Create Angular Application using Angular CLI

Where to start on your Angular Project? if this is the question you have then this blog will be very helpful, In this blog we will explore Angular CLI to create/bootstrap angular project. We will use VSCode Node.js, NPM to setup an Angular project using Angular CLI and later clean up some of the code and add support for Jquery and Twitter Bootstrap in the project, also will showcase how to create a component in few seconds with Angular CLI.

It is suggested to read Angular CLI documentation at the official site:- https://cli.angular.io/.

Start your angular application using Angular CLI

Open your system and follow these point step by step to learn the approach:-

Open your favorite Command Line tool on the system, CMDER, VSCode Terminal or Git BASH .

I am using CMDER http://cmder.net/, in this example. Make sure your system has Node.JS installed and npm availlable to use globally.

As a first thing we will install angular CLI using NPM globally.

npm install -g @angular/cli

We can also specify the version after the above command to target specific version:-

npm install -g @angular/cli@1.7.3

This is how it will appear on CMDER:-

Next in your work folder create your project by using Angular CLI command to create new project:-

ng new {ProjectName}

Here is how the output will appear after you run this ng command on your Command Line interface:-

It will create the Folder and code files under your workspace. 

Note: Folder Name will be the same as of your ProjectName,

Next, lets open this folder in your fav Code editor.

I am using VSCode here, first thing to notice is package.json file
                                        

• This package.json file is the one which tells npm which version of dependencies to install while generating the project. If you see closely you will notice ^ on top of version, it tells/dictates the page that atleast this version or greater than this version, we will stabilize this and keep most recent version here. so that in future if we migrate the code, there should be rights dependencies installed. If you hover on top of each setting it will tell you what is the current version available. You can leave the settings as it is if you want for always upgrading to latest ones.
• Next, remove node module folder to re install the dependencies files, open cmder and run this command to do it:-
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  rm -rf node_modules

• After this is done, we will reinstall dependencies by using   npm install command:-
  
  
• 
  
• Npm_modules will get back and all appropiate versions of the file gets installed.
• Now lets modify the port to run you application on angular-cli.json file, under scripts --start, write
  
  

  ng serve --port 1200

• /This will run when we type npm start in command line and browse the location on 1200 port instead of default 4200 port. I do this just to control on which port i want to run my application:-
  
  
• type npm start  in CMDER as shown above it will start your application, browse https://localhost:1200, it will open your Angular Application, like this:-
  
  
  

 How to add external packages to the project?

Now lets see how to add other packages to your Angular Project, we will add twitter bootstrap and as it has jQuery Dependency we will add jquery too.

Too add Bootstrap, go to CMDER and run this command:-

npm install Bootstrap

• It will install all dependency files of bootstrap to npm_modules folder and as well add a refference in Package.json file.
• Next add jQuery as bootstrap has dependency on it:-

npm install jQuery

And as recent bootstrap has dependency to Popper then install Popper.JS too as shown above.

• If you would like to install specific version of bootstrap and jquery then go to package.js folder and mention the specific version and then clear node_modules and npm install like we did earlier to get specific version of jquery and bootstrap.
• Next to use bootstrap and jquery in our current project we have to modify angular-cli.json file.

As shown in image above, go to Styles section an in the array include the location of bootstrap css file :- "../node_modules/boostrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"

And to Scripts section in the value array put the Jquery file's path first and then the bootstrap's file's path. which is :-

jQuery :- "../node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"

bootstrap:- "../node_modules/boostrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"

These paths are in respect of index.html files as eventually on that file root module and components will get registers.

and if you do npm start in CMDER, you will see the bootstrap properties in action, just modify html file a little bit like add a container and row div.

Generate a new component using Angular CLI.

Its very easy to generate html template, component ts file and testing files using angular CLI, not only that it automatically registers the new component on the module. to do it you have to just type a simple command in your Command line editor:-

• We will create component for nav-bar at top of the page. For that just use this command to generate the component:-

ng generate component nav-bar

CLI will perform five steps first it will create html template for componenet, next the test file spec.ts, then the component itself and then the css file and finally update the main module to register component it has creeated, you can see these changes in your folder structure:-

You will see it has generated a new folder with the component name and respective files are automatically added to it.

CLI generally dictates this as best practice to create each component and its respective files under a single folder, you can nest multiple components under one component, and have them communicate with each other, thats not part of this blog though.

Lets delete the spec.ts file as its not needed as of now, i am not doing testing of anything, and just copy the code of Nav Bar from bootrstrap sample to the html template. And then add the on top of major app.component template to load the newly created nav component as shown here:-

Thats it, you should see nav bar added on your main page Will share more magic we can do with angular cli further in my blogs, please keep following.

Connecting Visual Studio Code with your team project on VSTS using Git as version control

Who does not love Visual Studio code, everyone does. Its not just an editor emmet, source control integration, keyboard shortcusts, json based packages, thousands of benefits. It took me time to learn how to connect it to VSTS with git, so blogging about it.

Got to VSTS create your team project if a new one you are creating or use an existing one, also make sure to create a security token, here are the steps

Create VSTS project and security token

• Go to visual studio online:- https://www.visualstudio.com/vso/, login with your credentials.

• Click New Team Project or just click an existing project, i have used Git and Scrum as VC and Work Item process.

• Once its created, open the project and copy the HTTPS endpoint, for cloning.
• Dont forget to create a read me and gitignore file.
• Next lets create a security token to authenticate the repository from external tools like VS code.

