Something I have been meaning to do for a while is create a skeleton project setup to work with Gulp for the task runner along with some basic tasks, AngularJS for the front-end framework and Browserify so we can include files the CommonJS way (like we can in Node.js).
The repository can be found here. It isn’t perfect, there are definitely flaws, but in the coming weeks, I will be documenting and making this skeleton project the perfect starter for newbies and seasoned Angular veterans alike.
Currently some things are assumed like; your application being built in a directory called “src” and then built into a directory called “app”, using Stylus for the CSS preprocessor of choice, putting assets into a directory called “static” and a few other things you can change pretty easily. You might also want to change the jshint defaults as well to work with how you prefer using it.
My favourite approach to writing Angular applications is to break functionality down into a modules directory with a submodule for each piece of functionality. Previously I was globbing the modules directory, looking for a module.js manifest file in each module and then combining, however it is a lot of work and kind of messy. This is why I decided to go with Browserify, it is modular by default and if you’re comfortable with Node.js and how it includes modules/plugins, then you will be fine.
I also have plans to add in support for ReactJS and other exciting nuggets for front-end development. For the moment the basics are in there and I hope you find it helpful.
