File Scaffolding With Hygen

Recently, I discovered Hygen, a powerful CLI tool recommended by Smashing Magazine, and it's been a game-changer for my Next.js UI development workflow. The constant manual creation of component folders and files was becoming tedious and error-prone. Hygen provides a streamlined solution.

My team uses a consistent component structure:

<code>/NewComponent
  index.js
  NewComponent.js
  NewComponent.module.scss</code>

Previously, I relied on VS Code's UI for file creation, a slow and inefficient process. Hygen's CLI automates this, and its template-based approach, stored directly within the project, ensures team-wide consistency and maintainability.

The recommended installation is global:

npm i -g hygen

While a global install is convenient, a local installation (npm i -D hygen) might be preferable for better project control and to prevent dependency issues across different projects. However, the CLI functionality remains the same regardless of installation method.

Hygen's usage is straightforward. For example, to create a new component:

hygen editor-component new --name NewExampleComponent

This command searches for a _templates/editor-component directory and uses its contents to generate the necessary files. The filenames within the template directory aren't critical; the actual output filenames and locations are defined within the template files' front matter. This allows for dynamic filename generation.

The templating language resembles Rails ERB. Using the --name parameter allows you to inject values into the templates, and helper functions provide options for case conversion and other manipulations.

The process is simple: run the command, and the files are created.

Key Takeaways

• Hygen's intuitive syntax and approach proved more appealing to me than Plop, another popular option.
• A hygen delete command would be a valuable addition to simplify cleanup after accidental or erroneous scaffolding.
• The available VS Code extension further streamlines the process, allowing scaffolding directly from the Command Palette.

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