create.md

Create your first Interbit application

These steps create a copy of the included template application that you can use as a starting point for working with the Interbit SDK.

To complete this section, make sure that you already have the requirements and the Interbit SDK installed.

1. Copy the packages/interbit-template folder to packages/app-first:

   cp -R packages/interbit-template packages/app-first

2. Customize the app configuration:

   In packages/app-first/package.json, change the name of your app and the version string:

   {
     "name": "app-the-new-thing",
     "version": "0.1.0",
     ...
   }

3. Optional: Specify the app's port:

   To avoid port conflicts when running multiple nodes, the port specification for an Interbit application must be specified in two locations.

   1. Edit packages/app-first/package.json and revise the line containing interbit:start to change --port 5000 to --port 6000, and save the file.

      For example:

          "scripts": {
              "interbit:start": "interbit start --db-path ./db-interbit --port 6000 --dev --no-watch",
          }

   2. Edit packages/app-first/interbit.config.js and revise the configuration with the new port.

      Locate the following section of configuration:

        apps: {
          template: {
            peers: ['localhost:5000'],
            ...
          }
        }

      Change the 5000 to 6000 and save the file.

   In these examples, we change the port to 6000 but any value between 1024 and 65000, that is not already in use by another process, should work.

4. Optional: Add an identifier to the app's UI:

   This step is only helpful if you run multiple Interbit nodes locally.

   Add some identifying markup to packages/app-first/src/App.js. For example, immediately before the <Grid> tag, insert <p>My first app!</p>.

That's it! You have created your first Interbit application. Next, see how to run your application.