Cytoscape Web

Development environment

Build dependencies

Install node and npm. The easiest way is to download both from offical website.

Node.js 16.8.0 or later version is required.

After installation, run node -v and npm -v to check.

Build instructions

Run a command using npm <command>. Run npm install before using other commands.

dev: run a dev server that watches code changes, open localhost:5500 in your web browser. By default this app points to [NDEx dev server] (https://dev.ndexbio.org), please create an account on the NDEx dev server with a email that links to your Google account before trying to setup your own dev environment for Cytoscape Web.
build: build the app for production
lint: lint code according to the eslint config
format: format source code according to eslint and prettier configs
test: run tests

Windows-Specific Setup Instructions

For Windows users, environment variables need to be set differently. Follow these steps to run the development server.

Modify package.json scripts Update the dev and buid scripts in package.json like this

 "build": "set \"REACT_APP_GIT_COMMIT=%COMMIT_HASH%\" && set \"REACT_APP_BUILD_TIMESTAMP=%BUILD_TIMESTAMP%\" && webpack --mode production",
 "dev": "set \"REACT_APP_GIT_COMMIT=%COMMIT_HASH%\" && set \"REACT_APP_BUILD_TIMESTAMP=%BUILD_TIMESTAMP%\" && webpack serve --open --mode development",

Manually set environment variables in the terminal

Run the Git commands manually to get your commit hash, these values will be used in .env file:
```
  git rev-parse HEAD
```
```
  git show -s --format=%cI HEAD
```
Copy the output of the commands and update in .env file as follow :
```
  REACT_APP_GIT_COMMIT=<your_commit_hash>
  REACT_APP_BUILD_TIMESTAMP=<your_build_timestamp>
```
For example, if your Git commit hash is abc1234 and the timestamp is 2024-10-24T10:00:00, your .env would look like this:
```
  REACT_APP_GIT_COMMIT=abc1234
  REACT_APP_BUILD_TIMESTAMP=2024-10-24T10:00:00
```
Start the development server

After setting the environment variables, run:
```
 npm dev
```

Deploy on Netlify

All branches will have deploy previews automatically once changes pushed to github. The url is: branch name--incredible-meringue-aa83b1.netlify.app

For example, if the branch is development, the url is

It usually takes few minutes to reflect changes.

Build for production

export NODE_ENV=production

npm run build

Troubleshooting

This section lists solutions to problems you might encounter with Cytoscape web.

Debug

Use developer tools in browser to check the error message. Then we recommend using Visual Studio Code debugger to debug.

Blank Workspace or Fail to Load Any Networks

Possible solutions:

Use a new incognito window to open Cytoscape web
Clear browsing data include cookies
In developer tools, go to Application page,find IndexedDB in session storage. Click Delete database.

cytoscape / cytoscape-web

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