Walkthrough

Build System

NG6 uses NPM scripts, Gulp, and Webpack together for its build system. Yes, you don't need Gulp if you're using Webpack. This is true if your build system is only responsible for file manipulation. However, ours is not.

Webpack handles all file-related concerns:

• Transpiling from ES6 to ES5 with Babel
• Loading HTML files as modules
• Transpiling stylesheets and appending them to the DOM
• Refreshing the browser and rebuilding on file changes
• Hot module replacement for transpiled stylesheets
• Bundling the app
• Loading all modules

Gulp is the orchestrator:

• Starting and calling Webpack
• Starting a development server (yes, Webpack can do this too)
• Generating boilerplate for the Angular app

File Structure

We use a componentized approach with NG6. This will be the eventual standard (and particularly helpful, if using Angular's new router) as well as a great way to ensure a tasteful transition to Angular 2, when the time is ripe. Everything--or mostly everything, as we'll explore (below)--is a component. A component is a self-contained concern--may it be a feature or strictly-defined, ever-present element of the UI (such as a header, sidebar, or footer). Also characteristic of a component is that it harnesses its own stylesheets, templates, controllers, routes, services, and specs. This encapsulation allows us the comfort of isolation and structural locality. Here's how it looks:

client
⋅⋅app/
⋅⋅⋅⋅app.js * app entry file
⋅⋅⋅⋅app.html * app template
⋅⋅⋅⋅common/ * functionality pertinent to several components propagate into this directory
⋅⋅⋅⋅components/ * where components live
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅components.js * components entry file
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home/ * home component
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.js * home entry file (routes, configurations, and declarations occur here)
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.component.js * home "directive"
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.controller.js * home controller
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.scss * home styles
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.html * home template
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅home.spec.js * home specs (for entry, component, and controller)

Getting Started

Dependencies

Tools needed to run this app:

• node and npm

Installing

• fork this repo
• clone your fork
• npm install to install dependencies

Running the App

NG6 uses Gulp to build and launch the development environment. After you have installed all dependencies, you may run the app. Running npm start will bundle the app with webpack, launch a development server, and watch all files. The port will be displayed in the terminal.

Tasks

Here's a list of available tasks:

• npm run build
  • runs Webpack, which will transpile, concatenate, and compress (collectively, "bundle") all assets and modules into dist/bundle.js. It also prepares index.html to be used as application entry point, links assets and created dist version of our application.
• npm run serve
  • starts a dev server via webpack-dev-server, serving the client folder.
• npm run watch
  • alias of serve
• npm start (which is the default task that runs when typing gulp without providing an argument)
  • runs serve.