angular-sprout — The scalable angular seed app

This project modifies the standard angular-seed project into a module pattern in which common functionality is organized into the same directory. This approach seperates controllers, services, filters and directives into their own files and strives to keep the application hierachy as flat as possible.

The app contains AngularJS 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 sprout app doesn't do much, just shows how to wire controllers, views, services, filters and directives 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-sprout

Clone the angular-sprout 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 Testacular for your unit tests/specs, but you are free to use whatever works for you.

Requires node.js, Testacular (sudo npm install -g testacular) and a local or remote browser.

• start scripts/test.sh (on windows: scripts\test.bat)
  • a browser will start and connect to the Testacular server (Chrome is default browser, others can be captured by loading the same url as the one in Chrome or by changing the config/testacular.conf.js file)
• to run or re-run tests just change any of your source or test javascript files

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 + ./scripts/web-server.js or your backend server that hosts the angular static files.

Check out the end-to-end runner's documentation for more info.

• create your end-to-end tests in /e2e/*-e2e.js
• serve your project directory with your http/backend server or node.js + scripts/web-server.js
• run the tests from console with Testacular via scripts/e2e-test.sh or script/e2e-test.bat

Receiving updates from upstream

When we upgrade angular-sprout 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
  application/      					--> application module
    application.css 					--> default stylesheet
    application.js						--> application bootstrap
    configuration-service.js	--> application wide settings
  date-time/      						--> date-time module
    to-datetime-string.css 		--> default stylesheet
  details/      							--> details module
    details-controller.js			--> details view controller
    details-partial.js				--> details view partial
  error/      								--> details module
    error-controller.js				--> error view controller
    error-partial.js					--> error view partial
  menu/      									--> menu module
    menu-controller.js				--> menu control controller
    menu-partial.js						--> menue control partial
    menu-service.js						--> menu control service
    menu-item-directive.js		--> menu item control directive
    menu-item-template.html		--> menu item directive template
    items.json								--> item data
  index.html        					--> app layout file (the main html template file of the app)
  lib/              					--> angular and 3rd party javascript libraries
      angular.js      					--> the latest angular js
      angular.min.js  					--> the latest minified angular js
      angular-*.js  						--> angular add-on modules

config/testacular.conf.js     --> config file for running unit tests with Testacular
config/testacular-e2e.conf.js --> config file for running e2e tests with Testacular

scripts/            					--> handy shell/js/ruby scripts
  e2e-test.sh       					--> runs end-to-end tests with Testacular (*nix)
  e2e-test.bat      					--> runs end-to-end tests with Testacular (windows)
  test.bat          					--> autotests unit tests with Testacular (windows)
  test.sh           					--> autotests unit tests with Testacular (*nix)
  web-server.js    					 	--> simple development webserver based on node.js
  
e2e/              						--> end to end tests are defined at the tob level as they are notbased on units of code.
  home-e2e.html     					--> end-to-end tests for the home page
  layout-e2e.js       				--> end to end test to verify the layout