How to integrate foundation for apps into an existing Express framework - node.js

Question

OK, I'm fairly new to all this front end programming and I hope my question is not silly.
I have an existing app made with an express.js framework with a custom gulp config and ejs. Now, I want to integrate the all new shiny Foundation for Apps into it.
On the Zurb website, the manual install is only a one-liner through bower or npm (http://foundation.zurb.com/apps/docs/index.html#!/installation)
bower install foundation-apps --save
npm install foundation-apps --save
So that's what I did, but the Foundation formatting is not happening at all.
I tried to include the CDN reference lines (css and js) too, but the same is happening.
When I proceed to create an app with the "normal" installation, everything is working great. But I want to use the Express framework and this is not the case here!
I am missing something but I don't see what.
package.json
{
"name": "2004app",
"version": "0.0.0",
"private": true,
"scripts": {
"start": "node ./bin/www"
},
"dependencies": {
"apache-server-configs": "^2.7.1",
"body-parser": "~1.12.0",
"browser-sync": "^1.3.0",
"cookie-parser": "~1.3.4",
"debug": "~2.1.1",
"del": "^1.1.0",
"ejs": "~2.3.1",
"express": "~4.12.2",
"foundation-apps": "^1.1.0",
"gulp": "^3.8.11",
"gulp-autoprefixer": "^2.0.0",
"gulp-cache": "0.2.2",
"gulp-changed": "^1.0.0",
"gulp-concat": "2.5.2",
"gulp-csso": "^1.0.0",
"gulp-flatten": "0.0.4",
"gulp-if": "^1.2.1",
"gulp-imagemin": "^2.0.0",
"gulp-jshint": "^1.6.3",
"gulp-load-plugins": "^0.8.0",
"gulp-minify-html": "0.1.5",
"gulp-nodemon": "^2.0.2",
"gulp-rename": "1.2.2",
"gulp-replace": "^0.5.0",
"gulp-sass": "^1.2.0",
"gulp-size": "^1.0.0",
"gulp-sourcemaps": "^1.3.0",
"gulp-uglify": "^1.0.1",
"gulp-uncss": "^1.0.0",
"gulp-useref": "^1.0.1",
"jshint-stylish": "^1.0.0",
"morgan": "~1.5.1",
"opn": "^1.0.0",
"psi": "^1.0.4",
"require-dir": "^0.1.0",
"run-sequence": "^1.0.1",
"serve-favicon": "~2.2.0"
}
}
For example, the following code is not rendering like it should. It only shows a line with 3 times "Content goes here", instead of this : http://foundation.zurb.com/apps/docs/#!/accordion
<zf-accordion>
<zf-accordion-item title="Input your title here">
Content goes here
</zf-accordion-item>
<zf-accordion-item title="Input your title here">
Content goes here
</zf-accordion-item>
<zf-accordion-item title="Input your title here">
Content goes here
</zf-accordion-item>
</zf-accordion>
Is what I am trying to do possible ?
How can I use the CDN references ? (I successfully put CDN references for bootstrap in another app)
Thanks!

Answer 1

It is possible!
Though it has quite a few moving pieces that you should understand.
I recently did the same thing, but depending on the size of your app's frontend it may take some time to understand everything that is going on. It's not as simple as just including a library.
You mention express app, is it an Angular app? First thing if your not familiar with Angular I would read about it and specifically 'Modules' as in the end that is all Foundation Apps is.
https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/module
You will need to create your angular module and have Foundation as dependency.
Also it is good to realize that the way that foundation for apps is packaged its meant to be compiled in its own weird sort of way. So basically whenever you make changes your re-compiling your front end html/logic/css.
Make sure your express app is serving up the Single Page Application which is Foundation Apps. Be sure to watch your web development console to see if your getting any strange Angular errors. If you are you can typically click on them and get help from the angular site.
Also the Foundation Apps gulp task is unique in it has its own little plugin to create the routing based off the templates. See the following link:
http://foundation.zurb.com/apps/docs/#!/angular
If your just getting into Front End Frameworks I would suggest going through a few basic Angular tutorials before tackling a angular app such as Foundation Apps.
Once familiar with Angular look at exactly what the Gulp build is doing (gulpfile.js). It takes care of the following:
Copies static resources
Its running SASS and compiling styling
Copies Foundation for Apps Javascript
Copies the templates and builds the routes (the route building is a little hidden
Once you understand what the Gulpfile.js is doing you should start to piece together how the front end is built.
I reworked it using Grunt, but ended up switching back to gulp because of their template job (ngHtml2js)
Don't giveup, be persistent and it will slowly make sense!

Answer 2

I'm working on the same task you mentioned up there, an existing MEAN application, that I developed with ejs front end template, and a front-end that I developed with the foundation-apps tools, the front-end has everything I need for my MEAN back-end, now for merging all of this together into a single node app.
UI is developed independently using foundation for app build tools such as gulp, considering my UI is developed with all the zurb foundation html parts are included to represent all the required functions served by my MEAN app. So after the build with foundation-apps the resulting build folder contains basic assets without any SASS or the need for foundation-apps to be in the package.json dependencies, since the foundation.js file is in the assets folder for the front-end, and sass is already built into app.css
I dont see how it's possible to have two single page web apps running on the same node server, in case I try separating the two different app configurations, angular dependency injection, routes, index files separated etc..
The challenge is wrapping up a single page web app with all dependencies, while maintaining how the foundation UI manages it's routing, as it is quite different from how express manages routing, it happens using different libraries.