Installing The Helium App
Requirements
- A Thought Industries Enterprise Learning Cloud account and API key
- Node.js and npm installed. Use a version manager like Volta.
- Helium 3.0 requires Node.js 18.20.7 (check:
node -v) - npm 8.19.2 or higher (check:
npm -v)
There's also a video tutorial of the Getting Started guide.
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 don't have it installed.
Step 2: Choose a Theme
Select a theme to get started:
| Theme | Description |
|---|---|
| Starter App | Contains Home, Catalog, and Dashboard pages with all components. Best for getting up and running quickly. |
| Hello World | A single blank page. Better if you want to build from scratch. |
Step 3: Install Packages
cd into your app directory and install dependencies:
npm install
Step 4: Connect to a Learning Instance
Connect your learning instance with the authenticate command:
npm run authenticate
You'll be prompted to enter:
- The URL of your learning instance
- Your API key (Settings → Security → API Key)
- A nickname for this instance (e.g. sandbox, production)
This generates a ti-config.json file in your root directory. If it didn't generate, re-run the authenticate command.
Step 5: Sync Translations
Sync translations from your instance to local development:
npm run update-translations
Step 6: Start Development Server
npm run dev
Visit localhost:3000 to see your changes in real-time. No restart needed!
Step 7: Deploy
Deploy your Helium app to Cloudflare workers managed by Thought Industries:
npm run deploy [nickname]
Add multiple instances to your ti-config.json. Deploy and test in sandbox before production.