Angular Router example Best way to upgrade to include .angular-cli.json and bypass Cannot read property 'config' of null

Question

I tried downloading the Routing and Navigation example from this page

Here's the link to the specific zip.

I run the following sequence of commands:

npm install
npm install --save-dev @angular/cli@latest
ng -v
ng serve -o

From what I can make out Cannot read property 'config' of null is somehow related to a bad version of the CLI. But if I create a new project I can start it successfully with my existing setup

ng new router
cd router
npm install
ng serve -o

Old directory structure (from zip download) includes these files:

bs-config.json
e2e-spec.ts

New directory structure (from ng new):

.angular-cli.json
e2e is a folder with files inside
karma.conf.js
protractor.conf.js
tsconfig.json

Is there some sort of ng upgrade command to convert a project?
There was some talk on Git about ng init, but that seems to now be a thing of the past.
I believe most of the files are related to end to end testing.

    npm install
    npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: Please update to minimatch 3.0.2 or higher to avoid a RegExp DoS issue
    npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: Use uuid module instead

    > [email protected] install /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt
    > node install.js

    PhantomJS not found on PATH
    Download already available at /var/folders/xz/sgpc803n1ms6xpc5n571ytc80000gn/T/phantomjs/phantomjs-2.1.1-macosx.zip
    Verified checksum of previously downloaded file
    Extracting zip contents
    Removing /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom
    Copying extracted folder /var/folders/xz/sgpc803n1ms6xpc5n571ytc80000gn/T/phantomjs/phantomjs-2.1.1-macosx.zip-extract-1498561599287/phantomjs-2.1.1-macosx -> /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom
    Writing location.js file
    Done. Phantomjs binary available at /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/phantomjs-prebuilt/lib/phantom/bin/phantomjs

    > [email protected] install /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/fsevents
    > node install

    [fsevents] Success: "/opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/fsevents/lib/binding/Release/node-v57-darwin-x64/fse.node" already installed
    Pass --update-binary to reinstall or --build-from-source to recompile
    npm notice created a lockfile as package-lock.json. You should commit this file.
    added 767 packages in 20.239s


    ng serve -o
    Unable to find "@angular/cli" in devDependencies.

    Please take the following steps to avoid issues:
    "npm install --save-dev @angular/cli@latest" 

    You have to be inside an Angular CLI project in order to use the serve command.
    /opt/AngularProjects/router>


    npm install --save-dev @angular/cli@latest
    npm WARN prefer global [email protected] should be installed with -g

    > [email protected] install /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/node-sass
    > node scripts/install.js

    Cached binary found at /Users/jgf/.npm/node-sass/4.5.3/darwin-x64-57_binding.node

    > [email protected] postinstall /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/node-sass
    > node scripts/build.js

    Binary found at /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/node-sass/vendor/darwin-x64-57/binding.node
    Testing binary
    Binary is fine
    + @angular/[email protected]
    added 431 packages in 17.132s

    ==
    ng -v
        _                      _                 ____ _     ___
       / \   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|
      / △ \ | '_ \ / _` | | | | |/ _` | '__|   | |   | |    | |
     / ___ \| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |
    /_/   \_\_| |_|\__, |\__,_|_|\__,_|_|       \____|_____|___|
                   |___/
    @angular/cli: 1.1.3
    node: 8.1.2
    os: darwin x64
    @angular/animations: 4.2.4
    @angular/common: 4.2.4
    @angular/compiler: 4.2.4
    @angular/compiler-cli: 4.2.4
    @angular/core: 4.2.4
    @angular/forms: 4.2.4
    @angular/http: 4.2.4
    @angular/platform-browser: 4.2.4
    @angular/platform-browser-dynamic: 4.2.4
    @angular/platform-server: 4.2.4
    @angular/router: 4.2.4
    @angular/tsc-wrapped: 4.2.4
    @angular/upgrade: 4.2.4
    @angular/cli: 1.1.3


    ng serve -o
    Cannot read property 'config' of null
    TypeError: Cannot read property 'config' of null
        at Class.run (/opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.js:22:63)
        at check_port_1.checkPort.then.port (/opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/@angular/cli/commands/serve.js:110:26)
        at 
        at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:169:7)

In relation to the error in:
/opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.js
we have:

const config_1 = require("../models/config");
...
const projectConfig = config_1.CliConfig.fromProject().config;

I suspect this pertains to a missing .angular-cli.json file. /opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/@angular/cli/models/config.d.ts
and
/opt/AngularProjects/router/node_modules/@angular/cli/models/config.js
refer to it.

Brocco Brocco · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-27T13:44:03

That project (the one in the zip file) is not setup as a CLI-based project. But after opening it up, you can get it running by doing the following:

npm install
npm run start

This will open your default browser to http://localhost:3000/ where the app will be running.

NOTE: you'll also want to undo any changes you've made (or unzip again)

Angular Router example Best way to upgrade to include .angular-cli.json and bypass Cannot read property 'config' of null

2 Answers