angular-seed — the seed for <angular/> apps

This project is an application skeleton for a typical angular web app. You can use it to quickly bootstrap your angular webapp projects and dev environment for these projects.

The seed contains angular libraries, test libraries and a bunch of scripts all preconfigured for instant web development gratification. Just clone the repo (or download the zip/tarball), start up our (or yours) webserver and you are ready to develop and test your application.

The seed app doesn't do much, just shows how to wire two controllers and views together. You can check it out by opening app/index.html in your browser (might not work file file:// scheme in certain browsers, see note below).

Note: While angular is client-side-only technology and it's possible to create angular webapps that don't require a backend server at all, we recommend hosting the project files using a local webserver during development to avoid issues with security restrictions (sandbox) in browsers. The sandbox implementation varies between browsers, but quite often prevents things like cookies, xhr, etc to function properly when an html page is opened via file:// scheme instead of http://.

How to use angular-seed

Clone the angular-seed repository and start hacking...

Running the app during development

You can pick one of these options:

• serve this repository with your webserver
• install node.js and run scripts/web-server.js

Then navigate your browser to http://localhost:<port>/app/index.html to see the app running in your browser.

Running the app in production

This really depends on how complex is your app and the overall infrastructure of your system, but the general rule is that all you need in production are all the files under the app/ directory. Everything else should be omitted.

angular apps are really just a bunch of static html, css and js files that just need to be hosted somewhere, where they can be accessed by browsers.

If your angular app is talking to the backend server via xhr or other means, you need to figure out what is the best way to host the static files to comply with the same origin policy if applicable. Usually this is done by hosting the files by the backend server or through reverse-proxying the backend server(s) and a webserver(s).

Running unit tests

We recommend using jasmine and JsTestDriver for your unit tests/specs, but you are free to use whatever works for you.

Requires java and a local or remote browser.

• start scripts/test-server.sh
• navigate your browser to http://localhost:9876/
• click on one of the capture links (preferably the "strict" one)
• run scripts/test.sh

Continuous unit testing

Requires ruby and watchr gem.

• start JSTD server and capture a browser as described above
• start watchr as watchr scripts/watchr.rb
• in a different window/tab/editor tail -f logs/jstd.log
• edit files in app/ or src/ and save them
• watch the log to see updates

There are many other ways to achieve the same effect. Feel free to use them if you prefer them over watchr.

End to end testing

angular ships with a baked-in end-to-end test runner that understands angular, your app and allows you to write your tests with jasmine-like BDD syntax.

Requires a webserver, node.js or your backend server that hosts the angular static files.

• create your end-to-end tests in test/e2e/scenarios.js
• serve your project directory with your http/backend server or node.js + scripts/web-server.js
• open http://localhost:port/test/e2e/runner.html in your browser

Receiving updates from upstream

When we upgrade angular-seed's repo with newer angular or testing library code, you can just fetch the changes and merge them into your project with git.

Directory Layout

app/                --> all of the files to be used in production
  css/              --> css files
    app.css         --> default stylesheet
  img/              --> image files
  js/               --> javascript files
    controllers.js  --> application controllers
    filters.js      --> custom angular filters
    services.js     --> custom angular services
    widgets.js      --> custom angular widgets
  lib/              --> angular and 3rd party javascript libraries
    angular/
      angular.js            --> the latest angular js
      angular.min.js        --> the latest minified angular js
      angular-ie-compat.js  --> angular patch for IE 6&7 compatibility
      version.txt           --> version number
  partials/         --> angular view partials (partial html templates)
    partial1.html
    partial2.html

jsTestDriver.conf   --> config file for JsTestDriver

logs/               --> JSTD and other logs go here (git-ignored)

scripts/            --> handy shell/js/ruby scripts
  test-server.sh    --> starts JSTD server
  test.sh           --> runs all unit tests
  watchr.rb         --> config script for continuous testing with watchr
  web-server.js     --> simple development webserver based on node.js

test/               --> test source files and libraries
  e2e/              -->
    runner.html     --> end-to-end test runner (open in your browser to run)
    scenarios.js    --> end-to-end specs
  lib/
    angular/                --> angular testing libraries
      angular-mocks.js      --> mocks that replace certain angular services in tests
      angular-scenario.js   --> angular's scenario (end-to-end) test runner library
      version.txt           --> version file
    jasmine/                --> Pivotal's Jasmine - an elegant BDD-style testing framework
    jasmine-jstd-adapter/   --> bridge between JSTD and Jasmine
    jstestdriver/           --> JSTD - JavaScript test runner
  unit/                     --> unit level specs/tests
    controllersSpec.js      --> specs for controllers

Contact

For more information on angular please check out http://angularjs.org/