jumpstart

jumpstart is a command-line tool to create new C# projects from prebuilt/templates.

As an experienced developers it's very common we have some kind of template solution when we start a new project. Maybe it's the latest project we work on, maybe it's a very good template we used every time to bootstrap a specific kind of project.

I created jumpstart to simplify the process of create the new project based on those templates or prebuilt solutions.

The idea of the tool was born a long time ago and became a little stronger every time that I had to create a new solution and all the projects by hand, but when I saw the message bellow in the http://xamarin.com/prebuilt page I decided to finally write the tool... and the name was very clear, almost.

The first name that I thought to the tool was prebuilt, but later, my friend @GiusepeCasagrande convinced me that jumpstart was really better name... and he was right!

---

How does it work?

jumpstart is very simple, it get a folder with a template solution and copy it to a new folder replacing the root namespace of the template to the new project namespace.

A template folder like this:

jumpstart-template/MyClass.cs
jumpstart-template/Properties
jumpstart-template/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs
jumpstart-template/JumpStartTemplate.csproj
JumpStartTemplate.sln

With this command:

jumpstart -n My.Amazing.NewProject

Will become:

My.Amazing.NewProject/MyClass.cs
My.Amazing.NewProject/Properties
My.Amazing.NewProject/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs
My.Amazing.NewProject/My.Amazing.NewProject.csproj
My.Amazing.NewProject.sln

The MyClass.cs, AssemblyInfo.cs, My.Amazing.NewProject.csproj and My.Amazing.NewProject.sln contents was updated by jumpstart to use the namespace My.Amazing.NewProject.

Usage

Download it from our releases page.

Available options:

To see all available options.

jumpstart -help

Basic (using conventions)

If your template folder is called "jumpstart-template" and its namespace is JumpStartTemplate, the only argument you need to pass to jumpstart is -n(namespace).

jumpstart -n My.Amazing.NewProject

The "jumpstart-template" folder should be in the same folder where you are calling jumpstart.

Advanced (specifying template folder and namespace)

For example, your template folder is "my-template" and your template namespace is "My.Template", in this case you should call jumpstart in this way:

jumpstart -tf my-template -tn My.Template -n My.Amazing.NewProject

Advanced (using a remote .zip template)

You can use a remote .zip file as your template folder. For example, if you want to start a new project with any of those prebuilt apps that Xamarin make available on http://xamarin.com/prebuilt, you can use the command bellow to jumpstart your new project using those templates:

jumpstart Xamarin Sport prebuilt app

jumpstart -tf https://github.com/xamarin/sport/archive/master.zip -tn Sport.Mobile -n My.Sport.Mobile 

If you are using jumpstart in Mac/Linux, remember to call it with "mono " prefix.

Good pratices

The jumpstart was designed to simplify the bootstrap of new projects based on templates/prebuilt solutions, with this in mind we recommend you use our conventions to facilitate the life of the user (programmer) that is using your template/prebuilt.

We recommend you add the jumpstart.exe inside your .zip template/prebuilt, like this:

Your.Amazing.Template.zip
	/jumpstart-template
	/jumpstart.exe
	/readme.txt

Inside the jumpstart-template folder is your whole template/prebuilt solution. You should use the JumpStartTemplate namespace in your template too.

In the readme.txt add the following message:

To create a new project open prompt/terminal and type:
	* In Windows: jumpstart -n [the namespace of the new project]
 	* In Mac/Linux: mono jumpstart.exe -n [the namespace of the new project] 

Of course, you can choose not use the convention template folder "jumpstart-template" and the the convention template namespace JumpStartTemplate, but using them you'll really keep things simple to your template/prebuilt user.

Cross-platform

• Mono support.
• Fully tested on Windows and Mac.

Tests

jumpstart was successfully tested on templates of:

• C# class library projects
• ASP .NET MVC projects
• Unity3d projects
• Xamarin projects

---

FAQ

Having troubles? Ask on Twitter @ogiacomelli.

Q. Why the namespace template within some files was not replaced?

A. By default jumpstart use an interal regex, called files-regex to choose what files must be replaced, the default pattern is:

@"(\.cs|\.cshtml|\.csproj|\.sln|\.meta|\.asax|\.userprefs|\.config|\.sh|\.cmd|\.xaml)$"

If your file is not in this regex, you can use the -fr argument to use your own regex.

For example, you want your .txt files to be replaced too. To this case, you can use the command bellow:

jumpstart -fr "(\.cs|\.cshtml|\.csproj|\.sln|\.meta|\.asax|\.userprefs|\.config|\.sh|\.cmd|\.xaml|\.txt)$" -n  My.Amazing.NewProject

If you believe that your file extensions is a very default file extension to C# projects, please fork jumpsharp and add it to the default regex on file JumpStartOptions.cs and make a pull request.

---

How to improve it?

Create a fork of jumpstart.

Did you change it? Submit a pull request.

License

Licensed under the The MIT License (MIT). In others words, you can use this library for developement any kind of software: open source, commercial, proprietary and alien.