Install Local Version Of Ghost For Development

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