Add --template option to create-strapi-app

[remidej]

Description of what I did

I added a --template option to the create-strapi-app CLI.

Right now, every project created with create-strapi-app is an empty Strapi project. This will remain the default, but we also want to help users bootstrap projects that are preconfigured for specific use cases. After discussions with @alexandrebodin and @Convly , we designed a specification for this that relies on a new template system.

It looks like this:

# Using yarn
yarn create strapi-app my-strapi-app --template <template-github-url>

# Using npm
npx create-strapi-app my-strapi-app --template <template-github-url>

A template's only concern should be to adapt Strapi to a use case. It should not deal with environment-specific configs, like databases, upload or email providers. This is to make sure they are maintainable, and to avoid conflicts with other CLI options like --quickstart.

These templates are meant to be an important piece of our upcoming starters system. To clarify:

• A template is a pre-made Strapi configuration
• A starter is a pre-made frontend application that consumes a Strapi API

How it works

A template is a GitHub repository. This way, it's fully open. Any community member can create a template, not just the Strapi team.

Inspired by create-react-app, here is the structure a template should follow:

.
├── README.md
├── .gitignore
├── template.json
├── template
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── api/*
│   ├── components/*
│   ├── config
│   │   └── functions/*
│   ├── data/*
│   ├── plugins/*
│   ├── public/*
│   └── scripts/*

• README.md and .gitignore are meta files: They only affect the template itself, not the projects made with it.
• template.json is used to extend the default package.json of a Strapi project. We can use it to add scripts and dependencies.
• template/ is the folder where you can extend the file contents of a Strapi project. It can contain any of the following:
  • README.md: the readme of app made with this template
  • .env.example: to specify required environment variables
  • api/: for collections and single types
  • components/ for components
  • config/ can only include the functions directory (things like bootstrap.js or 404.js). That's because other config files are environment-specific.
  • data/ to store the data imported by a seed script
  • plugins/ for custom Strapi plugins
  • public/ to serve files
  • scripts/ for custom scripts

If a template doesn't follow this structure, the installation will crash.

Try it out

You can try it by calling the node script locally:

# Template that adds an Article collection
node ./path-to-this-strapi-fork/packages/create-strapi-app/index.js my-strapi-app --template https://github.com/remi2j/strapi-template-dummy-article

# Template that will crash because it doesn't follow the structure
node ./path-to-this-strapi-fork/packages/create-strapi-app/index.js my-strapi-app --template https://github.com/remi2j/strapi-template-dummy-illegal

Things to figure out

• There are already some things called "templates" in the CLI for database configs. We should find a new name for these to avoid confusion.
• Should seed data be imported automatically? Or should it be left as an additional command?

[remidej]

See more discussion about this PR at #7626

[codecov]

Codecov Report

Merging #8112 into master will increase coverage by 0.24%.
The diff coverage is 49.27%.

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #8112      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   32.71%   32.96%   +0.24%     
==========================================
  Files        1194     1197       +3     
  Lines       12969    13020      +51     
  Branches     1280     1286       +6     
==========================================
+ Hits         4243     4292      +49     
+ Misses       7886     7885       -1     
- Partials      840      843       +3     

Flag	Coverage Δ
#front	25.06% <28.57%> (+0.25%)	⬆️
#unit	53.88% <51.61%> (-0.01%)	⬇️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

Impacted Files	Coverage Δ
...trapi-admin/admin/src/containers/HomePage/index.js	62.50% <ø> (ø)
...n/src/containers/NotificationProvider/selectors.js	0.00% <0.00%> (ø)
...-manager/admin/src/components/Wysiwyg/constants.js	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...nt-manager/admin/src/components/Wysiwyg/helpers.js	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...lder/admin/src/containers/FormModal/utils/forms.js	22.03% <ø> (+22.03%)	⬆️
...pi-plugin-content-type-builder/utils/attributes.js	30.00% <ø> (ø)
...cumentation/admin/src/containers/HomePage/index.js	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...ugin-upload/admin/src/components/EditForm/index.js	0.00% <0.00%> (ø)
.../containers/InputModalStepper/InputModalStepper.js	0.00% <ø> (ø)
.../src/containers/InputModalStepperProvider/index.js	0.00% <0.00%> (ø)
... and 30 more

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[alexandrebodin]

LGTM. Good job 💯

[bernardro]

hey @remidej @alexandrebodin - thanks for this
I noticed the documentation says this:

A template is only useful once applied on top of a default Strapi app via the CLI

When I look at the CLI documentation I only see this

strapi new <name> --dbclient=<dbclient> --dbhost=<dbhost> --dbport=<dbport> --dbname=<dbname> --dbusername=<dbusername> --dbpassword=<dbpassword> --dbssl=<dbssl> --dbauth=<dbauth> --dbforce

is create-strapi-app --template the only way to apply a template for now?

[alexandrebodin]

Hi @bernardro indeed create-strapi-app is the one you need to be using for this.

[bernardro]

thank you @alexandrebodin