Angular ng serve command

Question

I just make a migration from angular 5 to angular 7. After that i can't run the project. When I type ng serve I get this error:

The serve command requires to be run in an Angular project, but a project definition could not be found.

Here is my package.json:

dependencies": {
"@angular/animations": "7.1.3",
"@angular/common": "7.1.3",
"@angular/compiler": "7.1.3",
"@angular/core": "7.1.3",
"@angular/forms": "7.1.3",
"@angular/http": "7.1.3",
"@angular/platform-browser": "7.1.3",
"@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "7.1.3",
"@angular/router": "7.1.3",
"@ng-idle/core": "^2.0.0-beta.15",
"@ng-idle/keepalive": "^2.0.0-beta.15",
"@ngrx/store": "^5.2.0",
"angular2-chartjs": "^0.5.1",
"angular2-draggable": "^1.4.2",
"angular2-moment": "^1.9.0",
"bootstrap": "^4.0.0-beta.2",
"core-js": "^2.4.1",
"datejs": "^1.0.0-rc3",
"file-saver": "^2.0.0-rc.3",
"font-awesome": "^4.7.0",
"install": "^0.12.2",
"jquery": "^3.3.1",
"jspdf": "^1.4.1",
"ngx-cookie-service": "^1.0.10",
"ngx-treeview": "^6.0.1",
"popper.js": "^1.14.3",
"rxjs": "^6.3.3",
"zone.js": "^0.8.26"
},   
"devDependencies": {
"@angular/cli": "7.1.3",
"@angular/compiler-cli": "7.1.3",
"@angular/language-service": "7.1.3",
"@types/jasmine": "~2.8.3",
"@types/jasminewd2": "~2.0.2",
"@types/jspdf": "^1.1.31",
"@types/node": "~6.0.60",
"codelyzer": "^4.0.1",
"jasmine-core": "~2.8.0",
"jasmine-spec-reporter": "~4.2.1",
"karma": "~2.0.0",
"karma-chrome-launcher": "~2.2.0",
"karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "^1.2.1",
"karma-jasmine": "~1.1.0",
"karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^0.2.2",
"protractor": "^5.4.1",
"ts-node": "~4.1.0",
"tslint": "~5.9.1",
"typescript": "3.1.6"
}

Does someone have an idea?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Update the angular 5 to angular 7 please follows the below steps:-

1. Make sure NodeJS version is 8.9+ if not update it.

   sudo npm install n -g
   sudo n stable
   sudo n latest
   

2. Update Angular cli globally and locally, and migrate the old configuration .angular-cli.json to the new angular.json format by running the following:

   npm install -g @angular/cli
   npm install @angular/cli
   ng update @angular/cli

3. Update all of your Angular framework packages to v7,and the correct version of RxJS and TypeScript by running the following:

   ng update @angular/core

4. Update Angular Material to the latest version by running the following:

   ng update @angular/material

5. There are no breaking changes in Angular itself but they are in RxJS, so don't forget to use rxjs-compat library to work with legacy code.

   npm install --save rxjs-compat

After update all packages, so remove the package.lock.json and node_module. And run the these command:-

npm install

Hope its work for you. Refer https://update.angular.io/ for more detailed guide.

Answer 2

As mentioned above please use https://update.angular.io/ update guides to update your app.

I would like to add something to the answer. The error occurs because of an incorrect update, There won't be an angular.json file in your project. I have noticed that even after running ng update @angular/cli command and following all the steps at https://update.angular.io/ this issue occurs,

During installation(update) Check in the terminal, whether the installation was successful or not if there is any error fix them.

remove package-lock.json & node_modules, npm cache verify, update global angular cli as well reinstall angular/cli, update cli

Answer 3

when upgrading from 5 to 7, angular changed it's cli configuration format.

angular-cli.json -> angular.json

But doing the update the manual way isn't the preferred way.

The best way is to use the cli to do the updating for you. This web page will help you:

https://update.angular.io/

But basically you install angular cli globally

npm i -g @angular/cli

then run

ng update @angular/cli
ng update @angular/core