diff --git a/declarations.d.ts b/declarations.d.ts
index 2b3b74e1..ed94ee5b 100644
--- a/declarations.d.ts
+++ b/declarations.d.ts
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ interface ISpawnFromEventOptions {
 interface IProjectHelper {
 	projectDir: string;
 	generateDefaultAppId(appName: string, baseAppId: string): string;
+	sanitizeName(appName: string): string;
 }
 
 interface IPropertiesParser {
diff --git a/project-helper.ts b/project-helper.ts
index 6694ba92..f551bd3b 100644
--- a/project-helper.ts
+++ b/project-helper.ts
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ export class ProjectHelper implements IProjectHelper {
 	}
 
 	public generateDefaultAppId(appName: string, baseAppId: string): string {
-		var sanitizedName = _.filter(appName.split(""), (c) => /[a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(c)).join("");
+		var sanitizedName = this.sanitizeName(appName);
 		if (sanitizedName) {
 			if (/^\d+$/.test(sanitizedName)) {
 				sanitizedName = "the" + sanitizedName;
@@ -50,5 +50,10 @@ export class ProjectHelper implements IProjectHelper {
 
 		return util.format("%s.%s", baseAppId, sanitizedName);
 	}
+
+	public sanitizeName(appName: string): string {
+		var sanitizedName = _.filter(appName.split(""), (c) => /[a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(c)).join("");
+		return sanitizedName;
+	}
 }
 $injector.register("projectHelper", ProjectHelper);