When you create an Angular library, you can provide and package it with schematics that integrate it with the Angular CLI. With your schematics, your users can use ng add
to install an initial version of your library, ng generate
to create artifacts defined in your library, and ng update
to adjust their project for a new version of your library that introduces breaking changes.
All three types of schematics can be part of a collection that you package with your library.
Download the library schematics project for a completed example of the following steps.
To start a collection, you need to create the schematic files. The following steps show you how to add initial support without modifying any project files.
In your library's root folder, create a schematics/
folder.
In the schematics/
folder, create an ng-add/
folder for your first schematic.
At the root level of the schematics/
folder, create a collection.json
file.
Edit the collection.json
file to define the initial schema for your collection.
{ "$schema": "../../../node_modules/@angular-devkit/schematics/collection-schema.json", "schematics": { "ng-add": { "description": "Add my library to the project.", "factory": "./ng-add/index#ngAdd" } } }
$schema
path is relative to the Angular Devkit collection schema.schematics
object describes the named schematics that are part of this collection.ng-add
. It contains the description, and points to the factory function that is called when your schematic is executed.In your library project's package.json
file, add a "schematics" entry with the path to your schema file. The Angular CLI uses this entry to find named schematics in your collection when it runs commands.
{ "name": "my-lib", "version": "0.0.1", "schematics": "./schematics/collection.json", }
The initial schema that you have created tells the CLI where to find the schematic that supports the ng add
command. Now you are ready to create that schematic.
A schematic for the ng add
command can enhance the initial installation process for your users. The following steps define this type of schematic.
Go to the <lib-root>/schematics/ng-add/
folder.
Create the main file, index.ts
.
Open index.ts
and add the source code for your schematic factory function.
import { Rule, SchematicContext, Tree } from '@angular-devkit/schematics'; import { NodePackageInstallTask } from '@angular-devkit/schematics/tasks'; // Just return the tree export function ngAdd(options: any): Rule { return (tree: Tree, context: SchematicContext) => { context.addTask(new NodePackageInstallTask()); return tree; }; }
The only step needed to provide initial ng add
support is to trigger an installation task using the SchematicContext
. The task uses the user's preferred package manager to add the library to the project's package.json
configuration file, and install it in the project’s node_modules
directory.
In this example, the function receives the current Tree
and returns it without any modifications. If you need to, do additional setup when your package is installed, such as generating files, updating configuration, or any other initial setup your library requires.
Use the save
option of ng-add
to configure if the library should be added to the dependencies
, the devDepedencies
, or not saved at all in the project's package.json
configuration file.
"ng-add": { "save": "devDependencies" }
Possible values are:
false
- Don't add the package to package.json
true
- Add the package to the dependencies"dependencies"
- Add the package to the dependencies"devDependencies"
- Add the package to the devDependenciesTo bundle your schematics together with your library, you must configure the library to build the schematics separately, then add them to the bundle. You must build your schematics after you build your library, so they are placed in the correct directory.
Your library needs a custom Typescript configuration file with instructions on how to compile your schematics into your distributed library.
To add the schematics to the library bundle, add scripts to the library's package.json
file.
Assume you have a library project my-lib
in your Angular workspace. To tell the library how to build the schematics, add a tsconfig.schematics.json
file next to the generated tsconfig.lib.json
file that configures the library build.
Edit the tsconfig.schematics.json
file to add the following content.
{ "compilerOptions": { "baseUrl": ".", "lib": [ "es2018", "dom" ], "declaration": true, "module": "commonjs", "moduleResolution": "node", "noEmitOnError": true, "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true, "noImplicitAny": true, "noImplicitThis": true, "noUnusedParameters": true, "noUnusedLocals": true, "rootDir": "schematics", "outDir": "../../dist/my-lib/schematics", "skipDefaultLibCheck": true, "skipLibCheck": true, "sourceMap": true, "strictNullChecks": true, "target": "es6", "types": [ "jasmine", "node" ] }, "include": [ "schematics/**/*" ], "exclude": [ "schematics/*/files/**/*" ] }
The rootDir
specifies that your schematics/
folder contains the input files to be compiled.
The outDir
maps to the library's output folder. By default, this is the dist/my-lib
folder at the root of your workspace.
To make sure your schematics source files get compiled into the library bundle, add the following scripts to the package.json
file in your library project's root folder (projects/my-lib
).
{ "name": "my-lib", "version": "0.0.1", "scripts": { "build": "../../node_modules/.bin/tsc -p tsconfig.schematics.json", "copy:schemas": "cp --parents schematics/*/schema.json ../../dist/my-lib/", "copy:files": "cp --parents -p schematics/*/files/** ../../dist/my-lib/", "copy:collection": "cp schematics/collection.json ../../dist/my-lib/schematics/collection.json", "postbuild": "npm run copy:schemas && npm run copy:files && npm run copy:collection" }, "peerDependencies": { "@angular/common": "^7.2.0", "@angular/core": "^7.2.0" }, "schematics": "./schematics/collection.json", "ng-add": { "save": "devDependencies" } }
build
script compiles your schematic using the custom tsconfig.schematics.json
file.copy:*
statements copy compiled schematic files into the proper locations in the library output folder in order to preserve the file structure.postbuild
script copies the schematic files after the build
script completes.You can add a named schematic to your collection that lets your users use the ng generate
command to create an artifact that is defined in your library.
