ng serve with multiple configurations

[kedevked]

🚀 Feature request

Following this PR it is now possible to extend build configuration.
Could it not possible to extends serve as well ? Additionnallly, ng serve always searches for entries under ng-serve. Could it not be possible that if those entries are not present it uses values directly under build ?

Description

if we suppose that we have 2 build environment and 3 localize entries, we will need 6 entries under serve to test it locally.

{
  "configurations": {
    "production": {
      "fileReplacements": [
        {
          "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
          "with": "src/environments/environment.prod.ts"
        }
      ]
    },
    "production2": {
      "fileReplacements": [
        {
          "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
          "with": "src/environments/environment.prod2.ts"
        }
      ]
    },
    "li18n1": {},
    "li18n2": {},
    "li18n3": {}
  }
}

If we are to use all these configs values under serve, we will need 6 entries. I wonder if it cannot be possible to run ng serve -c="i18n1, production1" and to directly use both configs

[SchnWalter]

It seems to work for me. I've added extra build configurations and matching serve configurations, and then I tested both the serve command and the build command with multiple configurations, and they work just fine:

ng build -c production,uat-one
ng build -c production,uat-two
ng serve -c production,uat-one
ng serve -c production,uat-two

Here's the repository/branch in which I've tested this:

https://github.com/SchnWalter/repo-for-reproducing-angular-issues/tree/17696-ng-serve-with-multiple-configurations

---

P.S I've just noticed that you've used this command:

ng serve -c="i18n1, production1"

I think that you've been using the command wrong. The options are applied from right to left. So in your example, I think that you should use:

ng serve -c="production1, i18n1"

Here's a quote from the MR that you've linked:

They [configurations] will be applied from left to right. If --prod is also present, it will be considered to be the first configuration and thus able to be overriden.

[kedevked]

Yes it is working. But we still need to redefine all the entries of configuration under serve. Maybe that ng serve -c "config" can default to the value of configuration when there is no config under serve

[SchnWalter]

Those are just 3 lines per dev-server configuration entry, that's 18 extra lines for your 6 configurations, that's not much, you don't have hundreds of extra lines. Alternatively, you could use a script to generate a brand new angular.json from a template, and you could do this whenever you need to build for a certain brand or environment.

[kedevked]

The point is valid. But if we can avoid writing a script because it can be provided out of the box, that will be better

[alan-agius4]

@kedevked, that is not needed see #17473 (comment)

[kedevked]

That's great, did not know about it. Thanks for sharing

[kyliau]

To add on to @alan-agius4's reply, documentation for --browser-target is under works.
Meanwhile, @filipesilva wrote an excellent explanation of the flag in #16572 (comment).

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