The 2018 Web Developer : Adding node_modules to a project using npm

In the last post, I prepared the ground for adding node_modules to my project. In my simple, learning project I'm going to add 3 modules:

• bootstrap
• jquery (which bootstrap needs)
• popper.js (which bootstrap 4 also needs)

First open the project within the atom browser. Then I open the terminal within the browser (which sets the current working directory to my project). Within the terminal I type:
npm install bootstrap
npm install jquery
npm install popper.js
Job done! Well not quite. The start page for my project is taken from the Twitter Bootstrap starter template. So I now need to change the paths of the scripts and CSS links to :
<link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="scss/custom.css" />

<script src="node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="node_modules/popper.js/dist/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
Now I'm cooking with gas. I can also start employing the SASS elements of Twitter Bootstrap.

What next?

There is much greater power in using node.js, nvm and npm, but it's a good start.

The 2018 Web Developer : Preparing a project for node_modules using npm

To prepare my project for node modules, I must initialise node within it's root directory.
First change to the project directory, using:
cd /myproject
Then type:
npm init -f -y
This will avoid me answering awkward questions that I'm not sure of, and provide me with a package.json file.
I'm also going to use the opportunity to make sure I'm got some tools in place such as the atom text editor, the slimjet browser and the LiveStyle plugins for atom and Chrome (which we can use in Slimjet).

atom

I won't go through the reasons for using atom, you can get that from many places, but needless to say I'm convinced. To install on Ubuntu:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/atom
sudo apt update; sudo apt install atom
I had a graphic problem on an old laptop. It kept flashing. To remedy this I changed the command of my Atom launcher to:
/opt/atom/atom --disable-gpu

I installed the platformio-atom-ide-terminal package. This will open up a terminal inside the editor. It's quite useful because some commands, such as node-sass.

I also installed the livestyle-atom package.

Slimjet

Slimjet is a slim, fast browser which will give me all the benefits of Google Chrome browser by using its engine, but without telling Google everything I'm doing. To install:

wget http://www.slimjet.com/release/archive/8.0.4.0/slimjet_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i slimjet_amd64.deb

Now to add the livestyle extension. Within the browser:

More tools->Extensions->Get more extensions

Type livestyle

LiveStyle

LiveStyle is a tool for live CSS editing. It means I'll be able to edit my SASS file and see the changes in real-time within the Slimjet browser.

What next?

I now have some good tools in place for my project. I have a fast browser. I have an editor which allows me to make SASS changes and see them in real-time. I can do this by opening a terminal and starting the node-sass package. I can also use the terminal to compile changes to my .js files using node. I can also use the terminal to initialise my project to be node ready.

Now I can start adding local node_modules to my project in the next post.