We'll assume that your library defines a service, my-service
, that requires some setup. You want your users to be able to generate it using the following CLI command.
ng generate my-lib:my-service
To begin, create a new subfolder, my-service
, in the schematics
folder.
When you add a schematic to the collection, you have to point to it in the collection's schema, and provide configuration files to define options that a user can pass to the command.
Edit the schematics/collection.json
file to point to the new schematic subfolder, and include a pointer to a schema file that specifies inputs for the new schematic.
{ "$schema": "../../../node_modules/@angular-devkit/schematics/collection-schema.json", "schematics": { "ng-add": { "description": "Add my library to the project.", "factory": "./ng-add/index#ngAdd" }, "my-service": { "description": "Generate a service in the project.", "factory": "./my-service/index#myService", "schema": "./my-service/schema.json" } } }
Go to the <lib-root>/schematics/my-service/
folder.
Create a schema.json
file and define the available options for the schematic.
{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/schema", "$id": "SchematicsMyService", "title": "My Service Schema", "type": "object", "properties": { "name": { "description": "The name of the service.", "type": "string" }, "path": { "type": "string", "format": "path", "description": "The path to create the service.", "visible": false }, "project": { "type": "string", "description": "The name of the project.", "$default": { "$source": "projectName" } } }, "required": [ "name" ] }
Each option associates key with a type, description, and optional alias. The type defines the shape of the value you expect, and the description is displayed when the user requests usage help for your schematic.
See the workspace schema for additional customizations for schematic options.
Create a schema.ts
file and define an interface that stores the values of the options defined in the schema.json
file.
export interface Schema { // The name of the service. name: string; // The path to create the service. path?: string; // The name of the project. project?: string; }
To add artifacts to a project, your schematic needs its own template files. Schematic templates support special syntax to execute code and variable substitution.
Create a files/
folder inside the schematics/my-service/
folder.
Create a file named __name@dasherize__.service.ts.template
that defines a template to use for generating files. This template will generate a service that already has Angular's HttpClient
injected into its constructor.
import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
@Injectable({
providedIn: 'root'
})
export class <%= classify(name) %>Service {
constructor(private http: HttpClient) { }
}
The classify
and dasherize
methods are utility functions that your schematic uses to transform your source template and filename.
The name
is provided as a property from your factory function. It is the same name
you defined in the schema.
Now that you have the infrastructure in place, you can define the main function that performs the modifications you need in the user's project.
The Schematics framework provides a file templating system, which supports both path and content templates. The system operates on placeholders defined inside files or paths that loaded in the input Tree
. It fills these in using values passed into the Rule
.
For details of these data structures and syntax, see the Schematics README.
Create the main file index.ts
and add the source code for your schematic factory function.
First, import the schematics definitions you will need. The Schematics framework offers many utility functions to create and use rules when running a schematic.
import { Rule, Tree, SchematicsException, apply, url, applyTemplates, move, chain, mergeWith } from '@angular-devkit/schematics'; import { strings, normalize, virtualFs, workspaces } from '@angular-devkit/core';
Import the defined schema interface that provides the type information for your schematic's options.
import { Rule, Tree, SchematicsException, apply, url, applyTemplates, move, chain, mergeWith } from '@angular-devkit/schematics'; import { strings, normalize, virtualFs, workspaces } from '@angular-devkit/core'; import { Schema as MyServiceSchema } from './schema';
To build up the generation schematic, start with an empty rule factory.
export function myService(options: MyServiceSchema): Rule { return (tree: Tree) => { return tree; }; }
This rule factory returns the tree without modification. The options are the option values passed through from the ng generate
command.
You now have the framework in place for creating the code that actually modifies the user's application to set it up for the service defined in your library.
The Angular workspace where the user installed your library contains multiple projects (applications and libraries). The user can specify the project on the command line, or let it default. In either case, your code needs to identify the specific project to which this schematic is being applied, so that you can retrieve information from the project configuration.
Do this using the Tree
object that is passed in to the factory function. The Tree
methods give you access to the complete file tree in your workspace, letting you read and write files during the execution of the schematic.
To determine the destination project, use the workspaces.readWorkspace
method to read the contents of the workspace configuration file, angular.json
. To use workspaces.readWorkspace
you need to create a workspaces.WorkspaceHost
from the Tree
. Add the following code to your factory function.
import { Rule, Tree, SchematicsException, apply, url, applyTemplates, move, chain, mergeWith } from '@angular-devkit/schematics'; import { strings, normalize, virtualFs, workspaces } from '@angular-devkit/core'; import { Schema as MyServiceSchema } from './schema'; function createHost(tree: Tree): workspaces.WorkspaceHost { return { async readFile(path: string): Promise<string> { const data = tree.read(path); if (!data) { throw new SchematicsException('File not found.'); } return virtualFs.fileBufferToString(data); }, async writeFile(path: string, data: string): Promise<void> { return tree.overwrite(path, data); }, async isDirectory(path: string): Promise<boolean> { return !tree.exists(path) && tree.getDir(path).subfiles.length > 0; }, async isFile(path: string): Promise<boolean> { return tree.exists(path); }, }; } export function myService(options: MyServiceSchema): Rule { return async (tree: Tree) => { const host = createHost(tree); const { workspace } = await workspaces.readWorkspace('/', host); }; }
Be sure to check that the context exists and throw the appropriate error.
