Programmatic Ponderings

Configure your Windows environment for developing modern web applications using the popular MEAN Stack and Yeoman suite of utilities.

MEAN Stack Using the MEAN.io Project Running on Windows

Introduction

It’s an exciting time to be involved in web development. There are dozens of popular open-source JavaScript frameworks, libraries, code-generators, and associated tools, exploding on to the development scene. It is now possible to use a variety of popular technology mashups to provide a complete, full-stack JavaScript application platform.

MEAN Stack

One of the JavaScript mashups gaining a lot of traction recently is the MEAN Stack. If you’re reading this post, you probably already know MEAN is an acronym for four leading technologies: MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and Node.js. The MEAN stack provides an end-to-end JavaScript application solution. MEAN provides a NoSQL document database (Mongo), a server-side solution for JavaScript (Node/Express), and a magic client-side MV* framework (Angular).

Depending in which MEAN stack generator or pre-build project you start with, in addition to the main four technologies, you will pull down several other smaller libraries and frameworks.  These most commonly include jQuery, Twitter Bootstrap, Karma (test runner), Jade (template engine), JSHint, Underscore.js (utility-belt library), Mongoose (MongoDB object modeling tool), Passport (authentication), RequireJS (file and module loader), BreezeJS (data entity management), and so forth.

Common Tooling

If you are involved in these modern web development trends, then you are aware there is also a fairly common set of tools used by a majority of these developers, including source control, IDE, OS, and other helper-utilities. For SCM/VCS, Git is the clear winner. For an IDE, WebStorm, Sublime Text, and Kompozer, are heavy favorites. The platform of choice for most developers most often appears to be either Mac or Linux. It’s far less common to see a demonstration of these technologies, or tutorials built on the Microsoft Windows platform.

Yeoman

Another area of commonality is help-utilities, used to make the development, building, dependency management, and deployment of modern JavaScript applications, easier. Two popular ones are Brunch and Yeoman. Yeoman is also an acronym for a set of popular tools: yo, Grunt, and Bower. The first, yo, is best described as a scaffolding tool. Grunt is the build tool. Bower is a tool for client-side package and dependency management. We will install Yeoman, along with the MEAN Stack,  in this post.

Windows

There is no reason Windows cannot serve as your development and hosting platform for modern web development, without specifically using Microsoft’s .NET stack. In fact, with minimal set-up, you would barely know you were using Windows as opposed to Linux or Mac. In this post, I will demonstrate how to configure your Windows machine for developing these modern web applications using the MEAN Stack and Yeoman.

Here is a list of the components we will discuss:

• Git
• Ruby
• RubyGems
• MEAN Stack
• MongoDB
• Node.js
• Express
• AngularJS
• Yeoman
• yo
• Grunt
• Bower

Installations

Git

The use of Git for source control is obvious. Git is the overwhelming choice of modern developers. Git has been integrated into most major IDEs and hosting platforms. There are hooks into Git available for most leading development tools. However, there are more benefits to using Git than just SCM. Being a Linux/Mac user, I prefer to use a Unix-like shell on Windows, versus the native Windows Command Prompt. For this reason, I use Git for Windows, available from msysGit. This package includes Git SCM, Git Bash, and Git GUI. I use the Git Bash interactive shell almost exclusively for my daily interactions requiring a command prompt. I will be using the Git Bash interactive shell for this post. OpenHatch has great post and training materials available on using Git Bash with Windows.

Using Git Bash on Windows for a Unix-like Experience

Git for Windows provides a downloadable Windows executable file for installation. Follow the installation file’s instructions.

To test your installation of Git for Windows, call the Git binary with the ‘–version’ flag. This flag can be used to test all the components we are installing in this post. If the command returns a value, then it’s a good indication that the component is installed properly and can be called from the command prompt:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ git --version
git version 1.9.0.msysgit.0

You can also verify Git using the ‘where’ and ‘which’ commands. The ‘where’ command will display the location of files that match the search pattern and are in the paths specified by the PATH environment variable. The ‘which’ command tells you which file gets executed when you run a command. These commands will work for most components we will install:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ where git
C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\git.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd\git.cmd
C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd\git.exe

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ which git
/bin/git

Ruby

The reasons for Git are obvious, but why Ruby? Yeoman, specifically yo, requires Ruby. Installing Ruby on Windows is easy. Ruby recommends using RubyInstaller for Windows. RubyInstaller downloads an executable file, making install easy. I am using Ruby 1.9.3. I had previously installed the latest 2.0.0, but had to roll-back after some 64-bit compatibility issues with other applications.

To test the Ruby installation, use the ‘–version’ flag again:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ ruby --version
ruby 1.9.3p484 (2013-11-22) [i386-mingw32]

RubyGems

Optionally, you might also to install RubyGems. RubyGems allow you to add functionality to the Ruby platform, in the form of ‘Gems’. A common Gem used with the MEAN stack is Compass, the Sass-based stylesheet framework creation and maintenance of CSS. According to their website, Ruby 1.9 and newer ships with RubyGems built-in but you may need to upgrade for bug fixes or new features.

