Part I - Installing and setting up the CLI and Magnolia

In the first part of this tutorial, you install the CLI and use it to set up Magnolia. You also create a prototype variant to later create a light module.

Installing Magnolia through npm CLI

This page explains how you can use npm CLI to install the Community Edition of Magnolia.

Prerequisites

Get Java

Magnolia needs at least a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run. Check if there’s a version of Java already installed on your computer by opening the terminal or command prompt and typing java -version. If the system reports a version number, Java is installed on your computer.

See Certified stack page to confirm that the version installed is supported.

  • Windows

  • Mac

  • Linux

On Windows, you need a Java SE Development Kit (JDK). The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is not enough because the Tomcat application server does not recognize it.

  • JRE is for users who run Java programs on their computers.

  • JDK is for developers who write Java-based applications.

Download and install JDK. By default, JDK is installed at C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>\.

Instructions

Check for JAVA_HOME

  1. Open the command prompt.

  2. Type set and press ENTER.

  3. Find JAVA_HOME in the command output and verify that the path points to your JDK installation directory, for example, C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>>.xx.

  4. If JAVA_HOME is missing or it points to the wrong directory, see Set JAVA_HOME.

Set JAVA_HOME

  1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.

  2. Set the path for JAVA_HOME.

    setx /m JAVA_HOME "path\to\Java\jdk" (1)
    1 Where path\to\Java\jdk is where your Java Development Kit is saved.

The set command creates the JAVA_HOME environment variable and sets its value to the JDK directory. The command is executed when Magnolia starts.

For Mac, you need to download or update to Java 11 or higher. After reviewing and agreeing to the terms of the license agreement, download the file, then double-click it to launch the installation wizard and follow the installation instructions.

The installation directory varies from one Linux system to another. On Debian-based distributions, JREs or JDKs are usually installed in /usr/lib/jvm/.

Get nodejs and npm

Magnolia CLI runs on Node.js and npm, the Node.js package manager. Use the following two shell commands to check that you have both of them installed:

node -v
npm -v

If you do not have Node.js installed, go to Node.js, download and install the latest LTS version.

For installation instructions of npm, see https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm.

Get Magnolia CLI

Run the following command in a shell to install Magnolia CLI:

  • Mac or Linux

  • Windows 

sudo npm install @magnolia/cli -g
npm install @magnolia/cli -g (1)
1 Depending on your permissions and the location where you have installed Node.js, you may have to execute the command above with root permissions. Without installation permissions you will notice messages such as npm ERR! in the shell.

If the installation is successful, you see the following or a similar output in the shell:

/usr/bin/mgnl -> /usr/lib/node_modules/@magnolia/cli/bin/mgnl.js

> spawn-sync@1.0.15 postinstall /usr/lib/node_modules/@magnolia/cli/node_modules/spawn-sync
> node postinstall

+ @magnolia/cli@2.2.0
added 209 packages in 11.40

Once you have installed Magnolia CLI, test the installation by running the following command in the shell:

mgnl help
Usage: mgnl <command> [options]

A tool to setup and facilitate light development with Magnolia CMS

Options:
  -v, --version output the version number
  -h, --help output usage information

Commands:
  jumpstart download and setup a Magnolia CMS instance for development.
  start start up a Magnolia CMS instance. To stop it, enter CTRL-C
  add-availability add component availability.
  build scan a node_modules folder for npm packages with the keyword "magnolia-light-module" (in package.json) and extract them to a directory of choice.
  create-app create an app.
  create-block create a block.
  create-component create a component and optionally add availability for it.
  create-content-type create a content type.
  create-light-module create a light module.
  create-page create a page template.
  create-virtual-uri create a virtual uri mapping.
  customize-local-config extract "mgnl-cli-prototypes" folder and "mgnl-cli.json" file to customize CLI configuration.
  install install a light module from npm to the local Magnolia instance.
  search search for a light module on npm.
  tab-completion install tab autocomplete feature for Bash, zsh or PowerShell
  version display mgnl and node.js versions
  help [cmd] display help for [cmd]
  mgnl: 3.1.0 node: v8.10.0 os: linux

Downloading Magnolia

Let’s assume that the directory where you intend to download and install Magnolia is called magnolia.

  1. Change to this directory and open a shell.

  2. Enter the following command, where with <version> you may specify the Magnolia release you wish to download.
    (If you don’t specify the version and run the command without the -m switch, CLI will download version 6.2.42, the latest release of the most recent Magnolia branch.

    mgnl jumpstart -m <version>

    The jumpstart command automatically creates a light modules directory for you in the current folder. If you already have a different directory that you want to use for light modules, use the -p option with the jumpstart command to specify the path to your existing light modules folder. For example: mgnl jumpstart -p /Users/<username>/<shared-projects>/light-modules/

  3. When prompted to choose a Magnolia bundle, enter 3 for the magnolia-community-demo-webapp.

The jumpstart command:

  • Downloads the Magnolia bundle specified into the magnolia directory.

