Overview

The installation/upgrade process has two main steps:

1. Starting the Installation Process by installing the profoundjs package using Node Package Manager (NPM).
2. Completing the Installation Process by running the complete_install.js script.

Starting the Installation Process

The installation process is initiated from a command line.

To begin, you must first create a directory in which you want to install Profound.js. You will use the mkdir command to do so. In the example below, a directory named profoundjs is created at the root of the file system.

The next step is to enter the directory (using the cd command) and run the Node Package Manager (npm) install process for Profound.js using the command npm install profoundjs@next. This will download all package dependencies and install the product.

cd /
mkdir profoundjs
cd profoundjs
npm install profoundjs@next

 Warning Messages

Profound.js is provided as an npm package hosted on npmjs.com. When installing npm packages into a directory that does not have a package.json file to describe your project, npm produces several warning messages that look like this:

Depending on the platform you are installing on you may also see warnings like

npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.3.2: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"})

These warning messages do not mean that the installation failed. They simply mean you did not have a package.json file to descibe your project or your platform did not require these dependencies.

If a package.json is not found, the Profound.js installation will create a default package.json file in your installation directory for you. You can then maintain this file to keep track of your project's version, description, other npm dependencies, and more. For more information about the npm package.json file, click here.

Completing the Installation Process

An additional step is required to complete the installation. Run this command from within your installation directory:

node complete_install.js

For a new installation (when config.js file is not present in the installation directory), the complete_install.js script will prompt you for details on how to set up the Profound.js installation. Default options are shown in parentheses after each prompt; so if the default is appropriate, you can just press Enter. The prompts are shown below:

• Specify port number for Profound.js server (8081):
  This specifies the port number Profound.js will run from.
  
  

• Install with Git integration (y)?
  Answer 'y' to install necessary components for Git integration features. This question only appears on supported platforms. Currently, Git integration is only supported on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

For an upgrade installation (config.js file is present), the complete_install.js script will proceed silently by default, using the existing configuration values. That is normally the desired behavior for an upgrade installation. However, it is possible to make the script prompt for the above values and update config.js first, like this:

node complete_install.js --configure

When the process completes, a message like this will display on screen:

If this message does not appear, then the installation is NOT complete. 

 Troubleshooting the Installation

If there are any problems installing Profound.js, error messages will show on screen. You may need to scroll up to see them. A log is written for all installations, and errors may include messages like this:

To troubleshoot, review all messages on screen and in the installation log file. If the cause of the problem is not clear, contact Profound Logic Support at support@profoundlogic.com and provide ALL the messages from the screen along with a copy of the installation log file. 

After resolving any problems, run node complete_install.js again to complete the installation.