ViewModel, the View will be created as YOURNAME.html and placed in the src folder.

Inject elements into your ViewModel

You can also automatically import and inject other components into your ViewModel. To do so add either the -i attribute followed by the name of the component you want to inject, or via --inject and giving a list of components.

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME -v --inject Element,HttpClient

The above example will generate the following template result:

import { inject } from 'aurelia-framework';
import { Element } from 'aurelia-framework';
import { HttpClient } from 'aurelia-framework';

@inject(Element, HttpClient)
export class YOURNAME {
  hello = 'Welcome to Aurelia!';

  constructor(element,httpClient){

  }

  activate() {
    // called when the VM is activated
  }

  attached() {
    // called when View is attached, you are safe to do DOM operations here
  }
}

Please note that the import determination is not yet fully functional and by default imports components from aurelia-framework. We'll get that sorted out.

Unfinished attributes

• no-lifecycle
• template

Bundle

With Aureliafile.js file placed in the root of project containing the above configuration, run the following command to bundle the js modules and templates.

aurelia bundle

Authoring project specific command/plugin

Currently CLI offers some built in commands that includes new, bundle, and generate etc. Often times these are not enough you need some project specific commands. Let's see how easy it is to write one of these.

Place the following code in a file named example-command.js relative to the Aureliafile.

module.exports = function ExampleCommand(program, config, logger) {
    var self = this;

    program.command('example')
      .alias('e')
      .description('This is just an example command to show how to write a plugin')
      .action(function (options) {
         console.log('Hello cli plugin world!');
      });
};

You can place the file any where in your project directory. You may organize all your custom commands in a command directory.

Now, let's require the command in the Aureliafie.js. It should look like:

  var aurelia = require('aurelia-cli');
  var ExampleCommand = require('./example-command');

  
  aurelia.command(ExampleCommand);

Notice aurelia.command(...) this is actually hooking the plugin with cli. With that in place run:

aurelia example

That's it! This should print Hello cli plugin world! to the console.

You can package your plugin/command as an npm package, publish and share with the world. Our registry will help you discover other great plugins created by the community.