  • Creates a light-modules folder in the directory.

  • Changes the default value of the magnolia.resources.dir configuration property from ${magnolia.home}/modules to /magnolia/light-modules for both the Author and the Public instances of Magnolia.

Once the setup operation is complete, you should see a message similar to this one:

info Magnolia has been successfully setup for light development!
info You can now open a new terminal tab or window and start it up with the CLI command 'mgnl start'
info Magnolia will be ready after a few seconds at localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor. Username and password is superuser

The following files and folders are created:

dev/
├── apache-tomcat/
│ ├── bin/
│ ├── conf/
│ ├── lib/
│ ├── logs/
│ ├── temp/
│ └── webapps/
├── light-modules/
└── downloads/

Create your prototype

When you run create commands from the CLI, the new files are created based on prototype files. So for example, if you want to create a new page template then the basis for the template is specified by the prototype. Essentially, the prototype is the copy-base for new templates.

Global vs local

Prototypes can be global or local.

  • Global: The global configuration is created during the installation of the Magnolia CLI package. It will be used if no local configuration is found in the current directory or in its parent folders.

  • Local: The local configuration is created with the customize-local-config command. This creates files in the directory where you execute the command. After creation, you can edit the config to suit your needs.

Prototype variants

Different prototype variants are available depending on what you are creating.

When executing the create-page and create-component commands you can choose one of the prototype variants provided out-of-the-box.

If you don’t specify a prototype using the -P option, then the _default is used.

Instead of using one of the prototypes provided, we will create our own variants. The easiest way of doing this is to copy and paste one of the existing prototype variants.

Create the local prototype configuration files

Create the local prototype configuration files by running the following CLI command in a shell:

mgnl customize-local-config

This command extracts the following items to your current folder:

mgnl‑cli‑prototypes/

A folder which contains the prototypes for template and dialog definitions and the README file.

mgnl‑cli.json

The configuration file defining the folders of the light module skeleton and some other things.

The prototype files are located in the mgnl-cli-prototypes folder you just extracted to your dev directory.

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/
├── README.md.tpl
├── block
│ ├── _default
│ │ ├── blocks
│ │ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ │ └── templates
│ │ └── blocks
│ │ ├── __name__.ftl
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── empty
│ ├── blocks
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── templates
│ └── blocks
│ ├── __name__.ftl
│ └── __name__.yaml
├── component
│ ├── _default
│ │ ├── dialogs
│ │ │ └── components
│ │ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ │ └── templates
│ │ └── components
│ │ ├── __name__.ftl
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ ├── empty
│ │ └── templates
│ │ └── components
│ │ ├── __name__.ftl
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── with-js-model
│ ├── dialogs
│ │ └── components
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── templates
│ └── components
│ ├── __name__.ftl
│ ├── __name__.js
│ └── __name__.yaml
├── light-module
│ ├── _default
│ │ ├── README.md
│ │ ├── decorations
│ │ ├── dialogs
│ │ │ ├── components
│ │ │ └── pages
│ │ ├── i18n
│ │ │ └── __name__-messages_en.properties
│ │ ├── includes
│ │ │ └── README.txt
│ │ ├── templates
│ │ │ ├── components
│ │ │ └── pages
│ │ └── webresources
│ └── comprehensive
│ ├── README.md
│ ├── apps
│ ├── blocks
│ ├── decorations
│ ├── dialogs
│ │ ├── components
│ │ └── pages
│ ├── i18n
│ │ └── __name__-messages_en.properties
│ ├── includes
│ │ └── README.txt
│ ├── messageViews
│ ├── restEndpoints
│ ├── templates
│ │ ├── components
│ │ └── pages
│ ├── themes
│ ├── virtualUriMappings
│ └── webresources
├── page
│ ├── _default
│ │ ├── dialogs
│ │ │ └── pages
│ │ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ │ └── templates
│ │ └── pages
│ │ ├── __name__.ftl
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ ├── empty
│ │ └── templates
│ │ └── pages
│ │ ├── __name__.ftl
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── with-js-model
│ ├── dialogs
│ │ └── pages
│ │ └── __name__.yaml
│ └── templates
│ └── pages
│ ├── __name__.ftl
│ ├── __name__.js
│ └── __name__.yaml
└── virtual-uri
    ├── _default
    │ └── virtualUriMappings
    │ └── __name__.yaml
    ├── empty
    │ └── virtualUriMappings
    │ └── __name__.yaml
    └── regexp
        └── virtualUriMappings
            └── __name__.yaml

Create your prototype variants

Now you create prototype variants for the create-page and create-component commands based on the _default prototype you just extracted.

