Table of Contents
This Node.js based CLI application streamlines the process of creating READMEs for code repositories by automatically generating the appropriate markdown based on user input about their project. The purpose behind the development of this project is to demonstrate a general understanding of the Node.js runtime environment and the ability to make use of its fs module as well third-party NPM packages when developing Node applications.
In addition to generating the various written sections of a README, this application also allows the user to include a project screenshot, live demo link and select an appropriate license for their project. The latter of which is also displayed visually as a badge in the README.
The application uses the following packages:
GIVEN a command-line application that accepts user input
WHEN I am prompted for information about my application repository
THEN a high-quality, professional README.md is generated with the title of my project and sections entitled Description, Table of Contents, Installation, Usage, License, Contributing, Tests, and Questions
WHEN I enter my project title
THEN this is displayed as the title of the README
WHEN I enter a description, installation instructions, usage information, contribution guidelines, and test instructions
THEN this information is added to the sections of the README entitled Description, Installation, Usage, Contributing, and Tests
WHEN I choose a license for my application from a list of options
THEN a badge for that license is added near the top of the README and a notice is added to the section of the README entitled License that explains which license the application is covered under
WHEN I enter my GitHub username
THEN this is added to the section of the README entitled Questions, with a link to my GitHub profile
WHEN I enter my email address
THEN this is added to the section of the README entitled Questions, with instructions on how to reach me with additional questions
WHEN I click on the links in the Table of Contents
THEN I am taken to the corresponding section of the README
To get a local copy of this project up and running follow these simple steps.
First you must install Node.js and NPM if you haven't done so already. Once this is done, follow the installation instructions below to run the application locally.
- Clone the repository.
git clone https://github.com/kevin-aminzadeh/readme-generator
- Navigate to the repository directory and run the following command to install the necessary NPM packages.
npm install
- Run the app start script.
npm start
During the application's design phase, it quickly become apparent that a method of presenting the user with follow-up prompts based on previous answers would need to be implemented to allow for the desired set of functionalities, as well as future expandability.
To address this requirement, the Question class was modeled to include a followUpQuestions property which would store an array of Question objects for any question that has follow-ups.
The application's various questions (and their nested follow-ups) are then stored in an array which is iterated over at runtime.
In the context of the application's required functionality, follow-up prompts only need to be presented if the answer to the parent question was yes ( which holds the value true ).
As such, after presenting a Question's prompt, the application checks if the object contains follow-up Questions and if the user's response to the previous prompt evaluated to true. If both these conditions are met, the application then calls the same renderQuestion() method on the child Question.
This approach allows for much greater flexibility in dynamically responding to user input as questions can be nested many levels deep.
Due to the relative simplicity of this project, there are plenty of available avenues for improvement.
Some noteworthy improvements which could be made include:
- Implementing input an input validation mechanism
- Providing a more text editor-esque input for sections where a large text input is expected. This would also allow the user to include paragraph formatting naturally.*
- Implementing customizable persistent templates to allow users to create their own desired README sections and maintain a range of preferred templates.
* The implementation of a more natural "text editor-esque" input prompt for larger sections was attempted using Inquirer's {type: 'editor'} inputs. However, this input type presented strange, inconsistent and unexpected behaviors, and as such was decided against in the end.
This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.