tns init fails, ins init --force produce invalid app

[dtopuzov]

Steps to reproduce:
tns init --path MyApp

Output:

 stderr: 
SyntaxError: Unexpected token n in JSON at position 4
    at Object.parse (native)
    at NodePackageManager.<anonymous> (/Users/topuzov/Git/nativescript-cli-tests/node_modules/nativescript/lib/node-package-manager.js:103:25)
    at next (native)
    at fulfilled (/Users/topuzov/Git/nativescript-cli-tests/node_modules/nativescript/lib/node-package-manager.js:4:58)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:103:7)
Analytics statuses: 
{ TrackFeatureUsage: 1, TrackExceptions: 1 }

Notes:
tns init --path MyApp --force creates app, but without App Resources.
I think this command is useless, since no one complained it does not work without --force and it produce not build able app with --force.

[mnaughto]

FWIW, I tracked this down to here https://github.com/NativeScript/nativescript-cli/blob/master/lib/services/init-service.ts#L109. In other places, the second argument to $npm.view() is a hash like {json: true, versions: true}, whereas here it just passes "versions", so the output of the subsequently invoked npm view command is not valid JSON.

[mnaughto]

I can open a pull request if that'd be useful, but I'm guessing a normal contributor to this project might have an easier time.

[yyosifov]

Hi,

@mnaughto You are right - this was one of the problems. I've set explicitly in the NPM View method to set { json: true } always. Another error was that it seems like the NPM View response has changed as a structure and this alone didn't fix the problem. Now npm view tns-ios versions --json returns an array of versions, not as we expected an object. You can view the pull request opened here: #2625. Thanks a bunch for your effort! Let me know if this fix sounds reasonable to you.

@dtopuzov The init command only creates a package.json definition just like npm init does. The reason why the --force flag was working is that it didn't search through the versions from the NPM but directly uses the latest version available. @rosen-vladimirov can you confirm this is the expected behavior, and not a full app created from a template?

Thanks guys!

[mnaughto]

@yyosifov #2625 is essentially what I did to get it to run - I didn't bother changing the signature of the $npm.view() function, but that change seems reasonable.