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Installing The Helium App

Requirements​

  • A Thought Industries Enterprise Learning Cloud account and API key
  • To get started, ensure you have Node.js and npm installed. You will also need to use a Node version manager like Volta. Using a version manager helps avoid permission issues and allows you to change Node.js versions. Node 16.18.1 or higher is required (This can be checked by running node -v). NPM 8.19.2 or higher is required (This can be checked by running npm -v).
  • If you wish to use an NPM package that requires a minimum of Node v18, we recommend you initiate the latest Helium app.
Helpful Tip

There is also a video tutorial of the Getting Started guide that can be found here.

Step 1: Create a Helium App​

Run the following command in your terminal

 npm init helium-app@latest

This will prompt you to install the @thoughtindustries/helium package if you do not already have it installed on your local machine.

Step 2: Choose a Theme​

Selete a theme to get started building your Helium app.

  • The Starter App contains a Home, Catalog and Dashboard page already created, along with all the components used to build them. This is the best option if you want to get up and running quickly.
  • The Hello World App only contains a single page. This is a better option if you want to build your own app from scratch.
$  ? Which theme would you like to use (Use arrow keys)
$  > Starter App
$    Hello World

Step 3: Install Packages​

cd in to the name of your Helium app and install the packages

npm install

Step 4: Connect to a Learning Instance​

Next, you'll connect your learning instance to your Helium app with npm run authenticate

 npm run authenticate

After you run npm run authenticate, enter the following data:

  • The URL of your learning instance
  • The API key (located under Settings > Security > API Key)
  • A nickname for this instance (sandbox, production, test-one)
  • Determine if you want to add another instance
info

This command should generate a ti-config.json file in your root directory. For example, if you named your helium app test-one there should be a file under test-one/ti-config.json. If this file did not generate, re-run the above authenticate command.

Step 5: Sync Instance Translations​

Next, you'll sync your translations from your instance, to your local development environment.

 npm run update-translations

Step 6: Start Your Development Server​

This command will start a local develelopment server.

npm run dev

You can now visit localhost:3000 to see and test your changes. Any changes made can be seen on your local development server in real time, no need to restart!

Step 7: Deploy Your Helium App​

This command will deploy your Helium app to Cloudflare workers managed by Thought Industries. The Helium feature flag must be turned on for you to deploy succesfully.

npm run deploy [nickname]

And that's it! In just a few moments, once deployed, your instance will reflect your changes.

Best Practice

You can add multiple instances to your ti-config.json file. We strongly recommend deploying and testing code in your sandbox enviorment before deploying to your production enviorment.