Problems creating Yeoman generator

Question

I've tried two different approaches to creating a Yeoman generator, and both are failing. Here's where I'm currently at, but first with a couple of notes:

• yo doctor passes all tests
• I have fixed npm's permissions by changing the default install path, as detailed here.

Attempt 1: I installed the generator-generator module with no errors, but executing yo generator results in the following error:

module.js:328
throw err;
^

Error: Cannot find module 'download'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:326:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:277:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:354:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/generator-generator/node_modules/yeoman-generator/lib/actions/fetch.js:3:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:398:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:405:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:344:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:301:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:354:17)

I took a guess and ran npm install -g download, but that didn't fix anything.

Attempt 2 I followed the steps outlined on Yeoman's Authoring page, but even after npm link resulted in a valid path to my new generator, yo boilerplate just resulted in a generator not installed error. The generator file structure is as follows:

generator-boilerplate
   app
      index.js
   .yo-rc.json
   package.json

The contents of package.json are:

{
  "name": "generator-boilerplate",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "A Yeoman generator for a standard front-end project",
  "files": [
    "app"
  ],
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [
    "yeoman-generator",
    "boilerplate"
  ],
  "author": "<my name>",
  "license": "UNLICENSED",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "yeoman-generator": "^0.22.3"
  }
}

The contents of app/index.js are (just to get something to work):

'use strict';

var util = require('util');
var path = require('path');
var generators = require('yeoman-generator');
var chalk = require('chalk');

var Boilerplate = generators.Base.extend({
    // The name `constructor` is important here
    constructor: function () {
        // Calling the super constructor is important so our generator is correctly set up
        generators.Base.apply(this, arguments);

        // Next, add your custom code
        this.option('coffee'); // This method adds support for a `--coffee` flag
    },

    promptUser: function() {
        var done = this.async();

        // have Yeoman greet the user
        console.log(this.yeoman);

        var prompts = [{
            name: 'appName',
            message: 'What is your app\'s name ?'
        },{
            type: 'confirm',
            name: 'addDemoSection',
            message: 'Would you like to generate a demo section ?',
            default: true
        }];

        this.prompt(prompts, function (props) {
            this.appName = props.appName;
            this.addDemoSection = props.addDemoSection;

            done();
        }.bind(this));
    }
});

module.exports = Boilerplate;

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Error 1: That's unfortunately an npm error. You should update npm to the latest version, uninstall and reinstall. These errors happened a bunch between npm 2 and 3.

Error 2: Make sure you're on the latest yo. Then you can run DEBUG=* yo boilerplate and that'll give you more insight as to where Yeoman is searching to register generators and maybe why it is not finding your linked local generator.