The workspace.extensions
property includes a defaultProject
value for determining which project to use if not provided. You will use that value as a fallback, if no project is explicitly specified in the ng generate
command.
if (!options.project) { options.project = workspace.extensions.defaultProject; }
Now that you have the project name, use it to retrieve the project-specific configuration information.
if (!options.project) { options.project = workspace.extensions.defaultProject; } const project = workspace.projects.get(options.project); if (!project) { throw new SchematicsException(`Invalid project name: ${options.project}`); } const projectType = project.extensions.projectType === 'application' ? 'app' : 'lib';
The workspace.projects
object contains all the project-specific configuration information.
The options.path
determines where the schematic template files are moved to once the schematic is applied.
The path
option in the schematic's schema is substituted by default with the current working directory. If the path
is not defined, use the sourceRoot
from the project configuration along with the projectType
.
if (options.path === undefined) { options.path = `${project.sourceRoot}/${projectType}`; }
A Rule
can use external template files, transform them, and return another Rule
object with the transformed template. Use the templating to generate any custom files required for your schematic.
Add the following code to your factory function.
const templateSource = apply(url('./files'), [ applyTemplates({ classify: strings.classify, dasherize: strings.dasherize, name: options.name }), move(normalize(options.path as string)) ]);
apply()
method applies multiple rules to a source and returns the transformed source. It takes 2 arguments, a source and an array of rules.url()
method reads source files from your filesystem, relative to the schematic.applyTemplates()
method receives an argument of methods and properties you want make available to the schematic template and the schematic filenames. It returns a Rule
. This is where you define the classify()
and dasherize()
methods, and the name
property.classify()
method takes a value and returns the value in title case. For example, if the provided name is my service
, it is returned as MyService
dasherize()
method takes a value and returns the value in dashed and lowercase. For example, if the provided name is MyService, it is returned as my-service
.move
method moves the provided source files to their destination when the schematic is applied.Finally, the rule factory must return a rule.
return chain([ mergeWith(templateSource) ]);
The chain()
method lets you combine multiple rules into a single rule, so that you can perform multiple operations in a single schematic. Here you are only merging the template rules with any code executed by the schematic.
See a complete example of the following schematic rule function.
import { Rule, Tree, SchematicsException, apply, url, applyTemplates, move, chain, mergeWith } from '@angular-devkit/schematics'; import { strings, normalize, virtualFs, workspaces } from '@angular-devkit/core'; import { Schema as MyServiceSchema } from './schema'; function createHost(tree: Tree): workspaces.WorkspaceHost { return { async readFile(path: string): Promise<string> { const data = tree.read(path); if (!data) { throw new SchematicsException('File not found.'); } return virtualFs.fileBufferToString(data); }, async writeFile(path: string, data: string): Promise<void> { return tree.overwrite(path, data); }, async isDirectory(path: string): Promise<boolean> { return !tree.exists(path) && tree.getDir(path).subfiles.length > 0; }, async isFile(path: string): Promise<boolean> { return tree.exists(path); }, }; } export function myService(options: MyServiceSchema): Rule { return async (tree: Tree) => { const host = createHost(tree); const { workspace } = await workspaces.readWorkspace('/', host); if (!options.project) { options.project = workspace.extensions.defaultProject; } const project = workspace.projects.get(options.project); if (!project) { throw new SchematicsException(`Invalid project name: ${options.project}`); } const projectType = project.extensions.projectType === 'application' ? 'app' : 'lib'; if (options.path === undefined) { options.path = `${project.sourceRoot}/${projectType}`; } const templateSource = apply(url('./files'), [ applyTemplates({ classify: strings.classify, dasherize: strings.dasherize, name: options.name }), move(normalize(options.path as string)) ]); return chain([ mergeWith(templateSource) ]); }; }
For more information about rules and utility methods, see Provided Rules.
After you build your library and schematics, you can install the schematics collection to run against your project. The following steps show you how to generate a service using the schematic you created earlier.
From the root of your workspace, run the ng build
command for your library.
ng build my-lib
Then, you change into your library directory to build the schematic
cd projects/my-lib npm run build
Your library and schematics are packaged and placed in the dist/my-lib
folder at the root of your workspace. For running the schematic, you need to link the library into your node_modules
folder. From the root of your workspace, run the npm link
command with the path to your distributable library.
npm link dist/my-lib
Now that your library is installed, run the schematic using the ng generate
command.
ng generate my-lib:my-service --name my-data
In the console, you see that the schematic was run and the my-data.service.ts
file was created in your application folder.
CREATE src/app/my-data.service.ts (208 bytes)
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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
https://v12.angular.io/guide/schematics-for-libraries