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Using this template

This is my template repository to use when creating new projects. The top section of this readme is for how to use it to start a new project, and should be removed as part of the setup process.

Setup

You will need to install Node.js before using this template.

  1. Click "Use this template" to create a new repository based on this one.
  2. Update the package.json file to reflect your new project's details.
  3. Update names throughout the package. a. Replace base-project with the name of your project as it is used in code. b. Replace Base Project Replace with the name of your project as it is used in documentation. c. If you're not me, replace @cipscis with your npm username and then cipscis with your GitHub username, and be sure to also update the author property in the package.json.
  4. Create a .env file. See .env for more information.
  5. Run npm install.
  6. Update this README.md file and the CHANGELOG.md file to remove the instruction sections.

Now you're ready to work on code in this project.

Usage

Using the files specified in package.json, you can create a project to be installed with npm.

In the app folder, which can be deployed to GitHub Pages but is not included when your project is installed, you can document your project. Here, the project files outside the app folders can be included in the bundle by using root-relative paths such as import foo from '/main.js';

Once you have an initial version of your project ready to push, you will want to update the version attribute of your package.json file to "1.0.0". See Semantic Versioning for more information on version numbers.

You should also update the CHANGELOG.md file to describe your changes. This is particularly important after your initial 1.0.0 version.

Structure

Frontend assets

Assets such as CSS and JavaScript are contained in /app/assets. In here, the contents of the scss folder are used to compile CSS files into the css folder.

The /app/assets/js folder contains a src folder and a dist folder. Any JavaScript or TypeScript files inside the src folder are bundled into the dist folder. By default, eslint is configured to look for a single entry point at /app/assets/js/src/main.ts.

Backend assets

Node.js code sits within the /scripts directory. This includes the build system, which uses esbuild, as well as the Express server code.

The build system's entry points are defined within build-config.ts.

By default, the server code just runs a static http server that serves files in the /app directory, but it can be extended to add additional functionality.

This server only runs locally, so any additional functionality will not be available on GitHub Pages.

Configuration

package.json

By default, the package.json file is configured to set the project to be of type module. This means NodeJS will use ES module syntax as opposed to its default CommonJS syntax, allowing the use of import and export keywords.

For more information on the differences, see Differences between ES modules and CommonJS

Linting

eslint is configured in .eslintrc.cjs, and stylelint is configured in stylelint.config.cjs

Tests

The Jest-based test suite is configured in jest.config.js. No custom test name matcher is specified, which means Jest's default matcher will be used:

By default it looks for .js, .jsx, .ts and .tsx files inside of __tests__ folders, as well as any files with a suffix of .test or .spec (e.g. Component.test.js or Component.spec.js). It will also find files called test.js or spec.js.

If any extra setup needs to be done before tests are run, such as polyfilling functionality not supported by jsdom, code for this can be placed in jest.setup.ts.

.env

See .env for information on setting up a .env file.

GitHub Pages

This project is set up to use a GitHub Action every time new code is pushed to the main branch. This build-and-deploy workflow runs the build npm script, then runs the test script, then if the tests passed it deploys the contents of the app directory directly to GitHub Pages.

In order to allow the main branch to be used to publish to GitHub Pages, you need to set up an environment called github-pages in the settings for your project. This environment should be configured to allow branches with the name pattern main to deploy to GitHub Pages.

When publishing a project using GitHub Pages, if you are not using a custom domain the project usually appears at a URL with a path, such as https://cipscis.github.io/base-project. This means using root relative URLs such as /assets/css/main.css would work locally, but would break when the project is published on GitHub Pages.

To fix this, the local Node.js server looks for a PROJECT_NAME variable in your .env file. If it finds one, it sets up rewrites so you will need to use the same /${PROJECT_NAME}/ paths during local development as would be required by GitHub Pages.

By default, the index.html file is configured to be published to GitHub Pages under the project name base-project. When you use it as a base for your own project, you will need to update these URLs.

If you are publishing to GitHub Pages using a custom domain, you can remove the PROJECT_NAME variable from your [.env](#env-1) file and any /${PROJECT_NAME}/` paths specified in other files.

Delete everything above here when creating a new project

base-project

Build and deploy status badge

Base Project

Development

You will need to install Node.js before working on this project.

  1. Clone the repository using git clone https://github.com/cipscis/base-project.git.
  2. Run npm install to install development dependencies.
  3. Create a .env file.
  4. Run npm start to run the local server and watch CSS and JS files for changes.

Usually, you will just want to run npm start, but this project also provides the following npm scripts:

  • npm run server runs a Node.js server on the port specified in the .env file, using Express.

  • npm run build compiles CSS files using sass, then typechecks TypeScript using the TypeScript compiler and bundles TypeScript and any JavaScript using esbuild.

  • npm run watch compiles both CSS and TypeScript+JavaScript files just like npm run build, but in watch mode so any further changes will result in recompilation. Also runs any configured tests suites in watch mode.

  • npm run lint lints all JavaScript and TypeScript files using eslint and all SCSS files using stylelint.

  • npm start runs both the server and watch tasks simultaneously.

  • npm test runs any configured test suites using Jest.

  • npm run test:coverage runs any configured test suites using Jest, and reports coverage information.

  • npm run watch:test runs any configured test suites using Jest in watch mode.

.env

The .env file contains the following environment variables:

  • PROJECT_NAME?: string

If present, used by Express to set up redirects for emulating GitHub Pages.

  • MODE: 'development' | 'production'

Used to determine what optimisations to use when running the build process.

  • PORT: number

Used by Express to determine which port to use when running a local Node.js server.

An example .env file you can use for development is:

PROJECT_NAME = "base-project"
MODE = "development"
PORT = "8080"

This file is intended to differ from environment to environment, so it is ignored by Git.

Dependencies

None.

Dev Dependencies

Development

These dependencies are used when working on the project locally.

Deploy

These dependencies are used for deploying the project to GitHub Pages.

  • checkout: Used to check out the repository to a workspace so it can be built.

  • setup-node: Use to set up a Node.JS environment for the build and test scripts to run on during the deployment process.

  • upload-pages-artifact: Used to upload an artifact to use for deploying to GitHub Pages.

  • deploy-pages: Used to deploy the artifact to GitHub Pages.