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01-init.md

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Let's initialize our LoopBack application

🎦 You can view a video walkthrough of this step here: Initializing a LoopBack application

🖥 To see the code for this step, here is commit/diff.

We can initialize a LoopBack application in our terminal by typing lb or lb app and this will invoke the generator. The generator will go through a series of prompts to scaffold our LoopBack application. Let's get started.

What's the name of your application?

➜  workshop-band-app git:(master) lb
? What's the name of your application? (workshop-band-app)

The first step is to name our application. Let's call it: band-app.

Enter name of the directory to contain the project:

? Enter name of the directory to contain the project: (band-app)

In this step, we are simply choosing the name of the directory that we are going to build out the application into. By default, it assumes we would like to create a new directory with the same name as the application that we have given in the previous step. So let's hit enter and let the generator do its work.

Outputs:

? Enter name of the directory to contain the project: band-app
   create band-app/
     info change the working directory to band-app

Note: If we want to name our directory something else, we can do so in this step. If we had already created a directory with the same name as our application---we are working from that directory---LoopBack will detect this and we could simply hit enter.

Which version of LoopBack would you like to use?

? Which version of LoopBack would you like to use? (Use arrow keys)
  2.x (long term support)
❯ 3.x (current)

We will choose the current version of LoopBack, 3.x.

Note: While LoopBack version 2 is still being supported, version 3 is the current version and in general you should use it for new applications.

What kind of application do you have in mind?

? What kind of application do you have in mind? (Use arrow keys)
❯ api-server (A LoopBack API server with local User auth)
  empty-server (An empty LoopBack API, without any configured models or datasources)
  hello-world (A project containing a controller, including a single vanilla Message and a single remote method)
  notes (A project containing a basic working example, including a memory database)

We are presented with four options as starting points:

  • api-server (A LoopBack API server with local User auth)
  • empty-server (An empty LoopBack API, without any configured models or datasources)
  • hello-world (A project containing a controller, including a single vanilla Message and a single remote method)
  • notes (A project containing a basic working example, including a memory database)

We will choose the default option as it is useful to have a built-in User model to extend from when building our model for our users.

Note: As alluded to above, it is best practice to extend base models such as User rather than using them directly. If we have multiple objects extending from a base model and we modify a base model, there may be adverse effects on all the models extending it.

Pro tip: in the command line, type j or k or ↑ and ↓ to navigate up or down.

Scaffolding application and running npm install

? What's the name of your application? band-app
? Enter name of the directory to contain the project: band-app
   create band-app/
     info change the working directory to band-app

? Which version of LoopBack would you like to use? 3.x (current)
? What kind of application do you have in mind? api-server (A LoopBack API server with local User auth)
Generating .yo-rc.json


I'm all done. Running npm install for you to install the required dependencies. If this fails, try running the command yourself.


   create .editorconfig
   create .eslintignore
   create .eslintrc
   create server/boot/root.js
   create server/middleware.development.json
   create server/middleware.json
   create server/server.js
   create README.md
   create server/boot/authentication.js
   create .gitignore
   create client/README.md

For an explanation of all the files and directories that the tool creates, see Project layout reference in the LoopBack documentation.

At this point, the tool has scaffolded our application. Then it runs npm install to install all of the application's external dependences. This may take a moment, depending on internet connection. Do not be alarmed by the many modules that are installed: to reduce duplication of effort, Node.js has a large ecosystem of many small modules. The Node package manager, npm, handles these modules in a smart and efficient manner.

Once the tool finishes installation of external modules, we will see a listing of these modules in a tree structure.

Handy next steps for our convenience

Next steps:

  Change directory to your app
    $ cd band-app

  Create a model in your app
    $ lb model

  Run the app
    $ node .

At this point, our application is initialized and the terminal outputs some helpful next steps to continue development. Our next step is to jump in and create our first model-driven API endpoint.

Next Step: Create our first model