No option to create workspace only with ng-new

[martzmakes]

Bug Report or Feature Request (mark with an x)

- [ ] bug report -> please search issues before submitting
- [x] feature request

Area

- [ ] devkit
- [x] schematics

Repro steps

This is more of a conceptual / documentation request... I'm in the process of creating my own collection of schematics to scaffold out a project structure using a mono-repo approach.

The only way to do this at the moment is to run:

ng new asdf
cd asdf
ng g app whatever

but then all of the src/ files remain (and the original angular.json info for a project that is now inconsistently stored). There's no way to create a new repo without the src folder... and when I do this using a custom schematic by essentially duplicating ng-new and removing

angular-cli/packages/schematics/angular/ng-new/index.ts

Line 61 in 6449a75

schematic('application', applicationOptions),

schematic('application', applicationOptions),

Whenever I run...

$ ng new asdf -c=my-schematic
$ cd asdf
$ ng g app whatever
    {"inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","style":"css","skipTests":false,"skipPackageJson":false,"name":"whatever"}
CREATE projects/whatever-e2e/protractor.conf.js (752 bytes)
CREATE projects/whatever-e2e/src/app.e2e-spec.ts (304 bytes)
CREATE projects/whatever-e2e/src/app.po.ts (208 bytes)
CREATE projects/whatever-e2e/tsconfig.e2e.json (219 bytes)

Only the e2e files get put into projects/ and the angular.json file remains largely empty:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "version": 1,
  "newProjectRoot": "projects",
  "projects": {},
  "cli": {
    "defaultCollection": "my-schematic"
  }
}

I suspect this has to do with something silently failing in the application schematic or a path being off... but I wanted to check first if there was an easier way.

Desired functionality

Seems like as mono-repo / project-based apps may become more common... there should be an easy way to create a workspace-only repo (no /src application). Or if there is a preferred way to do it, it should be documented. I'd rather not do ng new, remove src and remove "clean" the angular.json file.

Mention any other details that might be useful

I'd be happy to submit a PR for documentation and/or enabling a way to create a project-structure-based app (i.e. no /src folder)

[martzmakes]

Maybe I should phrase this as a feature request...

It would be nice if ng generate application checked if there's an existing app in src/ and equivalent tests in e2e. Maybe add that as a flag to the application schematic like --migrate... if that flag is set it will check src/, e2e and if they exist... move them to the projectRoot folder and update the angular.json file.

So... steps would then become:

ng new asdf
cd asdf

yields the typical:

asdf/
    - src/ # project files
    - e2e/ # tests
    - angular.json
    - ...

Next... ng generate application something --migrate would move src/ --> projects/asdf/src/, e2e/ --> projects/asdf-e2e/, and update the angular.json paths.

So the result would be:

asdf/
    - projects/asdf/src/ # original project files, moved from asdf/src/ (and some files shifted to be consistent)
    - projects/asdf-e2e/ # original tests moved from asdf/e2e/
    - projects/something/ # generated from the command with migrate
    - projects/something-e2e/ # tests
    - angular.json # paths updated to reflect move
    - ...

[filipesilva]

Related to #10929

[alan-agius4]

Hi, you can create a workspace without an application using the --create-application=false flag

See the docs for ng new here: https://angular.io/cli/new

If I am misunderstanding your needs kindly let me know.

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