feat(build): add support for assets array

[filipesilva]

This PR enables the assets entry in angular-cli.json to be an array of globs:

      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico",
        ".htaccess",
        "cat-picks/**/*"
      ],

Previous behavior (`"assets": "assets") will still work, but might be deprecated/removed in future versions.

Close #1942
Close #2405

[NgxDev]

If we have src/public/assets/ and src/public/a-bunch-of-files.ext
Will this:

"assets": [
        "public/assets/**/*",
        "public/*"
],

copy contents of src/public/assets folder to dist root?
And also copy any file that's directly in /src/public straight to dist root?

I'm asking because, right now (beta-17) if I do this:

"assets": "public/assets"

It doesn't create an assets folder in dist, but instead it starts with public... so I get dist/public/assets instead of dist/assets. And "assets": "public/assets/*" doesn't work (I suppose it's not even meant to, in beta-17).

I'm creating an additional folder (public) because, if we have have a bunch of folders and files to get copied straight to dist root, we wouldn't want to pollute the src folder too much (with a bunch of folders and files, which are simply static assets).

[filipesilva]

@MrCroft this will always mirror the structure you have. For if you have src/public/assets/ and use public/assets in the config, you will get dist/public/assets/.

[NgxDev]

I understand.

Unfortunately, if we have 2 different folders and 5 files which each need to be in dist root, we have no choice but to pollute the src folder with those 2 folders and 5 files... I think.
Now, granted... having multiple folders which each need to be in dist root is probably quite rare, but having one folder and multiple files that each needs to be in dist root - that's a more common scenario.

Would make more sense that "assets" copies over keeping the structure (so dist/assets/...), and "assets/**/*" would recreate the structure starting after assets/ (not including assets), thus getting dist/what-ever-is-in-assets.

Otherwise, this also means that there is no difference between let's say cat-picks and cat-picks/**/*.

Thank you for the clarification.

[filipesilva]

Correct, cat-picks and cat-picks/**/* are exactly the same under this PR. I specialcased dir globs to add /**/* in front even.

We felt it was better this way have a 30m discussion in the team where everyone had different expectations of how this would work. So to make it as simple as possible, path is always kept.

[SolutiaConsulting]

I upgraded angular cli to 1.0.0-beta.17. I added the following to angular-cli.json:

{ ... "assets": [ "./src/favicon.ico", "./src/Web.config" ] ... }

favicon.ico and Web.config are not getting copied to dist folder. I'm running this command:

ng build --env=dev -o dist/dev

How do I get favicon.ico and Web.config copied from src folder to dist environment root folder?

[NgxDev]

@SolutiaConsulting I don't think this feature is in beta 17. It seems that Beta 17 was released before this merge. So, it will probably be in the next release.

[filipesilva]

Correct, this feature will be part of the next release, but is not in beta.17.

[fabianderijk]

Is there any idea on when the next release is due? I've ran into this problem as well. I've added a .htaccess file to the app folder, and that also needs to bee in my dist folder. But for now it isn't. Because we use Jenkins to build the app, and it overwrites the complete old folder, we need the .htaccess from the build. Or is there an other way around this?

[Splaktar]

@fabianderijk beta.18 is out today!

[cmermingas]

@filipesilva, @Splaktar - This should be added to the readme, specifically here:

https://github.com/angular/angular-cli#project-assets

It's an easy task... OK to create a pull request and add it myself or should I open an issue?

[sime]

@cmermingas I have started a quick README update in #2905

[jdddog]

What if you want to include assets from node_modules, which seems like a fairly common use case?

  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico",
        "../node_modules/materialize-css/fonts/roboto"
      ]

In this case angular-cli seems to copy the files back into the original directory rather than into the dist folder.

A solution similar to what jeffaxial proposed in this thread would be good: #1463

[phil-cap]

The suggestion from @jdddog is excellent and urgently required. Using fonts and similar assets from node_modules is currently a huge pain in angular-cli.

[jcperez-ch]

I second @jdddog I am having the same use case, which might be really cool to have. We use internal assets (in a separated repo) for all the projects in the company. So the designer is always updating svg files that get ported to the rest of the projects via npm so

"assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico",
        "../node_modules/the-designer-repo/svgs"
      ]

would be cool to include and reuse the svgs

[Splaktar]

@phil-cap @jdddog @jcperez-ch I would suggest opening a new issue to track that request/issue. This PR has been merged and isn't the best place for the discussion to take place.

Update: It looks like #3500 and #2880 are tracking this issue. Please add your thoughts there.

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