Vulcan Starter

This kit gives you all you need to quickly learn Vulcan and launch your own projects.

Other resources:

• Vulcan Docs
• Vulcan Slack

Table of Contents

• Quick Install
  • Step 1 - Clone
  • Step 2 – Run
• Getting Started Tutorial
• Other Examples
• Complete Install
  • Critical prerequisite
  • Step 1 - Preparation
  • Step 2 - Test Vulcan installation
  • Step 3 - Prepare your project
  • Step 4 - Test your project installation

Quick Install

If you already have Meteor up and running, read this section. Otherwise, read the Complete Install section.

Step 1 - Clone

git clone git@github.com:VulcanJS/Vulcan-Starter.git
cd Vulcan-Starter

(or, using https: git clone https://github.com/VulcanJS/Vulcan-Starter.git)

Step 2 – Run

npm install
npm start

Getting Started Tutorial

When you first run this repo, you'll see the first step of Vulcan's interactive Getting Started tutorial.

This interactive tutorial will guide you through Vulcan basics, such as:

• Creating routes.
• Registering components.
• Defining a schema.
• Loading data.
• Generating forms.

All while modifying the code of the tutorial itself! How meta!

Other Examples

Additionally, this repo also contains the following example apps:

• Simple Example: build a simple paginated list of movies [video].
• Movies Example: like the Simple example, but more in-depth [video+tutorial].
• Permissions Example: manage user roles in Vulcan [video].
• Instagram Example: create a simple Instagram clone [video].
• Interfaces Example: using GraphQL interfaces.
• Reactions Example: implement Facebook-style reactions & voting.
• Forum Example: a full-fledged Hacker News-style forum codebase [docs].
• Customization Example: how to customize other Vulcan packages, based on the Forum Example [video+tutorial].

Complete Install

The Complete Install steps will get you going on a freshly built Ubuntu desktop machine (including installing Node, Meteor, etc.) using the "two-repo" install.

The steps below assume a machine that has not previously been used for software development.

They were tested Oct 15/2017, on an 8Gb Qemu/KVM virtual machine running a freshly installed Xubuntu Desktop 16.04 LTS. Expect other environments to behave differently but, sufficiently similar that, adaptation should not be difficult.

Critical prerequisite

Note that, to use the scripts below, you must already have SSH access to GitHub. You'll need that in any case for properly managing version control of your project. Learn more at GiHub Bootcamp : Connecting to GitHub with SSH

Step 1 - Preparation

# Specify where things should go
export NEW_PROJECT_NAME="myVulcan";                # a name for your new project
export PROJECTS_DIRECTORY="${HOME}/projects";      # the installation path for your new project
export VULCAN_HOME="${PROJECTS_DIRECTORY}/Vulcan"; # the path to the root of your Vulcan installation

# Prepare dependencies
sudo apt install -y git curl build-essential;
# Need git for managing your project's source code.
# Need curl to get the other stuff.
# Need C++ build tools for fast bcrypt installation

# Install 'meteor'
curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh;

# Sanity check your Meteor installation
echo -e "\nMeteor version...";
meteor --version;
export METEOR_NODE_VERSION=$(meteor node --version);
echo -e "Meteor Node version...\n ${METEOR_NODE_VERSION}";

# Install 'nvm', so as to be able to easily switch NodeJs versions
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.5/install.sh | bash;

# Prepare to use 'nvm' immediately
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

# Set Meteor version of Node as your default for NodeJS work outside of Meteor
nvm install ${METEOR_NODE_VERSION};
nvm alias default ${METEOR_NODE_VERSION};

# Create a projects folder and step into it
mkdir -p ${PROJECTS_DIRECTORY}
cd ${PROJECTS_DIRECTORY}

# Clone Vulcan core into its own folder and step into it
git clone git@github.com:VulcanJS/Vulcan.git

# install and pre-cache all of Vulcan's NodeJS dependencies
cd ${VULCAN_HOME};
meteor npm install;

Step 2 - Test Vulcan installation

Check it works with a browser at http://localhost:3033 then kill it with <ctrl-c>

# Run Vulcan so it pre-caches all its Meteor dependencies
[ -f settings.json ] || cp sample_settings.json settings.json;
meteor  --port 3033 --settings settings.json;

Step 3 - Prepare your project

cd ${PROJECTS_DIRECTORY};

# Clone Vulcan starter kit as your named project
git clone git@github.com:VulcanJS/Vulcan-Starter.git ${NEW_PROJECT_NAME}

# Step in your project folder
cd ${NEW_PROJECT_NAME};

# Make sure your app uses the same Meteor release as Vulcan
cp ${VULCAN_HOME}/.meteor/release ./.meteor;

# install and pre-cache all of your named app's NodeJS dependencies
# meteor npm install --save cross-fetch;
meteor npm install;

# Tell Meteor to refer to the Vulcan sister folder for packages that Vulcan supplies
export METEOR_PACKAGE_DIRS=../Vulcan/packages;
echo "Vulcan's Meteor packages folder : ${METEOR_PACKAGE_DIRS}.";

Step 4 - Test your project installation

Check it works with a browser at http://localhost:3000 then kill it with <ctrl-c>

# Run your Vulcan project
[ -f settings.json ] || cp sample_settings.json settings.json;
meteor --port 3000 --settings settings.json