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Intro

The Spec-Up-T installer repository​

The Spec-Up-T Installer repository installs a set of files somewhere on a file system.

  • That can be on your local file system, which you later create a GitHub repository from so that others can use your repository as an external source for their glossary. However, you don't have to make a repository of it; without it, you will also get a working glossary.
  • You can also start from GitHub and create a repository through this web interface with the files included in the Starterpack (this option is in development).

The Spec-Up-T Installer repository has a subdirectory named spec-up-t-boilerplate. This subdirectory is a working Spec-Up-T install. The scripts in the root copy this subdirectory to your chosen location on your file system via an NPX command (or you do this via GitHub's web interface, but this is under development, as mentioned above).

Note: You can also copy spec-up-t-boilerplate/ manually and then call npm install. That has the same result.

When you run this NPX command, this subdirectory is copied to your local file system, and then, when that is done, npm install is called. This installs the packages as defined in the co-copied package.json, which is also in the mentioned subdirectory. The package.json in the root of the repository serves to copy the subdirectory to your local file system, via create-spec-up-t-starterpack.js.

info

The relevant files + a directory in the Spec-Up-T installer repository:

spec-up-t-boilerplate/
create-spec-up-t-starterpack.js
messages.js
package.json

This directory contains a working Spec-Up-T:

spec-up-t-boilerplate/

These files …

create-spec-up-t-starterpack.js
messages.js
package.json

… copy the spec-up-t-boilerplate/ directory to your desired location via NPX.

The Spec-Up-T repository​

One of the packages listed in the package.json copied to the local file system is spec-up-t. This package does all the work from the node_modules directory created when you run npm install. The copied files in the subdirectory have a helper function.

In the package.json you will find a scripts section. These reference the spec-up-t package, which can be called via npm commands, such as npm run render.

Adding server-side functionality​

The Node.js scripts that run server-side are in the root of the Spec-Up-T repo and the /src/ directory.

If you have a Spec-Up-T installation (via npx create-spec-up-t), how can you run and test server-side Node.js code locally without publishing it on npm first?

  • Clone the Spec-Up-T repo
  • Install a Spec-Up-T via the installer

Generally, if you now run npm run render, it will call the scripts from the Spec-Up-T inside node_modules .

Scripts section​

In the scripts section of the package.json file for your Spec-Up-T installation, you will find commands like render in the scripts section:

ToDo: add file list

These are calls to the Spec-Up-T library in node_modules.

However, we want to test locally. To do this, we will call the scripts from your local Spec-Up-T clone, where you are developing.

Type this into your terminal:

warning

It is only tested on macOS.

To render the index.html file, run this in your terminal:

node -e "require('/Users/***/path/to/your/spec-up-t/index.js')({ nowatch: true })"

You will notice that this is the same as the value of the render key without the escape characters.

Adjust the other entries if you want to run them.