On Windows, installation of RubyGems is as simple as downloading the .zip file from the RubyGems download site. To install, RubyGems, unzip the downloaded file. From the root of the unzipped directory, run the following Ruby command:

ruby setup.rb

To confirm your installation:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ gem --version
2.2.2

If you already have RubyGems installed, it’s recommended you update RubyGems before continuing. Use the first command, with the ‘–system’ flag, will update to the latest RubyGems. Use the second command, without the tag, if you want to update each of your individually installed Ruby Gems:

gem update --system
gem update

MongoDB

MongoDB provides a great set of installation and configuration instructions for Windows users. To install MongoDB, download the MongoDB package. Create a ‘mongodb’ folder. Mongo recommends at the root of your system drive. Unzip the MongoDB package to ‘c:\mongodb’ folder. That’s really it, there is no installer file.

Next, make a default Data Directory location, use the following two commands:

mkdir c://data && mkdir c://data/db

Unlike most other components, to call Mongo from the command prompt, I had to manually add the path to the Mongo binaries to my PATH environment variable. You can get access to your Windows environment variables using the Windows and Pause keys. Add the path ‘c:\mongodb\bin’ to end of the PATH environment variable value.

Adding Mongo to the PATH Environment Variable

To test the MongoDB installation, and that the PATH variable is set correctly, close any current interactive shells or command prompt windows. Open a new shell and use the same ‘–version’ flag for Mongo’s three core components:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos
$ mongo --version; mongod --version; mongos --version
MongoDB shell version: 2.4.9

db version v2.4.9
Sun Mar 09 16:26:48.730 git version: 52fe0d21959e32a5bdbecdc62057db386e4e029c

MongoS version 2.4.9 starting: pid=15436 port=27017 64-bit 
host=localhost (--help for usage)
git version: 52fe0d21959e32a5bdbecdc62057db386e4e029c
build sys info: windows sys.getwindowsversion(major=6, minor=1, build=7601, 
platform=2, service_pack='Service Pack 1') 
BOOST_LIB_VERSION=1_49

To start MongoDB, use the ‘mongod’ or ‘start mongod’ commands. Adding ‘start’ opens a new command prompt window, versus tying up your current shell. If you are not using the default MongoDB Data Directory (‘c://data/db’) you created in the previous step, use the ‘–dbpath’ flag, for example ‘start mongod –dbpath ‘c://alternate/path’.

MongoDB Running on Windows

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MongoDB Default Data Directory Containing New MEAN Database

Node.js

To install Node.js, download and run the Node’s .msi installer for Windows. Along with Node.js, you will get npm (Node Package Manager). You will use npm to install all your server-side components, such as Express, yo, Grunt, and Bower.

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos 
$ node --version && npm --version
v0.10.26
1.4.3

Express

To install Express, the web application framework for node, use npm:

npm install -g express

The ‘-g’ flag (or, ‘–global’ flag) should be used. According to Stack Overflow, ‘if you’re installing something that you want to use in your shell, on the command line or something, install it globally, so that its binaries end up in your PATH environment variable:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos $ express --version
3.5.0

Yeoman – yo, Grunt, and Bower

You will also use npm to install yo, Grunt, and Bower. Actually, we will use npm to install the Grunt Command Line Interface (CLI). The Grunt task runner will be installed in your MEAN stack project, locally, later. Read these instructions on the Grunt website for a better explanation. Use the same basic command as with Express:

npm install -g yo grunt-cli bower

To test the installs, run the same command as before:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos 
$ yo --version; grunt --version; bower --version
1.1.2
grunt-cli v0.1.13
1.2.8

If you already had Yeoman installed, confirm you have the latest versions with the ‘npm update’ command:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos/gen-angular-sample 
$ npm update -g yo grunt-cli bower
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/grunt-cli
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/yo
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/yo
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/grunt-cli

All of the npm installs, including Express, are installed and called from a common location on Windows:

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos/gen-angular-sample 
$ where express yo grunt bower
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\yo
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\yo.cmd
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\grunt
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\grunt.cmd
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\bower
c:\Users\gstaffor\AppData\Roaming\npm\bower.cmd

gstafford: ~/Documents/git_repos 
$ which express; which yo; which grunt; which bower
~/AppData/Roaming/npm/express
~/AppData/Roaming/npm/yo
~/AppData/Roaming/npm/grunt
~/AppData/Roaming/npm/bower

Use the command, ‘npm list –global | less’ (or, ‘npm ls -g | less’) to view all npm packages installed globally, in a tree-view. After you have generated your project (see below), check the project-specific server-side packages with the ‘npm ls’ command from within the project’s root directory. For the client-side packages, use the ‘bower ls’ command from within the project’s root directory.

If your in a hurry, or have more Windows boxes to configure you can use one npm command for all four components, above:

npm install -g express yo grunt-cli bower

MEAN Boilerplate Generators and Projects

That’s it, you’ve installed most of the core components you need to get started with the MEAN stack on Windows. Next, you will want to download one of the many MEAN boilerplate projects, or use a MEAN code generator with npm and yo. I recommend trying one or all of the following projects. They are each slightly different architecturally, but fairly stable:

• Linnovate’s MEAN.io project on GitHub (boilerplate MEAN project)
• James Cryer’s npm generator-mean, a Yeoman generator for MEAN stack, inspired by mean.io
• William Lepinski’s MEAN stack generator for Yeoman, generator-meanstack, based on the generator-angular.

Yeoman Running MEAN Generator

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MEAN Stack Using James Cryer’s ‘generator-mean’

Links

• Jim Lavin’s Introduction to the MEAN Stack on YouTube
• Google Developer’s Getting MEAN on YouTube
• Introduction to the MEAN Stack, Part One: Setting Up Your Tools
• Full-Stack JavaScript With MEAN And Yeoman
• The MEAN Stack: MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS and Node.js