Install Local Version Of Ghost For Development

• 13 July 2018

Install local version of ghost for development

The local version has minimal caching and logs to stdout making development easier. It should NOT be subsequently converted to a production install (antipattern).

References

• Supported node versions: https://docs.ghost.org/docs/supported-node-versions
• Installing nvm: https://www.sitepoint.com/quick-tip-multiple-versions-node-nvm/
• Installing ghost for local development: https://docs.ghost.org/docs/install-local
• Checking nvm install: https://docs.ghost.org/docs/troubleshooting#section-using-nvm

Install

1. Check if you have a compatible version of node a. If not, install nvm via homebrew brew install nvm - following the instructions to create ~/.nvm etc since officially not supported this way b. Restart shell c. nvm ls-remote to list all available versions d. Choose the latest compatible version and install: nvm install 8.11.3 OR nvm install 8.11 to install the latestest patch of 8.11
2. Install ghost with npm: npm i -g ghost-cli@latest
3. Create a directory for ghost (e.g. ~/ghost, cd into it and ghost install local
4. If using nvm, following install, double check these two commands give the same path as per the ghost docs: a. which ghost and npm root -g

Commands

The following commands are useful for local development:

• ghost ls to list running instances
• ghost start to start ghost (required after restarting workstation)
• ghost stop to stop ghost (or will stop when shutting down workstation)
• ghost log to view the logs

Live reload for theme development

Use live reload during theme development to immediately see changes reflected

• create basic theme stub (as per docs)
  • index.hbs - template for a list of posts - minimally requires and in it (these directives insert ghost specific javascript at the end of the head and end of the body to spam your blog with ga etc)
  • post.hbs - template for a post - minimally requires and in it
  • package.json - containing valid minimal metadata about your theme
  • places files in [ghost-install-dir]/content/themes/[your-theme-name]
• switch to your new theme using ghost admin - pages will be blank
• ghost stop
• npm install -g nodemon@latest
• Start ghost using nodemon: nodemon current/index.js --watch content/themes/[your-theme-name] (you need to have already switched to your theme via ghost admin - this just simply watches the files and reloads the site if they change)

Themes

https://themes.ghost.org/docs

Push theme changes to remote Ghost blog using git push

A git remote can be set up to push local changes straight to a server via ssh.

1. Initialize a git repo inside your theme directory
2. Add remote to your server using ssh e.g. git remote add deploy ssh://me@100.10.9.8/opt/pod/repos/myapp.git

• ← Previous
  Using CSLA 4 06 ASP.NET MVC
• Next →
  Using CSLA 4 02 Creating Business Objects