A few weeks ago I introduced MEAN.JS, which is a modern Stack based on Node.

This post will be covering the installation process, since you have to start at the beginning :)

First, to make sure we have all the prerequisites:

• node.js - this is the server, the replacement for Apache if you will.

• npm - Node Package Manager, makes it easy to install packages that use node (like express, socket.io etc.) All the npm install commands might require a "sudo".

• mongoDB - the Database, it’s NoSQL. If you’ve only used SQL databases, think of it as JSON objects inside documents (don’t worry, it makes sense - I swear). MongoDB has to run, otherwise you’ll get an error on the final step some notes about possible errors when running MongoDB:

  • Make sure you create the /data/db/ directory (that’s the path for linux anyways)

    sudo mkdir -p /data/db/
    sudo chown `id -u` /data/db

  • Remember, mongodb is a service, if you want to run it via terminal (I like it because you can see the logs live), run

    sudo service mongodb stop
    sudo mongod

  • Tip - I recommend using Robomongo for taking care of the database, this GUI tool is Shell-centric, and I think that in order to better understand MongoDB - it’s crucial to know which commands are being called. Definitely the best way to learn. You can use Robomongo to make sure you create the Collection (=Database in MongoDB) that your app is configured to use. For the development environment it’ll be APPNAME-dev.

• bower:

  npm install -g bower

  Package manager for the web, think of it as npm for front end stuff (like CSS frameworks, or front end JS frameworks)

And finally

• MEAN.JS: Use Yeoman Generator, it’s fast and an awesome tool to learn to use anyway.

   npm install -g yo 

  after Yeoman is installed, you need to install the MEAN.JS generator:

  npm install -g generator-meanjs 

  then simply write

  yo meanjs

  You should get some prompt that asks you what your app is called and what-not, then finish with an epic sequence of libraries installation. Now run

  grunt

After what seems like an installation of every library known to man, you should finally see something like this:

You can check out some built-in functions to make sure everything works.

Try to Signup, if that doesn’t work make sure you have everything for MongoDB configured correctly. The connection string is at config/env/development.js (for the development environment).

I’ll try to take a deeper look at how the different parts play together, and what does MeanJS give you when starting to build a web app.

I highly recommend for people trying to figure this stack out, to check out the Folder Structure, which is very clearly described in the Docs.

Until next week!