Directus Docs

# Setup Development Environment

If you would like to make contributions to the Directus codebase then you'll need to install the App and API from source. However, you do not need to do this to build new extensions.

# API Source

In order to work on the API, you'll need to install the source version locally. The application sourcecode is being hosted in the directus/api (opens new window) repo on GitHub.

# Requirements

  • A HTTP Web Server that supports URL rewrites
    • Comes with .htaccess included for Apache
  • MySQL 5.7+
    • Database (empty or existing)
    • Database User (with access to database)
  • PHP 7.2+
    • pdo + mysql
    • curl
    • gd
    • fileinfo
    • mbstring
    • xml (Only if you are installing phpunit)
  • Node.js (opens new window) v8.11.3 or higher (preferably v10.6+)
  • Git (opens new window) to fetch the source code from GitHub
  • Composer (opens new window) to install dependencies

# Setup Steps

# 1. Clone the repo

Clone the repo by running

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

OR

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

Fork

If you want to work on your fork of the project, remember to replace directus with your GitHub username in the url above

# 2. Install the Composer dependencies

composer install

If you don't want to install any development package use the --no-dev option.

composer install --no-dev

# 3. Create a database

On your local server, create a new database to use with the API.

# Demo SQL

If you'd rather skip the installer (next step), you can simply import the demo schema file. This file comes with the boilerplate schema as well as some dummy collections, fields, data, and Settings. You can download a demo SQL schema (opens new window) to skip the API's installation process.

Credentials

If you are skipping the installer and adding the SQL directly to your database, the default login credentials are:

  • User: admin@example.com
  • Password: password

# 4. Config File Installer

The API uses a config file to know which database to connect to. Copy or rename the /config/api_sample.php file to /config/api.php (default project) and edit the settings as indicated.

Learn more about configuring the API

# Application Source

In order to work on the app, you'll need to install the application locally.

TIP

To quickly debug the application you can use our demo API (opens new window) by authenticating with the credentials: admin@example.com and password.

# Requirements

The application is built with Vue.js (opens new window) and heavily relies on Node.js (opens new window) to be bundled / transpiled to browser-usable code. In order to work on Directus, you need Node.js (opens new window) v12.x or higher.

The application source code is being hosted in the directus/app (opens new window) repo on GitHub.

# Steps

# 1. Clone the repo

Clone the repo by running

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

OR

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

Fork

If you want to work on your fork of the project, remember to replace directus with your GitHub username in the url above.

# 2. Install the dependencies using Yarn

yarn install

# 3. Build / run the app

The production version of the application is a static html file that can be hosted on any static file server. In order to build the app for production, run

yarn build

To checkout the app itself, you'll need a static file server. Any static file server, like MAMP, local Apache or Caddy, should work. If you don't have a quick server at hand, I recommend using http-server (opens new window).

Install http-server globally, run

yarn global add http-server

When it's installed, you can serve the app by running http-server from the dist folder that has been created by the build command:

cd dist
http-server

Development Mode

If you're actively working on the application, we recommend using the development mode. By using yarn serve instead of yarn build, the buildchain will launch a local file server and will auto-rebuild the code and auto-refresh the browser on save of a file.

API Usage

By default, the yarn serve command uses the demo API to connect to. If you want to connect to your local API instance for debugging purposes, set the API_URL environment variable before running yarn serve.

← Local Dev Environment with DDEV →