Installing Profound.js 5 and Earlier Versions

Owned by David Russo
Last updated: Sep 14, 2023
4 min read
  • These installation steps apply to Profound.js 5 and earlier versions only.
  • Profound.js 5 requires either Node.js 12 or 14.
  • Profound.js 5 installs only with NPM 6. The installation process does not work with later NPM versions.

Before you start!

Before starting the installation, please be sure to review the installation prerequisites.

Installing Profound.js is a matter of installing the profoundjs npm package. The tutorials and instructions below walk you through the process.

Video Tutorials


Written Instructions

The installation process is initiated from a shell command line.

On IBM i, in a 5250 session, you can start this process by using the CALL QP2TERM command. Alternatively, you can connect to your IBM i server via SSH. This can provide a friendlier interface for working with Node.js on the command line. For more information on configuring SSH, follow this link: https://wiki.midrange.com/index.php/SSH.

Once you are on a shell command line, there are a few simple commands that will start the installation.

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.

If installing on IBM i and you'd like to install the IFS components onto an IASP, create the installation directory in the IASP directory on the IFS. For example: /MY_IASP_NAME/profoundjs

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@5.8.9". This will download all package dependencies and install the product.

Sample commands to start the installation process for Profound.js
cd /
mkdir profoundjs
cd profoundjs
npm install profoundjs@latest-5

The npm installation process 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 Profound UI static files directory (/www/profoundui/htdocs):
    This provides the location of the Profound UI htdocs folder. On IBM i, if you installed Profound UI in its default location, you can simply press Enter to accept the default. Otherwise, specify the correct location of your htdocs folder. On other types of servers, you may leave the value as the default ("htdocs"), and the Profound UI static files will automatically be downloaded into the default directory for you. 

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

  • Install Profound.js Connector IBM i ILE components (y)?
    If you are installing on IBM i, you will have the option of installing the Profound.js Connector, which allows native IBM i applications to interface with Profound.js. You can press Enter here to proceed, or type 'n' and press Enter if you don't want to install the Connector.

  • Enter Profound.js Connector library name (PROFOUNDJS)?
    Specify the IBM i library name where the Profound.js Connector will be installed. You can press Enter to accept the default name of PROFOUNDJS or type in a different name.

  • Enter Profound.js Connector library IASP (*SYSBAS)?
    Specify an IASP name to install the Profound.js Connector library onto an IASP. Use the default, *SYSBAS, if you do not want to install onto an IASP.

  • Control server instance using STRTCPSVR/ENDTCPSVR commands (y)?
    Press Enter to configure the Profound.js server instance to start/end using the STRTCPSVR/ENDTCPSVR commands. Otherwise the instance will have to be started manually by running commands from a PASE shell.

  • Server instance name (PROFOUNDJS)?
    This question appears if you select 'y' above. Press Enter to accept the default name, or type an alternate name. The name entered here controls the job name for the server instance which will run in the PROFOUNDJS subsystem. The server instance name also controls the name of the instance configuration directory, which will be:

/profoundjs-base/instances/INSTANCE_NAME

  • Autostart server instance when TCP/IP starts (y)?
    Press Enter to configure the server instance to autostart when TCP/IP starts, or type 'n' and press Enter if you don't want to autostart the instance.

(warning) 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:

npm WARN enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\Alex\pjs_instance\package.json'
npm WARN pjs_instance No description
npm WARN pjs_instance No repository field.
npm WARN pjs_instance No README data
npm WARN pjs_instance No license field.

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.

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.

(info) Troubleshooting the Installation

If there are any problems downloading or installing the 'profoundjs' package, NPM will print error messages on screen, You may need to scroll up to see them. If there are any problems installing the IBM i components, the entire contents of the job log will be printed on screen. Again, you may need to scroll up to see the messages. A copy of the job log will also be retained in the current user's spooled files.