LDX web utilities

This repo is for reusable components and utlity methods, which need to be shared across projects. Note: this is not an open source project, and is intended for use in applicaitons internally at a specific company. If you do not work at said company, this code is probably of little use to you.

Initial setup

This document will serve as a basic guide to getting started with the ldx-web-utilities project

1. Install Node Version Manager (nvm) if you don't already have Node installed

Run the nvm install script using the following command in your terminal: curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.1/install.sh | bash

2. Install Node versions

Once the nvm install script is completed, you can now install various versions of Node. Start by installing Node v6.9 by running nvm install 6.9.

Nvm will allow you to hot-switch between Node versions when required, using the nvm use command. If you have previously installed Node by other means (such as Homebrew), you may need to uninstall that implementation before installing it with nvm.

3. Install repo dependencies

Install the repo's dependencies using npm install. Note: you may need to install additional dependencies globally using the -g flag, e.g.: npm install gulp -g

4. Start development environment

Use the npm start command to get the development environment running. This will compile changes to js in the /dist folder, as well as run tests after each change. Note that when the code is used as a dependency, only the js is required, so if coffee-script changes are not compiled, they will not be usable in production. SO DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

Note: changes are not compiled on startup, so if you forget this step, make a change, then start the dev environment, you must make anohter change to a compilation to take place.

5. Tests, tests, tests

Please ensure that any additions or changes are covered in tests. PRs will not be merged with broken tests or new functionality that is untested.

Documentation

The widgets in this repository have generated API docs used for props documentation.

Re-generating docs

If you have made changes to a component's documentation, and wish to re-generate the doc files, run the following command: npm run docs.

Auto-copying compiled Javascript to your project's node_modules

The default behavior when running npm start includes auto-copying of compiled source files to a specified application. After changes are made to the source .coffee files, the dist folder is automatically copied to replace the same folder inside your local project's node_modules directory.

The purpose of this is to make it easier to develop this library while providing means for an implementation and/or staging environment for the widgets.

paths.json

In order for this feature to work properly, you must create a paths.json file in the root of this repo. This file is local to your installation, and is ignored by .gitignore. This file should contain an array of absolute folder paths to places you want to copy the compiled output:

[
  {
    "PATH": "/Users/andyparisi/Documents/myProjectRoot"
  }
]

Note: If this directory is incorrect or not writeable, you will receive an error when trying to run npm start.

Running the compiler without auto-copying

If you have issues with the auto-copying feature or do not want to automatically replace your project files as you work, you can disable this feature. Instead, start the process using the Gulp task directly:

gulp test --alone