Development environment

A simple guide to setting up a simplified version of Blot on your own machine.

You don’t need to do this to develop your own template — most people don’t. However, running the server locally will mean you can work on your template with less latency than using the template editor.

System requirements

• operating system: Linux or macOS. The server definitely works on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and Amazon Linux 2.
• a few gigabytes or so of free disk space
• a gigabyte or so of available memory

Tools required

• git
• nvm
• redis

1. Node

Use nvm to install node v16.14.0 and npm 8.3.1. You can verify that you have installed and selected the correct verion:

$ node -v
v16.14.0
$ npm -v
8.3.1

2. Redis

Launch a local redis server:

$ redis-server

You can verify the redis server is running:

$ redis-cli ping
PONG

3. Get the source code

Use git to clone a copy of Blot’s source code to your machine.

$ git clone https://github.com/davidmerfield/Blot

4. Install Blot’s dependencies

$ npm ci

5. Run the server

$ npm run local

You should then see your blog here:

http://localhost:8081

and the dashboard to configure the settings for that blog here:

http://localhost:8080