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Installing Profound.js 5 and Earlier Versions

Installing Profound.js 5 and Earlier Versions

Profound.js 5 and 6 are no longer supported. This page is retained for reference only and must not be used for a new installation or upgrade. For the current release, see Installation Process and Upgrade Process.

Before you start! Review the installation prerequisites before starting the installation.

Overview

Installing Profound.js is a matter of installing the profoundjs npm package. The tutorials and instructions below walk through the process as it worked for Profound.js 5 and earlier. In these releases a single npm install both downloads the package and runs the interactive configuration prompts; current releases split that into two steps (see Installation Process).

Video Tutorials

Written Instructions

Opening a Shell

The installation process is initiated from a shell command line.

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

Running the Installation

First create the directory in which you want to install Profound.js, using the mkdir command. In the example below, a directory named profoundjs is created at the root of the file system.

If installing on IBM i and you would 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 (see IASP Support).

Next, enter the directory with the cd command and run the Node Package Manager (npm) install process. The latest-5 npm tag installs the most recent 5.x.x release:

Sample commands to start the installation process for Profound.js

cd / mkdir profoundjs cd profoundjs npm install profoundjs@latest-5

Installation Prompts

The npm installation process prompts 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:

  • Specify Profound UI static files directory (/www/profoundui/htdocs):
    The location of the Profound UI htdocs folder. On IBM i, if you installed Profound UI in its default location, press Enter to accept the default; otherwise specify the correct location. On other types of servers you can leave the default (htdocs), and the Profound UI static files are downloaded into that directory automatically.

  • Specify port number for Profound.js server (8081):
    The port number Profound.js runs from.

  • Install Profound.js Connector IBM i ILE components (y)?
    On IBM i, this installs the Profound.js Connector, which allows native IBM i applications to interface with Profound.js. Press Enter to proceed, or type ‘n’ and press Enter to skip the Connector.

  • Enter Profound.js Connector library name (PROFOUNDJS)?
    The IBM i library name where the Profound.js Connector is installed. Press Enter to accept the default of PROFOUNDJS, or type a different name.

  • Enter Profound.js Connector library IASP (*SYSBAS)?
    An IASP name to install the 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 instance to start and end with the STRTCPSVR/ENDTCPSVR commands. Otherwise the instance has to be started manually from a PASE shell.

  • Server instance name (PROFOUNDJS)?
    This question appears if you answered ‘y’ above. The name entered here controls the job name for the server instance running in the PROFOUNDJS subsystem, and also the name of the instance configuration directory, which is /profoundjs-base/instances/INSTANCE_NAME.

  • Autostart server instance when TCP/IP starts (y)?
    Press Enter to configure the instance to autostart when TCP/IP starts, or type ‘n’ and press Enter to disable autostart.

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 there was no package.json file describing your project.

If a package.json is not found, the Profound.js installation creates a default one in your installation directory. 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, see the npm documentation.

Troubleshooting the Installation

If there are any problems downloading or installing the profoundjs package, npm prints error messages on screen – you may need to scroll up to see them. If there are problems installing the IBM i components, the entire contents of the job log is printed on screen; again, you may need to scroll up. A copy of the job log is also retained in the current user’s spooled files.