volo

A JavaScript dependency manager and project creation tool that favors GitHub for the package repository. Written in JavaScript for JavaScript.

The basic tool is a generic command completion tool -- you can create new commands for volo, and you can use commands others have created.

By default, volo knows how to:

• create a new web project
• add scripts for a web project from the command line
• convert some scripts to AMD format

It is still very early in development. Lots may change and it has some sharp corners, but it is already fun to use.

Prerequisites

• Node 0.6.5 or later installed.

Install

volo requires Node to run. Node includes npm, a package manager for node code. To install volo:

npm install -g volo

Usage

volo can use GitHub to retrieve code, so one of the core concepts when using it is understanding user/repo for archive names. See the add doc for more info on the types of archive names to use.

AMD project example

To set up an AMD/RequireJS-based project called fast that uses AMD versions of Backbone, jQuery and underscore:

> volo create fast (uses [volojs/create-template](https://github.com/volojs/create-template) for project template)
> cd fast
> volo add jquery (uses jquery/jquery as the repo)
> volo add underscore (uses amdjs/underscore as repo since an AMD project)
> volo add backbone (uses amdjs/backbone as repo since an AMD project)

Then modify www/js/app.js to require the modules you need and add your app logic.

The above example uses the amdjs/underscore and amdjs/backbone versions of those libraries, which include integrated AMD support.

Browser globals project example

To set up an HTML5 Boilerplate project that does not use AMD/RequireJS, but does use documentcloud repos of Backbone and Underscore (the Boilerplate already has jQuery):

> volo create html5fast html5-boilerplate (pulls down latest tag of that repo)
> cd html5fast
> volo add underscore (uses documentcloud/underscore as repo)
> volo add backbone (uses documentcloud/backbone as repo)

Library Best Practices

To work well with volo, here are some tips on how to structure your library code:

• Library Best Practices

Details

• Design goals
• Prior Art: npm, cpm, bpm.
• Create a volo command
• License: MIT and new BSD.

Engage

• Discussion list
• File an issue
• Working with the volo code