Two Styles of Repo

There are two styles of repos: integrated and package-based. This tutorial shows the integrated style.

You can find more information on the difference between the two in our introduction.

Node Tutorial - Part 1: Code Generation

In this tutorial you'll create a backend-focused workspace with Nx.

Contents

Your Objective

For this tutorial, you'll create an Express API application, a CLI (command-line interface) application, and a library for a data client that these two applications will use to interact with a data-source.

Our Workspace Requirements

Creating an Nx Workspace

Run the command npx create-nx-workspace@latest and when prompted, provide the following responses:

Terminal

~❯

npx create-nx-workspace@latest

✔ Choose your style · integrated ✔ What to create in the new workspace · express ✔ Repository name · my-products ✔ Application name · products-api ✔ Enable distributed caching to make your CI faster · Yes
Opting into Nx Cloud

You will also be prompted whether to add Nx Cloud to your workspace. We won't address this in this tutorial, but you can see the introduction to Nx Cloud for more details.

Once the command complete, you can find your Express API application in apps/products-api.

Adding Another Application to Your Workspace

Run this command to create your products-cli app:

Terminal

~/my-products❯

npx nx g @nrwl/node:app products-cli

> NX Generating @nrwl/node:application CREATE apps/products-cli/src/app/.gitkeep CREATE apps/products-cli/src/assets/.gitkeep CREATE apps/products-cli/src/environments/environment.prod.ts CREATE apps/products-cli/src/environments/environment.ts CREATE apps/products-cli/src/main.ts CREATE apps/products-cli/tsconfig.app.json CREATE apps/products-cli/tsconfig.json CREATE apps/products-cli/project.json CREATE apps/products-cli/.eslintrc.json CREATE apps/products-cli/jest.config.ts CREATE apps/products-cli/tsconfig.spec.json

Nx Generator Syntax

Generating Libraries

To create the products-data-client library, use the @nrwl/js:lib generator:

Terminal

~/my-products❯

npx nx g @nrwl/js:lib products-data-client

> NX Generating @nrwl/js:library CREATE libs/products-data-client/README.md CREATE libs/products-data-client/package.json CREATE libs/products-data-client/src/index.ts CREATE libs/products-data-client/src/lib/products-data-client.spec.ts CREATE libs/products-data-client/src/lib/products-data-client.ts CREATE libs/products-data-client/tsconfig.json CREATE libs/products-data-client/tsconfig.lib.json CREATE libs/products-data-client/project.json UPDATE tsconfig.base.json CREATE libs/products-data-client/.eslintrc.json CREATE libs/products-data-client/jest.config.ts CREATE libs/products-data-client/tsconfig.spec.json

You have now created all three projects from the design:

  • products-api in apps/products-api
  • products-cli in apps/products-cli
  • products-data-client in libs/products-data-client

What's Next