jump-start-template

A shortcut to your favorite code.

jump-start is a lightweight system to organize that code that you keep coming back to. It’s a structured GitHub repository and a web frontend.

A starter is a directory of code that you like -- whether it’s a single script or an entire app. Each starter lives in a group directory. Organize similar code for easier navigation.

When you want to use your favorite code, locate that starter either in this README.md or in your gallery website. Copy the command, and run it in your terminal. Your starter code is now in your project.

Starters

This section of the readme will be rewritten automatically with documentation for your specific starters.

See kevinschaul/jump-start/ for an example.

Adding a starter

Why not use jump-start to add a starter? Run the following command, replacing STARTER_GROUP with a group name (e.g. react), and STARTER_NAME with a starter name (e.g. BarChart).

npx tiged kevinschaul/jump-start-template/example/starter STARTER_GROUP/STARTER_NAME

Then, add your code, and edit the generated jump-start.yaml file to your liking.

jump-start.yaml

Each starter must contain this file, which defines a few items used by the gallery.

Some examples:

• kevinschaul react-d3/LineChart
• kevinschaul r/data-analysis

description: Anything you want to write about this starter. It could be the code’s features, any additional installation instructions, whatever. This appears in the ## Starters section of the README.md, and in the web gallery.

defaultDir: Where the files generated by this starter will be placed by default. For example, if you know that your React components live in components/elements/, set the defaultDir to that. The jump-start command shown in the README.md and gallery will place the files into this directory.

mainFile (optional): The file shown initially in the gallery's "Starter files section.

preview (optional): Configuration that gets passed down to the gallery's "Preview" section. The previews render via Sandpack, so this configuration mimics Sandpack's. Currently only supports React. Your starter must include the file Preview.js, which default exports a React component.

preview.template (optional, e.g. "react"): The template used by Sandpack. I've only used "react" but others may work too.

preview.dependencies (optional, e.g. d3: "5"): An object containing dependencies for Sandpack to use for the preview. Think of it as the package.json file for the preview. Anything your starter needs should be listed here.

degit.json

jump-start uses the tiged command to pull starter files out of GitHub. That command has a feature that allows for some actions to be run upon cloning -- most notably allowing a starter to remove files. Those actions are defined in a file called degit.json.

Why degit, you reasonably ask? Well degit was the original tool, but it has been abandoned. tiged is the updated fork. tiged is degit spelled backwards.

It is likely you'll want all of your starters to include the following degit.json file, which automatically removes jump-start.yaml after your started is used:

[
	{
		"action": "remove",
		"files": ["jump-start.yaml"]
	}
]

Customizing gallery-wide settings with .env

jump-start uses .env for a few settings:

• GITHUB_USERNAME: GitHub usename used in commands and links. This is set by default in the deploy GitHub action.
• GITHUB_REPO: GitHub repo name used in commands and links. This is set by default in the deploy GitHub action.
• DEGIT_MODE: Sets tiged's --mode option. Can be "tar" (the default) or "git".

Running the gallery locally

The jump-start gallery code lives in a separate repo, included here as an npm package. To run the gallery locally, using the starters in this repo as its data:

npm install
npm run dev

Open localhost:6006 in a browser.

Deploying the gallery to Github Pages

This repo includes a deploy workflow that deploys your jump start gallery to Github pages.