To create a variant, copy and paste the existing default prototype:

  • For pages, in dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/page, copy the _default folder and paste it at the same level. Rename your copy to my-page-prototype.

  • For components, in dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/component, copy the _default folder and paste it at the same level. Rename your copy to my-component-prototype.

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/
├── README.md.tpl
├── block
├── component
│ ├── _default
│ ├── empty
│ ├── my-component-prototype
│ ├── dialogs
│ ├── components
│ └── _name_.yaml
│ ├── templates
│ ├── components
│ ├── _name_.ftl
│ └── _name_.yaml
│ └── with-js-model
├── light-module
├── page
│ ├── _default
│ ├── empty
│ ├── my-page-prototype
│ ├── dialogs
│ ├── pages
│ └── _name_.yaml
│ ├── templates
│ ├── pages
│ ├── _name_.ftl
│ └── with-js-model
└── virtual-uri

Edit your variant files

Now you will edit your prototype files in your variant so that:

  • You add a CSS file to your page variant to generate a CSS and link it to pages you create later.

  • The create-page command creates a page template with just a title.

  • The create-component command creates a component with just a title and a description.

Add a CSS file

In the mgnl-cli-prototypes/page/my-page-prototype/ folder, create the following folders and file /webresources/css/name.css

mkdir -p webresources/css; touch $_/__name__.css

Open name.css file and add the following content:

h1 {
    font-family: Helvetica; color: #2A3D00;
}
body {
    background-color: #F5F8EA;
}

Edit the my-page-prototype variant

In the mgnl-cli-prototypes/page/my-page-prototype/dialogs/pages folder, open name.yaml and replace the definition with the following reduced version that corresponds to a simple title field being required when creating a page:

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/page/my-page-prototype/dialogs/pages/name.yaml

form:
  label: Page properties
  tabs:
    - name: tabMain
      label: __name__
      fields:
        - name: title
          class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TextFieldDefinition
          i18n: true
          label: title
actions:
  commit:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.SaveDialogActionDefinition
  cancel:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.CancelDialogActionDefinition

In the mgnl-cli-prototypes/page/my-page-prototype/templates/pages folder, open name.ftl and replace the script with the following reduced version:

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/page/my-page-prototype/templates/pages/name.ftl

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xml:lang="${cmsfn.language()}" lang="${cmsfn.language()}">
  <head>
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="${ctx.contextPath}/.resources/__lightDevModuleFolder__/webresources/css/__name__.css" media="all" />
    [@cms.page /]
    <title>${content.windowTitle!content.title!}</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container ">
      <h1>${content.windowTitle!content.title!}</h1>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Note that in line 4 you add a link to the CSS that uses variables (lightDevModuleFolder and name.css) to generate part of the path to the light module folder and the name of the CSS file.

Edit the my-component-prototype variant

Next, in the mgnl-cli-prototypes/component/my-component-prototype/dialogs/components folder, open name.yaml and replace the definition with the following reduced version that corresponds to a component with a title field and a description:

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/component/component/my-component-prototype/dialogs/component/name.yaml

form:
  label: __name__
  tabs:
    - name: tabMain
      label: Main
      fields:
        - name: title
          class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TextFieldDefinition
          label: Title
        - name: desc
          class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.RichTextFieldDefinition
          label: Description
actions:
  commit:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.SaveDialogActionDefinition
  cancel:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.CancelDialogActionDefinition

In the mgnl-cli-prototypes/component/my-component-prototype/templates/components folder, open name.ftl and replace the script with the following reduced version:

dev/mgnl-cli-prototypes/component/component/my-component-prototype/templates/component/name.ftl

<div class="__name__">
  [#if content.title?has_content]
    <h2>${content.title!}</h2>
  [/#if]
  [#if content.desc?has_content]
    ${cmsfn.decode(content).desc!}
  [/#if]
</div>

Start Magnolia with CLI

Go to the parent directory of the apache-tomcat directory and execute the Magnolia CLI start command:

mgnl start

When starting for the first time, Magnolia runs a web update and automatically installs all its modules.

Login

Go to http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor and sign in as a superuser :

  • Username: superuser

  • Password: superuser

Magnolia is ready to use and gives you a list of suggestions to get started.

Logging into the Author instance

Go to http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor and log in to the Author instance as a superuser :

  • Username: superuser

  • Password: superuser

When you log in, the first page you see is the App Launcher, in which you can see groups of apps:

App launcher with grouped apps

Congratulations. Magnolia is now installed and running.

Next

Part II - Creating a light module

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