Appendix B — Local Node development

Important

These configurations are needed to run Node-based development environments on a personal computer. This is an option that comes up about half-way through the semester, though we are mostly using Github Codespaces instead.

Here I preserve the steps in case an ambitious student wants to try it.

B.1 Installing Node

Node is a Javascript runtime environment we will use to build news applications. Installation is different for Mac vs Windows.

We need to make sure you have xcode tools first.

B.1.0.1 Checking xcode

  1. Run this in your Terminal:

    xcode-select -p

You should get a path in return. Something like “/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools”.

If you don’t AND ONLY IF YOU DON’T, you need to install it.

B.1.0.2 Installing xcode-select (only if needed)

  1. In your Terminal run this:

    xcode-select --install

  2. A software update popup window will appear that asks: “The xcode-select command requires the command line developer tools. Would you like to install the tools now?” choose to confirm this by clicking Install, then agree to the Terms of Service when requested (feel free to read them thoroughly, we’ll be here).

It can take a long while to download and install. If you get an error on this install, let me know as I have a copy I can give you.

B.1.0.3 NVM

We will use NVM to install Node.js. Again, follow the prompts and you should be fine.

  1. Go to this page and copy the first code chunk that starts with curl.
  2. Paste that into your Terminal and run it.
  3. After it is done, quit Terminal and relaunch it.
  4. Test: After relaunching a terminal do nvm list to make sure you don’t get an error.

B.1.0.4 Node

Use NVM to install Node.

  1. Install the long-term support of Node:

    nvm install --lts

  2. Test: Do node -v to make sure it worked. It should give you back a version, like “v18.18.0”.

Microsoft recommends using nvm-windows to install node, so let’s go with that.

  1. Follow these directions to install nvm-windows BUT READ THE NEXT STEPS FIRST.

    • When they say Launch Powershell, you should use Git Bash instead.

    • When it gets to installing Node.js DON’T DO nvm install latest. Instead, use this command:

      nvm install --lts

  2. To make sure it worked, in Git Bash do:

    node --version
    • You should get a response that says you are using a version, like v18.18.0.

B.1.1 Update npm

NPM is a package repository. We need to update it.

  1. To update npm, run this:

    npm install -g npm

  2. Test: Do npm -v and it should return with a version number.

B.2 ICJ project setup

There are some additional global npm tools that we need to install for our tour of NodeJS-based build tools.

  1. Run this:

    npm install -g gulp degit

These are for the task manager Gulp and a scaffolding tool Degit.

B.3 Google Cloud services

There is one more setup necessary to connect the icj-project-rig to Google Sheets and Docs, but there are multiple ways to go about it.

B.3.1 Google CLI

You can follow the Google CLI steps, which will save a JSON credential key to your computer and allow for local development. Those directions also show how you can add the key to Github for Codespaces.

B.3.2 Web credentials

OR, AND THIS IS ACTUALLY UNTESTED …

You can go through Setup Part 2 which goes through using web interfaces to set up credentials. Once that process is done, you have an additional setup to intall your credential in you bash profile:

  1. Take the JSON file that was downloaded (something like icj-project-rig-8caa102dfbf6.json) and rename it to exactly this: service_account_key.json. Leave it in your Downloads folder for now.

  2. With the next command, we’ll create a hidden folder and then copy the .json file into it. These are two different commands:

    mkdir ~/.config/icj
cp ~/Downloads/service_account_key.json ~/.config/icj/service_account_key.json

    We’ve left a copy of the file in Downloads just for safety. Once everything works, you should be able to remove it.

  3. Now we need to add the path to that file to your .bash_profile, which we’ll do with the following command:

    echo 'export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="$HOME/.config/icj/service_account_key.json"' >>~/.bash_profile

You should then test if it is working by going into a project that uses the icj-project-rig, launching a new Terminal and running gulp fetch. That should download the libary and bookstores files.