Installation

The recommended method of installation is using Docker as explained below. Otherwise, native installation instructions are also available.

Docker

NetsBlox requires access to MongoDB and a file system (for blob storage). MongoDB can be started using Docker:

docker run -d -p 27017:27017 -v /abs/path/to/data:/data/db mongo

where /abs/path/to/data is a path on the host machine where the project content and media will be stored.

NetsBlox can then be started with:

docker run -it -p 8080:8080 -e MONGO_URI='mongodb://172.17.0.1:27017/netsblox' -v /path/to/directory/for/media:/blob-data netsblox/server

where /path/to/directory/for/media is the directory on the host machine to store the project content and media.

In order to enable specific RPCs which use external APIs, you may have to set environment variables using the -e flag (like -e GOOGLE_MAPS_KEY=myGoogleMapsKey) or pass in a list of environment variables through a file using --env-file. The list of all the environment variables are explained in Configuring Services.

Note that addressing directories and files in windows is different from linux. For example the directory divider is \ as opposed to /.

Next, just navigate to localhost:8080 in a web browser to try it out!

Development with Docker

Setup and start MongoDB as described in the last step.

Pull in and create a container running the base image for NetsBlox:

docker run -it -p 8080:8080 -e MONGO_URI='mongodb://172.17.0.1:27017/netsblox' -v my/netsblox/dir/path:/netsblox --name nb-base netsblox/base /bin/bash

Helpful commands:

• start stop the container: docker start nb-base docker stop nb-base

• attach to the container to run commands: docker attach nb-base and detach by sending EOF: Ctrl+d

Finally attach to the instance and follow native installation. You can run the server in dev mode using ENV=dev npm run dev

Access and edit the source files at the address you specified in the beginning my/netsblox/dir/path.

Native

Before installing, NetsBlox requires nodejs (>= 8) and a MongoDB database. By default, NetsBlox will expect MongoDB to be running locally (this can be changed by setting the MONGO_URI environment variable).

Server protocol can also be set through SERVER_PROTOCOL environment variable. Host should be set using HOST=.mydomain.com.

First clone the repository and install the dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/NetsBlox/NetsBlox.git --recursive
cd NetsBlox
npm install

Finally, start the server with npm start and navigate to localhost:8080 in a web browser to try it out!