Creating a blueprint

A JHipster blueprint is a Yeoman generator that is composed from a specific JHipster sub-generator to extend the functionality of that sub-generator. The blueprint can override any defined getter of the sub generator and provide its own templates and functionality.

JHipster blueprints are listed on the JHipster marketplace with the jhipster-blueprint label.

This allows to create third-party blueprints that can override a specific part of JHipster, say for example only the client side templates.

Using a blueprint

To use a blueprint, run the below command

jhipster --blueprint <blueprint name>

Example

The JHipster Kotlin blueprint replaces most of the server side Java code with equivalent Kotlin code.

It is our official blueprint that showcases how you can create your own blueprint.

The JHipster Sample Blueprint shows how a client sub-generator can be overriden.

Or, you can use the JHipster blueprint generator to help you to initialize your blueprint.

To use the JHipster blueprint generator run the following commands

npm install -g generator-jhipster-blueprint

mkdir my-blueprint && cd my-blueprint

yo jhipster-blueprint

Choose the sub-generators that you would like to override while answering the questions.

Basic rules for a JHipster blueprint

A JHipster blueprint:

  • is an NPM package, and is a Yeoman generator.
  • follows an extension of the Yeoman rules listed at http://yeoman.io/generators/ and can be installed, used and updated using the yo command. Instead of being prefixed by generator-, it is prefixed by generator-jhipster-, and instead of having just the yeoman-generator keyword, it must have 2 keywords, yeoman-generator and jhipster-blueprint.
  • A blueprint can only extend the following sub-generators (under the generators folder)
    • client
    • server
    • entity
    • entity-client
    • entity-server
    • entity-i18n
    • spring-controller
    • spring-service

Import the generator-jhipster

A JHipster blueprint must have generator-jhipster as a dependency and should import the appropriate sub generator to override it.

    const chalk = require('chalk');
    const ClientGenerator = require('generator-jhipster/generators/client');
    ...

    module.exports = class extends ClientGenerator {
        constructor(args, opts) {
            super(args, Object.assign({ fromBlueprint: true }, opts)); // fromBlueprint variable is important

            const jhContext = this.jhipsterContext = this.options.jhipsterContext;

            if (!jhContext) {
                this.error(`This is a JHipster blueprint and should be used only like ${chalk.yellow('jhipster --blueprint helloworld')}`);
            }

            this.configOptions = jhContext.configOptions || {};
            // This sets up options for this sub generator and is being reused from JHipster
            jhContext.setupClientOptions(this, jhContext);
        }

        get initializing() {
            // Here we are not overriding this phase and hence its being handled by JHipster
            return super._initializing();
        }

        // other phases of the sub generator
    }

Any method beginning with _ can be reused from the superclass that is being extended, for example ClientGenerator in the example above.

Each JHipster sub-generator is made of multiple yeoman phases, each phase is a getter, get initializing for example. A blueprint can customize one or more phases of the sub-generator that it is overriding.

There are multiple ways to customize a phase from JHipster.

1) Let JHipster handle a phase, blueprint doesnt override anything.

    get initializing() {
        return super._initializing();
    }

2) Override the entire phase, this is when the blueprint takes control of a phase

    get initializing() {
        return {
            myCustomInitPhaseStep() {
                // Do all your stuff here
            },
            myAnotherCustomInitPhaseStep(){
                // Do all your stuff here
            }
        };
    }

3) Partially override a phase, this is when the blueprint gets the phase from JHipster and customizes it.

    get initializing() {
        const phaseFromJHipster = super._initializing();
        const myCustomPhaseSteps = {
            displayLogo() {
                // override the displayLogo method from the _initializing phase of JHipster
            },
            myCustomInitPhaseStep() {
                // Do all your stuff here
            },
        }
        return Object.assign(phaseFromJHipster, myCustomPhaseSteps);
    }

You can also access to JHipster’s variables and functions directly from a Blueprint.

Available variables and functions

Variables from configuration:

You can access to configuration in .yo-rc.json which will consist of both the JHipster config and your blueprint config.

Global variables:

You can use constants in generator-constants:

    const javaDir = `${jhipsterConstants.SERVER_MAIN_SRC_DIR + this.packageFolder}/`;
    const resourceDir = jhipsterConstants.SERVER_MAIN_RES_DIR;
    const webappDir = jhipsterConstants.CLIENT_MAIN_SRC_DIR;

Functions:

You can use all functions in generator-base:

    this.angularAppName = this.getAngularAppName(); // get the Angular application name.
    this.printJHipsterLogo(); // to print the JHipster logo

Note: The functions in generator-base.js and variables in generator-constants.js are part of public API and hence will follow semver versioning. But other files like generator-base-private.js, utils.js etc will not follow semver versioning and might break method signature across minor versions.

Running local Blueprint version for development

During development of blueprint, please note the below steps. they are very important.

  1. Link your blueprint globally

Note: If you do not want to link the blueprint(step 3) to each project being created, use NPM instead of Yarn as yeoman doesn’t seem to fetch globally linked Yarn modules. On the other hand, this means you have to use NPM in all the below steps as well.

cd my-blueprint
npm link
  1. Link a development version of JHipster to your blueprint (optional: required only if you want to use a non-released JHipster version, like the master branch or your own custom fork)
cd generator-jhipster
npm link

cd my-blueprint
npm link generator-jhipster
  1. Create a new folder for the app to be generated and link JHipster and your blueprint there
mkdir my-app && cd my-app

npm link generator-jhipster-myblueprint
npm link generator-jhipster (Optional: Needed only if you are using a non-released JHipster version)

jhipster -d --blueprint myblueprint

Registering a blueprint to the JHipster marketplace

To have your blueprint available in the JHipster marketplace, you need to make sure you have the two keyword yeoman-generator and jhipster-blueprint in your published npm package.json. If you find any entry in the marketplace which is not a JHipster module or blueprint, you can help to blacklist it by adding it to the blacklistedModules section of the modules-config.json file by doing a Pull Request to the jhipster/jhipster.github.io project.

Once you publish your blueprint to NPM, your blueprint will become available in our marketplace.