Setup Development Environment using DDEV

DDEV (opens new window) allows running the API on your machine using docker which saves you from installing and configuring the dependencies.

API

• Install DDEV on your machine by following the installation instructions (opens new window) of your operating system.
• Clone the api repo.

git clone https://github.com/directus/api.git
OR
git clone git@github.com:directus/api.git

• Run ddev config in the API folder and set the Docroot to public and project type to php.

ddev config

• Edit .ddev/config.yml to use Apache.

webserver_type: apache-fpm

• Start ddev.

ddev start

• Install composer dependencies (done once).

ddev exec composer install

• Run the following command in order to get the service and tools details, like phpmyadmin and database connection.

ddev describe

App

• Clone the app repo.

git clone https://github.com/directus/app.git
OR
git clone git@github.com:directus/app.git

• Install dependencies (might need admin privileges).

npm install

• Set the API_URL environment variable to point at the local ddev service URL and start the project.

set API_URL=https://<ddev-project>.ddev.site/

npm run serve

• You'll be prompted to create a new project. Use the following database connection. host=db, database=db, port=3306, user=db, password=db.

That's it. You will login to a freshly created Directus project.

Tip: ddev allows PHP Step Debugging (opens new window). You can enable it temporarily to avoid performance problems.

ddev exec enable_xdebug 
OR 
ddev exec disable_xdebug