ng generate does not accept schematic options of type "object"

[jesusreal]

🐞 Bug report

Command (mark with an x)

• new
• build
• serve
• test
• e2e
• generate
• add
• update
• lint
• extract-i18n
• run
• config
• help
• version
• doc

Is this a regression?

No

Description

Given a custom schematic called my-test-schematic with its schema defining an object type, as for example the localize property below:

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
  "$id": "MyTestSchematicsSchema",
  "title": "My test schematics Schema",
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": false,
  "properties": {
    "localize": {
      "description": "Provide locale, localeFile to add it as an additional output of the application.",
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "locale": {
          "type": "string",
          "title": "Single locale to use (besides the default)"
        },
        "localeFile": {
          "type": "string",
          "title": "Single locale file matching the given locale"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Running such schematic with ng generate command

ng g ./dist/libs/schematics/collection.json:my-test-schematic --localize.locale=de

Produces the following error:

Unknown option: '--localize.locale'

Running the schematic with schematics command

schematics ./dist/libs/schematics/collection.json:my-test-schematic --localize.locale=de

The option is passed to the schematic:

My test schematic: {"localize":{"locale":"de"}}

I would expect ng generate to support schematic options of type object, the same way schematics does. Here is where extraction happens for ng generate, and here for schematics.

🔬 Minimal Reproduction

I created a public repository here that allows to reproduce the issue. All the relevant information is in the readme file.

🔥 Exception or Error

When running the schematic with ng generate command

Unknown option: '--localize.locale'

When running the schematic with schematics command, the option is properly passed to the schematic

🌍 Your Environment

Angular CLI: 12.1.3
Node: 14.17.6
Package Manager: npm 6.14.15
OS: darwin x64

Angular: 
... animations, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
... platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic, router

Package                         Version
---------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect       0.1201.3 (cli-only)
@angular-devkit/build-angular   
@angular-devkit/core            12.2.13
@angular-devkit/schematics      12.2.13
@angular/cli                    12.1.3 (cli-only)
@schematics/angular             12.1.3 (cli-only)
rxjs                            6.6.7
typescript                      4.3.5

Anything else relevant?
No

[alan-agius4]

This is expected, the command line parser of the Angular CLI doesn’t expand properties with dots into objects. I am actually surprised that this work in the schematics CLI.

In a future major version we will be looking into using a common parser for all of the CLIs so that the parsing of arguments is consistent across the board. That said, it’s not very likely that the object expansion would be something that we’d want to allow.

[angular-automatic-lock-bot]

This issue has been automatically locked due to inactivity.
Please file a new issue if you are encountering a similar or related problem.

Read more about our automatic conversation locking policy.

_{This action has been performed automatically by a bot.}