Creating a simple node.js template

Overview

This template simplifies the process of creating a basic Node.js project with the Express framework.

Template structure

Setup the template structure:

proplate init nodejs-template

For more information about this command, see proplate init

Set up a node.js project

Let's set up a Node.js project similarly to how we typically would, to observe Proplate in action. The structure of the template is directly located within the generated nodejs-template directory

Initialize project

npm init -y

Set up express.js

Install the necessary dependency

npm i express

{
  "id": "nodejs-template",
  "args": [
    {
      "key": "description",
      "label": "Describe your project",
      "q_type": "Text"
    }
  ],
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "package-lock.json"]
}

Create your server file

Create a new file, let’s call it server.mjs in the nodejs-template directory and add the following code:

import express from "express";
 
const app = express();
const port = 5000;
 
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.send("Welcome to my server!");
});
 
app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});

Try it

In the terminal:

node server.mjs

try to bootstrap a project using our template

proplate create --template nodejs-template --dest new-project

For more information about this command, see bootstrap template

Dynamic variables

Currently, having to manually change details such as the project name, description, etc..., upon project generation is not ideal. However, Proplate has a solution for this. It provides a way to define arguments and bind them to any file.

Let's set up dynamic values for the name and description by specifying them in meta.json.

{
  "id": "nodejs-template",
  "args": [
    {
      "key": "name",
      "label": "Project name",
      "q_type": "Text"
    },
    {
      "key": "description",
      "label": "Project description",
      "q_type": "Text"
    }
  ],
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "package-lock.json"]
}

For more information about dynamic variables, see dynamic variables

Let's add placeholders for them in package, syntax is: $key

{
  "name": "$name",
  "description": "$description"
}

proplate create --template nodejs-template --dest new-project

Now, Proplate prompts for these arguments interactively when bootstrapping a new project.