[Question] Dedicated Package.JSON Files?

[johannesschobel]

Hey @xmlking ,

i was just wondering, if it would be benefitial to have dedicated package.json files in each \libs and \apps folder (i.e., each app handles their own dependencies). Is there a specific reason, why you don't follow this approach?

All the best and thanks a lot for your time and effort

[xmlking]

I am also thinking in this line. we already have package.json for publishable lib modules e.g., ngx-utils, led etc. I wanted to have app specific package.json for apps/api, apps/webapp ,apps/mobile as they generally don't share dependencies and one workspace level package.json with common dependencies.
For this I have to switch to Yarn Lerna. at this moment I wanted to keep it native to node and default npm for package management.

on the pro side if we split package.json at apps level, we could have faster CI/CD builds and docker multistage builds

[johannesschobel]

Dear @xmlking ,

yeah, i think, switching to Lerna may be a good idea, because this would

• reduce the build-time and -resources
• make it possible to "update" specific dependencies per project / app / library (e.g., lib1 may use dep1.0 and lib2 may use dep2.0). So it would be possible to "incrementally" update applications / dependencies more easily..
• you could build, test, ... each library / application more easily

Do you consider switching? because this starter package is actually really (!) awesome.. And i would love to have such an awesome angular-nestjs-whatever-starter package with Lerna ;)

[johannesschobel]

I will just add some more thoughts on this - maybe you are willing to contribute and share your opinions?

I am thinking about using a Monorepository approach to build my next project. However, i am currently stuck between Lerna and nrwl/nx - obviously, both are quite awesome.

nrwl/nx

Pros

• Very easy-to-use console commands to create apps & libs. Everything is automatically wired up by the framework - no manual tasks
• powerful schematics
• very tightly coupled with angular (well, you can also list this as a con :laughing: )
• provides a clear structure for the repository (and apps and libs)

Cons

• only one "big" package.json file that contain all dependencies from all apps / libs in your project. This may become huge very fast. Furthermore, it does not allow to use different versions of the same library in different apps (because everything is managed within one single package.json file)
• you cannot have different "build scripts" (or rather - the overhead to do so is very high!)

Lerna

Pros

• seems very battle tested and follows a more "each package is a separate buildable / deployable entity" approach (e.g., each package has its own package.json file to manage their own dependencies).
• libs are more reusable (e.g., all dependencies are directly managed by the lib itself)

Cons

• more "manual" work (e.g., wiring it all together)
• no explicit project / package structure given
• using different package.json files may dramatically increase the required disk space

What is your opinion on this? Can you provide more pros / cons on both approaches / frameworks? All the best and thank you very much for your time and effort,

[xmlking]

Lerna is splitting package.json , nrwl/nx is angularCli++ I think we could use both together. I have to research.

[johannesschobel]

oh.. using Lerna and nrwl/nx together may be an awesome idea.. Don't know if this works.. But using the best from both worlds may be really cool..

Maybe these articles / issues / comments are helpful:

• https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/225
• https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/87#issuecomment-365364211

  You can add lerna. Nothing in the nx workspace prevents you from using it.

• https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/309#issuecomment-376089674

  In fact, after a lot of tests, both with lerna and workspaces, my conclusion is that we don't need such tools, even if we have package.json files for the libs we build with ng-packagr and publish on our npm repository.

As in some articles the use of git submodules is mentioned. I would suggest to not follow this git submodules approach because the use of submodules may get very dirty ;) But that's just my opinion...

To be honest, after reading so much about lerna and nx, i am not sure which approach is better.. For now, I am considering the following stack:

• angular for the web frontend,
• nestjs as a backend and
• ionic for smart mobile devices

My main concern is, that ionic 4 (latest version) just switched to angular 7, which may be "outdated" in a few months because angular 8 is just around the corner (beta already started).. So i think, having independent package.json files may be benefitial, because you would not be able to upgrade the main web application to angular 8 until ionic supports it..

All the best

[xmlking]

this is an other motivational blog...
https://medium.com/naresh-bhatia/sharing-ui-components-with-lerna-and-yarn-workspaces-be1ebca06efe

https://medium.com/@zachary.n.feldman/harmony-with-angular-lerna-and-yarn-workspaces-6a7394f08da

[xmlking]

@johannesschobel we got experimental integration of Lerna with this commit. I also switched to Yarn from default npm

please test and let us know...

https://github.com/xmlking/ngx-starter-kit/commit/0b53f15b20289d80ed14c62e43eef816ffec1a6b

[xmlking]

now we have dedicated package.json files for workspace, webapp and API app.