Add app create command

[flyinglimao]

Description

This PR adds a new command app create for users to create an app based on a scaffold.
It's the submission of onflow/flip-fest#31

To use, execute flow app to check out details

The only verb is create

It will clone a scaffold GitHub repo with go-git and provide an interactive UI for users to pick stacks.
A User can start from an example or a template:

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[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

Merging #404 (a7cc2b0) into master (ebc391e) will not change coverage.
The diff coverage is n/a.

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##           master     #404   +/-   ##
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  Coverage   55.33%   55.33%           
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  Files          36       36           
  Lines        1874     1874           
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  Hits         1037     1037           
  Misses        707      707           
  Partials      130      130           

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unittests	55.33% <ø> (ø)

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[sideninja]

It would be good if your write something short about each decision (API, cadence template web template) and what do they mean.

[sideninja]

Is here something missing in the question?

[flyinglimao]

The question I mean is if a user wants to start from an (example) app that can be built and run (kitty-items) with changing very few or no code or a template have only necessary files (framework, scaffold). Since I'm not a native English speaker, could you recommend a clear and succinct question, please?

[mwufi]

Hm.. maybe you can set it up like this? (idk, maybe look at create-react-app for inspiration!)

Project scaffolding
> Start with sample app
  Minimal

[sideninja]

Great contribution, left some comments, nothing major.

[sideninja]

Good job so far there is only one concern I have with this implementation. Seeing how templates have been setup in a separate repo you then use to get the files I feel it's not good for projects that exists elsewhere (like kitty-items) copying that in your template repo will cause those files to get outdated and I feel it would be better implemented if you would just clone those repos on the fly when using the create functionality. For templates that you have to create manually you can still use your custom repo, but then fix that to a specific version so we can control what is used from our CLI repo. Does that make sense?

[flyinglimao]

Good job so far there is only one concern I have with this implementation. Seeing how templates have been setup in a separate repo you then use to get the files I feel it's not good for projects that exists elsewhere (like kitty-items) copying that in your template repo will cause those files to get outdated and I feel it would be better implemented if you would just clone those repos on the fly when using the create functionality. For templates that you have to create manually you can still use your custom repo, but then fix that to a specific version so we can control what is used from our CLI repo. Does that make sense?

Not sure if I got it right.
How about this way: add a file example.json that lists a map from project name to GitHub repo, upon a user want to start from a project, ze can select one of them, and the CLI will remove all files and re-clone the project?

For "fix that to a specific version", do you mean tagging a commit as a version and making CLI clone the version which is updated regularly? or the CLI will execute some command like create-react-app to keep it up-to-date instead of removing files?

[sideninja]

@flyinglimao so the problem I see is that if you will include the actual files in your repository (https://github.com/flyinglimao/flow-app-scaffold) that are then used to "create app" and are cloned locally you will have problems with those files getting outdated. Let's take kitty-items for example, that project is constantly getting updated and there is no need for you to actually clone that project in your repo, you could only have the links to the repos and then clone them on the fly from original source not from your repo. The same goes for other templates, they look like they could be cloned from original source.

[flyinglimao]

@flyinglimao so the problem I see is that if you will include the actual files in your repository (https://github.com/flyinglimao/flow-app-scaffold) that are then used to "create app" and are cloned locally you will have problems with those files getting outdated. Let's take kitty-items for example, that project is constantly getting updated and there is no need for you to actually clone that project in your repo, you could only have the links to the repos and then clone them on the fly from original source not from your repo. The same goes for other templates, they look like they could be cloned from original source.

Agree with creating from a project. So the problem will be how to obtain such a list, right? Should I put it in flow CLI or an external repo (for people to recommend a new example project)?
But for creating from the custom stack, I didn't find repos can be cloned. I run create-react-app and some commands like that for the scaffold repo. Besides, we also need to install fcl.js first, right?

[sideninja]

Agree with creating from a project. So the problem will be how to obtain such a list, right? Should I put it in flow CLI or an external repo (for people to recommend a new example project)? But for creating from the custom stack, I didn't find repos can be cloned. I run create-react-app and some commands like that for the scaffold repo. Besides, we also need to install fcl.js first, right?

