— Getting Started —

Preamble

It is expected when following these guides that you have a basic knowledge of unix terminals and are running OSX or a Linux operating system.

It is also expected that you have a working knowledge of javascript and node.js and are comfortable installing packages from npm. You should also be comfortable working with git.

This documentation is written with the assumption that you are using the latest versions of hof modules. Not all of this documentation will be relevant if you are not using the latest versions.

Requirements

hof is built in node.js, and so you'll need that installed first. At present all versions 4 and above are supported, although it is recommended that you use the latest LTS version.

hof also requires npm version 3 or greater. You can check your installed version by running npm -v and update to the latest version by running npm install -g npm@latest.

To run hof apps locally for development you will either need a local instance of redis running, or docker installed.

Building your first hof form

The fastest way to create a new hof app is to use the hof command line generator. This will automatically create a bare-bones hof form in a directory of your choice.

Installing the hof cli

Install the cli from npm:

npm install -g hof-generator

Creating your first form

mkdir my-hof-form
cd my-hof-form
hof init

This will generate a brand new hof app in the directory you created.

You can then start your app by running docker-compose up or npm start (needs local redis instance).

If you open http://localhost:8080/my-hof-form in a browser then you should see your app. It should look something like this: