The command line tooling for Aurelia, used for creating projects, scaffolding, bundling and more.

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Run the following command to install aurelia-cli

npm install aurelia-cli -g

The cli uses Aureliafile.js for various configuration. A typical example with bundle config for skeleton-navigation looks like:

var cli = require('aurelia-cli');

var bundleCfg = {
  js: {
    "dist/app-bundle": {
      modules: [
        '*',
        'aurelia-bootstrapper',
        'aurelia-fetch-client',
        'aurelia-router',
        'aurelia-animator-css',
        'github:aurelia/templating-binding',
        'github:aurelia/templating-resources',
        'github:aurelia/templating-router',
        'github:aurelia/loader-default',
        'github:aurelia/history-browser'
      ],
      options: {
        inject: true
      }
    }
  },
  template: {
    "dist/app-bundle": {
      pattern: 'dist/*.html',
      options: {
        inject: true
      }
    }
  }
};

cli.command('bundle', bundleCfg);
cli.command('unbundle', bundleCfg);

Note that, this bundle configuration is valid for v0.16.2 of skeleton-navigation only.

The following section explains how to use the different CLI commands.

To see all currently supported commands and options run:

aurelia -h

To get help for a specific command run:

aurelia command_name -h

With Aureliafile.js file placed in the root of project having the above configuration, run the following command to bundle the js modules and templates.

aurelia bundle

• packagePath: Set the path of package.json file. This allows to customize paths like baseURL, config.js etc. Example:

var cli = require('aurelia-cli');

var bundleCfg = {
  packagePath : '.',
  js: {
    "dist/app-bundle": {
      modules: [
        '*',
        'aurelia-bootstrapper',
 ...
 ...

Note that we should only specify the path without the file name.

• Options

  • inject: set it to true to inject the bundle in config.js. No manual script tag needs to be created in index.html to include the bundle file. SystemJS will load the bundle when any of the module of the bundle is required by the application.
  • minify: minifies the bundle.

• Notes:

  • Module names can be specified without the versoon number. CLI will search the config.js file to get the proper moduleName with version number. An error will be thrown if any conflict is found.
  • modules are not files, they are SystemJS module names/urls.
  • Globs like * or */** can be used as well.
  • Executes relative to baseURL.

• inject: injects a <link aurelia-view-bundle rel="import" href="bundle_name.html"> at the end of the body tag of index.html to include the bundle file.
• inject can be an object too.

  template: {
    "dist/app-bundle": {
      pattern: 'dist/*.html',
      options: {
        inject: {
          indexFile: 'index.html',
          destFile: 'dist/index.html'
        },
      }
    }
  }

• indexFile : Path of the index.html relative to baseURL. If not specified default is baseURL/index.html.
• destFile : Path of the new html file with the injected link. When not specified defaults to indexFile.

• Globs template relative to baseURL
• Glob files.
• Multiple glob pattern can be specified as ['dist/about/*.html', 'other/**/*.html']
• Ignore pattern can be specified too: ['dist/**/*.html', '!dist/about/*.html']

To learn more details about how bundling works read this post.

This command does the following.

• Removes any js bundle injection from config.js
• Removes all <link aurelia-view-bundle rel="impoort" href="" > from the index file.

This command automates the installation of aurelia plugins. They are managed in the aurelia registry. You use this command by running

aurelia plugin

Now you will get a list of available plugins. By selecting one it will get automatically installed via jspm. Dont forget, you still need to load the plugin in your application as described here.

This is used to scaffold new elements for your application. Currently it supports creating a ViewModel alongside a View. The minimal necessary command is:

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME

This will show you the generated template and prompt you whether you want to continue the file creation. The resulting file YOURNAME.js will be placed inside the src folder.

In order to create an additional View along your ViewModel add the -v attribute:

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME -v

This time you'll get both templates presented and prompted whether you want to create them. Same as the ViewModel, the View will be created as YOURNAME.html and placed in the src folder.

You can also automatically import and inject other components into your ViewModel. To do so add either the -i attribute followed by the name of the component you want to inject, or via --inject and giving a list of components.

aurelia generate viewmodel -n YOURNAME -v --inject Element,HttpClient

The above example will generate the following template result:

import { inject } from 'aurelia-framework';
import { Element } from 'aurelia-framework';
import { HttpClient } from 'aurelia-framework';

@inject(Element, HttpClient)
export class YOURNAME {
  hello = 'Welcome to Aurelia!';

  constructor(element,httpClient){

  }

  activate() {
    // called when the VM is activated
  }

  attached() {
    // called when View is attached, you are safe to do DOM operations here
  }
}

Please note that the import determination is not yet fully functional and by default imports components from aurelia-framework. We'll get that sorted out.

• no-lifecycle
• template

Coming soon!