Correct. You can still use the repo for scaffolds and I will create one for you, but before doing that, I think that most of the web scaffolds you use and have nothing to do with Flow are not necessary. I believe if you want to scaffold a react app developers already have the tools to do that. I don't see a good reason to include those, I would limit scaffolding to kitty-items and to maybe a cadence scaffold with core contracts included and folder structure for cadence in place. Developers can then on top of this scaffold use their own scaffolding for the framework they will use.

[flyinglimao]

Correct. You can still use the repo for scaffolds and I will create one for you, but before doing that, I think that most of the web scaffolds you use and have nothing to do with Flow are not necessary. I believe if you want to scaffold a react app developers already have the tools to do that. I don't see a good reason to include those, I would limit scaffolding to kitty-items and to maybe a cadence scaffold with core contracts included and folder structure for cadence in place. Developers can then on top of this scaffold use their own scaffolding for the framework they will use.

What's the next thing I should do? Are you going to create a new repo or I should update mine?

[sideninja]

@flyinglimao here is the repo you can use to transfer all the files in https://github.com/onflow/flow-app-scaffold
You should only put contents in this repo that are unique to flow and are not duplicates of some other repos, fetch those sources like explained.

[kerrywei]

Hello @flyinglimao ! Does Gregor's comment make sense to you? Looking forward to seeing more progress on this PR ❤️

[flyinglimao]

Hello @flyinglimao ! Does Gregor's comment make sense to you? Looking forward to seeing more progress on this PR ❤️

Yeah but I'm still thinking about how to keep both kitty-items and empty scaffold at the same time. Besides, sorry for that I'm in the mid-term exam so didn't have much time for it.

[flyinglimao]

https://github.com/onflow/flow-app-scaffold/pull/1

(Template)
Will clone the scaffold repo and remove some files

(Example)
Will fetch examples.json from the scaffold repo and clone after selection.

[sideninja]

@flyinglimao I merged PR to the app-scaffold repo. Btw I suggest you add all those files to second level so you can have multiple custom scaffolds there, so instead of all files being top level have directories for each custom scaffold like "basic" etc.

[flyinglimao]

@flyinglimao I merged PR to the app-scaffold repo. Btw I suggest you add all those files to second level so you can have multiple custom scaffolds there, so instead of all files being top level have directories for each custom scaffold like "basic" etc.

[sideninja]

@flyinglimao I merged PR to the app-scaffold repo. Btw I suggest you add all those files to second level so you can have multiple custom scaffolds there, so instead of all files being top level have directories for each custom scaffold like "basic" etc.

Hi, did you manage to complete any work on this?

[flyinglimao]

@flyinglimao I merged PR to the app-scaffold repo. Btw I suggest you add all those files to second level so you can have multiple custom scaffolds there, so instead of all files being top level have directories for each custom scaffold like "basic" etc.

Hi, did you manage to complete any work on this?

I think I completed it. Did I miss anything?
In the screenshots, I finish the feature that makes users can choose a scaffold (for now there is only one choice basic) as you said
After merged scaffold PR and the cli should work properly I think

[sideninja]

Ok, I see, I meant to say to also update app-scaffold to include all the code inside basic folder so you can create more custom scaffolds if needed and you can then have directory structure like /basic/{basic files}, /advanced/{...} but this can also change when we add another scaffold, so maybe that is good enough for now.

[flyinglimao]

It's what the PR in scaffold repo for, the newer structure can be previewed in my repo. Or did I misunderstand something?

[sideninja]

If I run this command flow app create . and choose Template it then asks me to choose api/cadence/web. You should create all of those folders including flow.json on the top-level when choosing template. I would also advise changing Template to Empty Flow Project and Example to Kitty Items Example. After that we can release it.

[flyinglimao]

If I run this command flow app create . and choose Template it then asks me to choose api/cadence/web. You should create all of those folders including flow.json on the top-level when choosing template. I would also advise changing Template to Empty Flow Project and Example to Kitty Items Example. After that we can release it.

That's because the PR isn't merged. The CLI will consider all folders in the repo as a template and now there are api, cadence, web but will be basic after the PR is merged

[sideninja]

My apologies, I completely overlooked that PR, it's merged now. Will test more and release in the next version. Thank you.