CODEWITHSUNDEEP
angularjssails.js
Ron
Ron

Reputation: 13

Sails Angular Frontend

Ok so I have looked around and cannot find the exact answer I am looking for. When developing a Sails app (which I am new to) it appears that by default it creates its own frontend using EJS.

  1. Is this correct?
  2. If this is correct then why is there an npm for sails generate frontend
  3. If I want to use an Angular frontend is sails-generate-frontend-angular the best route to go?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 397

Answers (1)

Meeker
Meeker

Reputation: 5979

First you need to separate server templating (EJS) from angular.

Just because sails defaults to an EJS template engine does not mean that you can not still put angular is your asset library and create and angular app. EJS is (the default but not the only option) what sails uses as a programming language for building its templates on the server that then get delivered to the client. Angular templates are used once delivered to the client to display information and perform tasks specifically already in the client machine.

1.) See above

2.) Sails-generate-frontend helps to setup your asset pipeline. It creates grunt tasks to copy image files and setup your javascript libraries such as ANGULAR.js, jQuery ect for use in your front-end.

3.) It could be. It depends, what a lot of people do is setup 2 projects. They use Sails as their API and then setup a second project for their Angular app (especially if its a SPA).

If instead your just using angular is specific places in your app (think jQuery style), then you would use a something like generate-front-end to take the angular library from someplace (like bower_compenents) and place it in your assets when you lift your app. It also makes it avaiable so that it can be placed in your html to be included in your app.

I on the other hand, use sails templates (I use Jade instead of EJS) to create and modify my angular templates on the server before they reach the client. This is a slightly advanced practice and can get confusing if you don't understand the difference between generating html on the server vs client.

An alternate method of thinking about this would be creating your index page on the server. This page would include your css and scripts. It would possibly be the only page on your server and everything else would be angular templates rendered on the client asking for JSON calls. In this scenario you would be using SAILS (ejs, or jade or whatever) to render only a single page INDEX.js and that might be the only server template you have.

However, this being said. Sails ships with this stuff already. You don't need sails-generate-frontend. Its is already inside a standard sails app.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions