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Getting Started

Launchbox is primarily developed on macOS systems and is used on Ubuntu container images in the cloud. We are open to supporting other operating systems; please review our contribution guidelines if you would like to help add that support!

Requirements

If you're running on macOS, the only real requirement that isn't preinstalled is Docker.

Steps

  1. Clone the Launchbox repo: 

     git clone https://github.com/nasa-jpl/launchbox

  2. Enter the newly created launchbox folder: 

    cd launchbox

  3. Setup your .env file: 

    cp .env.dist .env
    Update or add to .env as needed. In particular, if you intend to use any private repositories as the source for a service, you will need to create a Personal Access Token and set GIT_TOKEN to that.

  4. Build the Docker container: 

    make devbuild

  5. Start the Docker container: 

    make start

  6. In a new terminal, open the Launchbox dashboard: 

    make dashboard

  7. Install our demo service:

    1. Go to the Services section of the dashboard and click the New Service button
    2. Enter the following:
      • Service Identifier: demo
      • Service Name: Launchbox Demo
      • Repo URL: https://github.com/nasa-jpl/launchbox-demo-service
      • Branch: main
      • Environment Name: development
    3. Click the Create button
    4. On the new row in the All Services table, click the View button on the right
    5. Click the Deployments tab
    6. Click the Deploy button on the right of the top row
    7. Go to the Deploys section, wait a minute or so, and refresh a few times until you see that the deployment you just triggered is complete
      • Tip: You can also click the deployment's View button to see the progress of individual deployment steps. (This page auto-refreshes.)

  8. Create a site using the demo service:

    1. Go to the Sites section and click the New Site button
    2. Give it a Site Identifier, choose the demo service, and click the Create button
    3. On the new row in the All Sites table, click the View button on the right
    4. Click the Hostnames tab
    5. In the new hostname field, enter demo.launchbox.run, then click Add Hostname
    6. Click the link that appears in the Hostname column in the new row to open the demo site in a new tab