slush-node-module

Scaffold a Node.js module with Slush

This is what I use for my own modules.

Inspired by generator-nm.

Install

1. Install Slush
2. Install the slush-node-module generator

$ npm install -g slush slush-node-module

Usage

Create a new folder for your project and cd into it:

$ mkdir my-new-project && cd my-new-project

Run the generator and answer the questions.

• The author's name and email are fetched from your global Git configuration.
• It'll try to guess your GitHub user name by parsing your name.
• It'll suggest you a project name by reading your current directory.

$ slush node-module
? Module name: my-new-project
? Description: My super cool new project
? Keywords (comma-separated): project, cool, personal
? Your GitHub username: rafaelrinaldi
? URL of your website: http://rinaldi.io
? Will you need a CLI? No

After the installation it will install your npm dependencies and you should be good to go.

Contents

General

README.md

An overview of the module and what it does.

• Usage example.
• API documentation.
• Mention to software license and author.

LICENSE

Software license file which follows the MIT standard.

package.json

npm manifest file. Current settings are:

• 1.0.0 by default.
• MIT license by default.
• Locks Node.js engine to >=0.10.0 for regular modules and >=4 for CLI (so we can use ES2015 features).
• lint task that will lint JavaScript files with xo.
• test task that will trigger JavaScript linting and then test test.js using tape and tap-spec.

dotfiles

Files that are hidden by default.

.editorconfig

EditorConfig configuration file. This is used to enforce consistency between editors and IDEs.

.gitignore

Files and folders to be ignored by Git.

.gitattributes

Simple Git configuration to ensure line endings are normalized across different operating systems.

CLI

When scaffolding a Node.js module that has a CLI interface:

• It will generate a binary file under ./bin which is described as a best practice by the CommonJS standard
• It will generate cli.js file on the project root that will be the command line interface for the module
• The cli.js file will expose exitCode, stdout, stderr, run(), and parse() for better test integration (kudos @millermedeiros)
• The program will come with bultin usage instructions (triggered via --help) and version number (triggered via --version)

License

MIT ©️ Rafael Rinaldi