Ember App Kit

Ember App Kit aims to be the foundation for ambitious web applications built with Ember. It will soon be replaced by an executable ember-cli which dramatically improves buildtimes (via broccoli) and provides sane-upgrade paths, feel free to check that project out. We intend to provide a sensible upgrade path.

This project has been extracted out of several real world applications and is actively used. Currently it covers the basics fairly well, but much still needs to be done. As we learn and as more contributors join in it continues to evolve. If you encounter any bugs, clunky features or missing documentation, just submit an issue and we'll respond ASAP.

At the very least, it helps setup your Ember.js applications directory structure.

We welcome ideas and experiments.

Getting Started

Project Documentation Site
Getting Started Guide
ember-app-kit-todos - the Emberjs todos using Ember App Kit
ember-app-kit-bloggr - bloggr demo
Safari Books Online Blog - Introduction to Ember App Kit for more experienced Ember developers by @mixonic
Ember Sherpa - Introduction to Ember App Kit for those who are new to the Grunt workflow by @taras

Features

Sane project structure
ES6 module transpiler support (easy, future-proof modules)
Module system-aware resolver (see Referencing views and Using Ember loaders)
Transparent project compilation & minification for easy deploys via Grunt
Package management via Bower
Optional support for CoffeeScript, SASS, LESS or Stylus
Testing via QUnit, Ember Testing and Testem (with examples)
Linting via JSHint (including module syntax)
Catch-all index.html for easy reloading of pushState router apps
Generators via Loom (to generate routes, controllers, etc.)

Migrating to Ember CLI

First, run npm install -g ember-cli to install Ember CLI. Now, on top of your existing EAK project, run ember init. Ember CLI will begin to migrate your project, showing you a diff of its overrides as it goes along.

Ember Init Overrides

tests/.jshintrc
- Let ember-cli overwrite this.
app/index.html
- Managing vendor assets is now handled via the Brocfile. Let ember-cli overwrite this file.
app/app.js
- Ember Configuration is now handled in config/
app/router.js
- Router's location is now handled via environment configuration. Change this to ENV.locationType.
app/routes/index.js
- This will attempt to replace your Index Route with a stub. Usually, you wont't want Ember CLI to override this file.
Brocfile.js
- Move your dependencies from app/index.html into this file by calling app.import().
  - Example: app.import('vendor/ember-data/ember-data.js')
app/templates/application.hbs
- This will attempt to replace your application template with a stub.
app/styles/app.css
- Another stub.
tests/index.html
- Let ember-cli add this file. This is where the test dependencies from app/index.html now live.
bower.json
package.json
server
- The express server has been exposed and now lives under this directory.
- This essentially replaces the API Stub in favor of a real Express App, so you can now enhance and customize the static server or develop the API and turn it into a full MEAN-like solution.

Cleanup

You can remove the Gruntfile, tasks, and the api-stub directory, since we won't be needing them anymore.

Troubleshooting

Ember CLI now picks up your app namespace. Change the import to reference the name of your project.
- If you never changed your application namespace from the default appkit then running ember init will break any import statements you already have
Index Route doesn't exist
- You may need to refresh your dependencies. Run rm -rf npm_modules && npm install && npm cache clean && bower install
Tests
- Import tests/helpers/start-app into each acceptance test file.
  - import startApp from 'your-app/tests/helpers/start-app
- resolver and startApp still live in test/helpers/ but module-for is now its own package.
- If you were using ember-testing-httpRespond
  - This is now patched for 1.4+
  - Import it and its dependencies in your Brocfile by using app.import()

Special Thanks

Some ideas in ember-app-kit originated in work by Yapp Labs (@yapplabs) with McGraw-Hill Education Labs (@mhelabs) on yapplabs/glazier. Thanks to Yapp and MHE for supporting the Ember ecosystem!

akhillies / waterize