• For creating the token go to your profile and click security in the drop down :-

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  Next click ADD and create a new token:-
  

• As it says please save your token from somewhere where you can reuse it as it appearonce at this interface, so i have copied it on a notepad and saved it on my desktop:-

Add a repository using bash

• Next if you dont have GtBash(GIT) installed on your system, then i will request you to please install it from this location: https://git-scm.com/downloads
  

• Once installed open Gitbash and open the folder location where you will keep your repository by using this cd d:\{yourlocation}, as shown here:-
  
  
  
  
  

• Now clone your repository by using this command as shown here:-

$git clone {url}

• you an either provide your credentials in the window pop up appeared or cancel it enter manual as shown here:-
  

• User Name is your email address and password is the token we copied, it will clone the repository like this:-
  

Connect to repository in VSCode

• Next Open VScode and open your folder just cloned now.
  
  
• 
  

• Install the VSTS extensions if not installed allready:

• Next, lets connect to the Team services, open the command pallete by pressing c+shift+p in VSCode as shown here :-

• Select Team:signin command and select first option to provide a token manually:-

• Paste your token that we copied on the notepad earlier:-
• Press and enter the you will notice that you are connected to VSTS :-

• Next add a new file and you will notice VS Code will tell that you have one pending change:-

• Enter the comment and press ctrl+Enter, it will ask to stage the code before commit, press ok.
  

• Your changes are committed to your local repository, now to move it to your master branch. Press sync button on below left corner:-

• At times it may ask multiple times to enter your credentials, please add and proceed.

• Go to VSTS site now and you can see index.html file is added to your master repository:-

You have made it, VSCode is now connected to VSTS and Git is your version control.

Posting updates to SharePoint Online via PowerShell and Rest API

In my previous blog office 365 powershell and restApi i demonstrated how to read/get data from SharePoint online site, here in this example we will Post updates.

Here are the important things to consider when posting updates to office 365:-

1. We have to pass  X-RequestDigest value for the form digest HTTP header.
2. If updating Lists/Document Library and items/documents to avoid concurrency conflicts we need to specify additional HTTP header with the name "IF-MATCH", which takes a value of Etag. Etag can be retrieved by retrieving the target entity(list or list item) with a GET method. This is included in the response HTTP headers and in the response content. In situations where we dont care about concurrency its ok to pass "*" as value.

I will use the PnPOnline msi PowerShell module to connect to Office 365 developer tenant of mine. Kindly read the office 365 powershell and restApi to understand how to use it and load the module.

Lets talk about the script here.

• First we will Import the PowerShell module.

Import-Module "Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell"

• Next create a global webSession variable, we will add headers to this session via different functions as our code progresses.

#create webRequest session global Object
$Global:webSession = New-Object Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WebRequestSession

• Lets create a function where we will pass the url of the SharePoint online site as a param and then will connect to it using Connect-PnPOnline function of PnP SharePoint Online Powershell:-

function Init-PnPSecuritySession{
param($targetSite)
$targetSiteUri = [System.Uri]$targetSite
#connect to the Sharepoint online site 
Connect-PnPOnline $targetSite
$context = (Get-PnPWeb).Context
$credentials = $context.Credentials
$authenticationCookies = $credentials.GetAuthenticationCookie($targetSiteUri, $true);

#set retrieved cookies as header to wenreq
$Global:webSession.Cookies.SetCookies($targetSiteUri,$authenticationCookies)
$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("Accept","application/json;odata=verbose");

}

Will retrieve the Context from PnP web and then grab the credentials and Authentication Cookie.
Next setup the authentication cookie value and include Accept header for content type.


We are using odata=verbose, instead we can use odata = minimalmetadata or odata = nometadata for reducing metadata returned after the rest call.

• Next we will write a function in which we will make a rest call to ContextInfo namespace, retrieve the RequestDigest value and pass it to websession object:-

#function to get RequestDigest Value and set it with Http Header
function Init-PnPDigestValue{
param ($targetSite)

$contextInfoUrl = $targetSite + "_api/ContextInfo"

$webRequest = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $contextInfoUrl

-Method Post -WebSession $Global:webSession

$jsonContextInfo = $webRequest.Content | ConvertFrom-Json
$digestValue = $jsonContextInfo.d.GetContextWebInformation.FormDigestValue
$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("X-RequestDigest",$digestValue)
}

• Now lets add additional HTTP Headers, as its an Update we will user X-HTTP-Method "MERGE" or You can use "PATCH"  along with Post so that any writable property that is not specified in the content Metadata we are passing, will retain its current value.

$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("X-HTTP-Method","MERGE")
$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("IF-MATCH", "*")#optional
$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("content-type","application/json;odata=verbose")

We are keeping If-Match to *, this is optional and one can ignore it in this case. Its important to mention content-type.

• Now lets declare the content, we will use stringified JSON object to update Title of the Web here. so it should be like this:-

$newContent = "{ '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.Web' }, 'Title': 'PHLY CITY Site' }";
$Global:webSession.Headers.Add("content-length",$newContent.Length)

Our Object is SPweb and the property we are modifying is Title. so newContent is set accordingly and also an additional Header parameter is added to provide the content-length.

Now lets provide our url for sharepoint site and call the functions and then finally Invoke the web request:-

$targetSite = "https://phly.sharepoint.com/sites/phly/"
Init-PnPSecuritySession -targetSite $targetSite
Init-PnPDigestValue -targetSite $targetSite
$restCallUrl = $targetSite + "_api/web"

#Invoking the web request with websession and POST method.
$webRequest = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $restCallUrl -Body $newContent  
-Method Post -WebSession $Global:webSession 

Save the entire script and execute it, it will ask you credentials to login to office 365 site and then will invoke the web request. you should be able to see the updated result on the site:-