Prerequisites

Node.js and npm are essential to Angular development.

Get it now if it's not already installed on your machine.

Verify that you are running at least node v4.x.x and npm 3.x.x by running node -v and npm -v in a terminal/console window. Older versions produce errors.

We recommend nvm for managing multiple versions of node and npm.

Install npm packages

See npm and nvm version notes above

Install the npm packages described in the package.json and verify that it works:

Attention Windows Developers: You must run all of these commands in administrator mode.

npm install
npm start

If the typings folder doesn't show up after npm install please install them manually with:

npm run typings -- install

The npm start command first compiles the application, then simultaneously re-compiles and runs the lite-server. Both the compiler and the server watch for file changes.

Shut it down manually with Ctrl-C.

You're ready to write your application.

npm scripts

We've captured many of the most useful commands in npm scripts defined in the package.json:

• npm start - runs the compiler and a server at the same time, both in "watch mode".
• npm run tsc - runs the TypeScript compiler once.
• npm run tsc:w - runs the TypeScript compiler in watch mode; the process keeps running, awaiting changes to TypeScript files and re-compiling when it sees them.
• npm run lite - runs the lite-server, a light-weight, static file server, written and maintained by John Papa and Christopher Martin with excellent support for Angular apps that use routing.
• npm run typings - runs the typings tool.
• npm run postinstall - called by npm automatically after it successfully completes package installation. This script installs the TypeScript definition files this app requires. Here are the test related scripts:
• npm test - compiles, runs and watches the karma unit tests
• npm run e2e - run protractor e2e tests, written in JavaScript (*e2e-spec.js)