Why QuickGo?

QuickGo is a simple and easy to use golang command line tool for creating projects of any language.

Support for:

• Saving project templates for easy reuse.
• Variable usage with custom delimiters defined in quickgo.yaml (uses Go's text/template package).
• Custom commands ran with quickgo <command_name> <args> defined in quickgo.yaml.
• Executing commands before and after copying project templates.
• Excluding files from the project templates.
• Serving over HTTP for easy viewing of projects.

Installation

quickgo can be installed using go install with the following command:

go install github.com/Nigel2392/quickgo/v2@v2.4.3

Optionally we provide a binary for Linux, MacOS and Windows.

These can be found in the releases section.

After downloading the binary, you should add it to your PATH.

Usage

List all the projects you've saved

To list all the projects which you've saved we provide the -list flag.

Example:

quickgo -list

Configuring your project templates

Example configuration

We provide a command to easily generate an example configuration file for quickgo.

This provides a good starting point for creating your own project configurations.

It is however fully possible to skip creating a quickgo.yaml file and control everything via the command line.

quickgo -example

Now you should have a quickgo.yaml file in your current directory.

quickgo.yaml

The quickgo.yaml file is where you define your project templates and commands.

It allows for the following fields:

• name: The name of the project.
• context: The context to use for the project templates.
• delimLeft: The left delimiter for the project templates.
• delimRight: The right delimiter for the project templates.
• exclude: A list of files to exclude from the project in glob format. (e.g. *.go)
• beforeCopy: A list of commands to run before copying the project templates.
• afterCopy: A list of commands to run after copying the project templates.s
• commands: A list of commands to run before and after copying the project templates.

Using the template engine

The template engine uses Go's text/template package.

This allows for the use of variables in your project files.

Variables are by default delimited by {{ and }}, this can be changed in the quickgo.yaml file.

Example of a variable in a file:

Let's take the example quickgo.yaml file at the end of the README to demonstrate how this works.

# {{ .Name }}

# This is a project template for {{ index .Context "CustomName" }}.

Read more:

{{ index .Context "Description" }}

Note: Filepaths

Filepaths in the project template can also contain variables!

Saving your project templates

After you have configured your project in quickgo.yaml, you can save them with the following commands.

# Save the project (this will be saved in $HOME/.quickgo/projects).
quickgo -save 

# Save the project, override the name and context:
quickgo -save -name my-custom-project / customContextKey=customContextValue

# Save the project, exclude all files matching the glob pattern `*.go` and `*.mod`.
quickgo -save -e '*.go' -e '*.mod'

Using your project templates

Now that you have created some project templates, you can use them with the following command:

# Create a new project from the template.
# This will create a new project in the `my/target/directory/my-project` directory.
quickgo -use my-project -d my/target/directory

We also allow for a few overrides when using your project templates, you can provide extra context or change the project name.

This can be done by delimiting your context with a slash when running the above command.

Example:

# Create a new project from the template.
# Change the name, provide extra context and change the target directory.
# This will create a new project in the `my/target/directory/my-custom-project-name` directory.
quickgo -use my-project -d my/target/directory -name my-custom-project-name / customContextKey=customContextValue

Serving your project templates

You can also serve your project templates over HTTP.

This can be done with the following command:

# Serve the project over HTTP.
quickgo -serve

You can also provide a custom host and port to serve the project on.

# Serve the project over HTTP on a custom host and port.
quickgo -serve -host 127.0.0.1 -port 8080

Or even serve the project over HTTPS.

# Serve the project over HTTPS.
quickgo -serve -port 443 -tls-cert /path/to/cert.pem -tls-key /path/to/key.pem

Locking the project configuration.

If you want to lock the project configuration, you can do so by providing the -lock flag.

This will prevent the project configuration and files from being modified by QuickGo.

• 1 = Lock
• 0 = Unlock

Example:

# Lock the current project configuration.
quickgo -lock 1

Using your defined project's commands

You can also run the commands defined in your quickgo.yaml file.

It is also possible to provide the -d flag to run the commands in the project's directory.

# Run the `echoName` command defined in the `quickgo.yaml` file.
# This will echo the project name.
quickgo echoName

# Run the `echoName` command defined in the `myconfig/quickgo.yaml` file.
# Note the shell delimiters! These are NOT defined in the `quickgo.yaml` file,
# but instead handled by the OS.
quickgo -d 'myconfig' echoName customProjectName="custom-${projectName}"

These are addressed by the label of the steps.

Example:

# Run the `echoName` command defined in the `quickgo.yaml` file.
# This will echo the project name.
quickgo echoName

# Run the `echoName` command defined in the `quickgo.yaml` file.
# Provide a custom project name to echo.
# This will echo the custom project name.
quickgo echoName customProjectName="custom-${projectName}"

All available application flags:

-d: The target directory to write the project to.
-delim-left: The left delimiter for the project templates.
-delim-right: The right delimiter for the project templates.
-e: A list of files to exclude from the project in glob format.
-example=false: Print an example project configuration.
-save=false: Import the project from the current directory.
-host=localhost: The host to run the server on.
-list=false: List the projects available for use.
-lock=-1: Lock the project configuration. 1=Lock, 0=Unlock.
-name: The name of the project.
-port=8080: The port to run the server on.
-serve=false: Serve the project over HTTP.
-tls-cert: The path to the TLS certificate.
-tls-key: The path to the TLS key.
-use: Use the specified project configuration.
-v: Enable verbose logging.

Example quickgo.yaml configuration

See the example file below to get a better understanding of how to configure your project templates.

# The name of your project template.
# This is how you want it to be adressed when using the template.
# It can optionally be overridden, example: `quickgo -get my-project -name my-custom-project-name`
name: my-project

# Optional extra context that can be used in text files throughout your project.
# These can also be used when running commands like beforeCopy, afterCopy and the project commands themselves.
# Example: `{{.Name}}` will be replaced with `my-project` in all files, if the leftDelim and rightDelim are set to `{{` and `}}`.
# Context variables can be addressed with `{{ index .Context "CustomName" }}`.
context:
    CustomName: My Project
    Description: This is a project template for My Project.


# The left and right delimiters for the template engine.
# These are used to replace the context variables in the project files.
# Example: `{{ .Name }}` will be replaced with `my-project` in all files, if the leftDelim and rightDelim are set to `{{` and `}}`.
delimLeft: '${{'
delimRight: '}}'

# A list of files and directories to exclude from the project template.
# These will not be saved; there is currently no way to exclude files after saving.
exclude:
    - '*node_modules*'
    - '*dist*'
    - .git

# A list of steps to run before copying the template to the destination.
# This can be used to prepare the project files, etc.
# The project is not yet copied to the destination at this point.
beforeCopy:
    # This will execute:
    #   echo $projectPath  
    steps:
        - name: Echo Project Path Before
          command: echo
          args:
            - $projectPath

# A list of steps to run after copying the template to the destination.
# This can be used to clean up, install dependencies, etc.
# The project is already copied to the destination at this point.
afterCopy:
    steps:
        - name: Echo Project Name After
          command: echo
          args:
            - $projectName

# A list of custom commands that can be run on the project.
# These can be used to automate tasks, etc.
# Example: `quickgo <command-name> <args>`
commands:

    # The label is the name of the command.
    echoName:

        # Description is only used for type annotations.
        description: Echo the project name, supply one with customProjectName=myValue

        # Arguments which can be setup before running the command.
        args:
            customProjectName: $projectName

        # The steps which will be executed when running the command.
        steps:
            - name: Echo Project Name
              command: echo
              args:
                - $customProjectName