Magnolia CLI introduction
Magnolia CLI is an npm package providing a command line interface (CLI) tool to set up and facilitate light development with Magnolia. You can use Magnolia CLI to quickly create a light module skeleton: the folders and files that form a Magnolia light module. This page provides instructions on how to install Magnolia CLI.
We currently support three major versions of CLI. The main difference is how prototypes are handled and which Magnolia UI framework they are compatible with. If you are a new user, use CLI v4.
-
Magnolia CLI v4 - Default prototypes are based on the Magnolia 6 UI framework. The
create
commands generate Magnolia 6 UI definitions. The legacy 5 UI prototypes are present as well, but are marked with-m5
. You can generate the 5 UI definitions by using the-P
or--prototype
command flag and specifying one of them5
prototypes available. -
Magnolia CLI v3 - Only 5 UI prototypes are present, and existing CLI v2 configurations and prototypes need to be migrated, see Updating CLI to v3.
-
Magnolia CLI v2 - Only 5 UI prototypes are present.
Light module minimal folder structure
Some Magnolia CLI commands may require that a minimal light module skeleton exists. For example, to run the create-app
command, at least the following folder structure is expected to have been created:
<module-name>/
└── templates
├── components
└── pages
Installing Magnolia CLI
Prerequisites
Node.js
The Magnolia CLI tool runs on Node.js. To check the version of your node.js installation, run the following command in a shell:
node -v
Node.js provides two branches:
-
LTS
- recommended for long-term support -
Current
- providing the latest features
Make sure you are running the latest version of the LTS branch. You can get it from Node.js downloads. It may also be installed via package managers.
Get Java
Magnolia needs at least a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run. Check if there’s a version of Java already installed on your computer by opening the terminal or command prompt and typing java -version
in a terminal or command prompt. If the system reports a version number, Java is installed on your computer.
See the Certified stack page to confirm that the version installed is supported. |
If you don’t have Java on your computer, proceed to install it.
On Windows, you need a Java SE Development Kit (JDK). The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is not enough because the Tomcat application server does not recognize it.
What is the difference?
-
JRE is for users who run Java programs on their computers.
-
JDK is for developers who write Java-based applications.
Download and install JDK. By default, JDK is installed at C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>\. You can choose another location.
Check JAVA_HOME environment variable
-
Open the command prompt.
-
Type
set
and press ENTER. -
Find
JAVA_HOME
in the command output and verify that the path points to your JDK installation directory, for example,C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>>.xx
. -
If
JAVA_HOME
is missing or it points to the wrong directory, see Set JAVA_HOME environment variable below.
Set JAVA_HOME environment variable
-
Right-click My Computer and select Properties.
-
Go to the Advanced tab.
(In Windows 7+, right-click Computer and select Advanced System Settings, then Environment variables.) -
If the
JAVA_HOME
environment variable does not exist in User variables or System variables, create it:-
User variables apply to the currently signed-in user only. Create
JAVA_HOME
here if you want it to apply only to the currently logged-in user. These variables take precedence over system variables. -
System variables apply to all users. Create
JAVA_HOME
here if you want it to apply to all users. You must be an administrator to modify a system environment variable.
-
-
Set the value of
JAVA_HOME
to the path of your JDK installation directory, for exampleC:\Program Files\Java\jdk-10.0.xx
. -
Optional step: Add the Magnolia
bin
directory to thePATH
variable, for example,C:\Program Files\magnolia\apache-tomcat-x.y\bin
. Setting thePATH
allows you to issue the Magnoliastart
andstop
commands from anywhere without navigating to the installation directory first. Separate the path from existing paths with a semicolon ( ; ). If you do this, you also need to addCATALINA_HOME
to environment variables. Set the value ofCATALINA_HOME
to the Tomcat installation directory, for example,C:\Program Files\magnolia\apache-tomcat-x.y
-
Click OK.
-
Go back to Check JAVA_HOME environment variable above and test that the variable is found and has the correct value. You need to open a new command prompt since environment variables are session specific.
Alternatively, you can set JAVA_HOME with a batch file. Add this line to
/apache-tomcat/bin/magnolia_control.bat
:
set JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>>.xx
The set
command creates the JAVA_HOME
environment variable and sets
its value to the JDK directory. The command is executed when Magnolia
starts.
For Mac, you need to download or update to Java 11 or higher. After reviewing and agreeing to the terms of the license agreement, download the file, then double-click it to launch the installation wizard and follow the installation instructions.
The installation directory varies from one Linux system to another. On Debian-based distributions, JREs or JDKs are usually installed in /usr/lib/jvm/
.
Instructions
Install Magnolia CLI globally.
-
The configuration is stored globally.
-
The commands are available in the shell on all directories.
-
The global configuration can be overridden on a project level using the
customize-local-config
command.
The instructions that follow are based on the global npm package installation.
Which versions are available?
To display a list of released versions of Magnolia CLI, enter the following command in a shell:
npm view @magnolia/cli versions
Besides a version list, the following command shows additional information about the Magnolia CLI package:
npm view @magnolia/cli
Installing the latest version
To install the latest version (globally), run the following command in a shell:
npm install @magnolia/cli -g
Depending on your permissions and the Node.js installation location, you may have to execute the above command with root permissions. On Linux or OS-X, to run this command as root, use the following… |
sudo npm install @magnolia/cli -g
Installing a specific version
To install a specific version (globally), for example, 3.1.0, run the following command in a shell:
npm install @magnolia/cli@3.1.0 -g
Depending on your permissions and the Node.js installation location, you may have to execute the above command with root permissions. On Linux or OS-X, to run this command as root, use the following… |
sudo npm install @magnolia/cli@3.1.0 -g
Installing the latest development version
The master branch on the Magnolia NPM CLI repo typically contains the version with the latest code.
You may alternatively check out the latest code and simply install it from source. |
Please be aware that the official documentation does not cover the functionalities and changes of development versions. |
To install the latest version from the master, do the following after checking out the latest code:
npm pack
sudo npm install ~/dev/cli3/npm-cli/magnolia-cli-<version>.tgz -g
Updating Magnolia CLI
If you have already installed the CLI and want to update to the latest version, use:
npm update @magnolia/cli -g
Testing the installation
To test the installation, run the following command in the shell:
mgnl help
Shell autocompletion
The Magnolia CLI package provides autocompletion for bash, C-shell and Windows PowerShell.
To install/enable autocompletion, use:
mgnl tab-completion install
To uninstall it, use:
mgnl tab-completion uninstall
A successful installation of autocompletion displays a list of files to which the tab-completion script has been appended.
To test the autocompletion installation, type mgnl
and then successively hit the Tab key to scroll through the available commands.
On Windows, autocompletion is only available in PowerShell. If it does not work as expected after installation, you may have to change your execution policy. To do this, in PowerShell, run as Administrator:
|
Uninstalling old autocompletion source
If you have already used autocompletion with Magnolia CLI version below 2.0
, you may want to uninstall the old autocompletion manually. To do so, remove the following line in your bash settings.
This is typically found at ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc from your terminal.
|
source /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@magnolia/cli/extra/mgnl-autocompletion.sh
v4 release history
For release notes of Magnolia CLI 4.0.0 and later releases, please see the npmjs.com/package/@magnolia/cli page.
See also
-
Troubleshooting: See JVM issues in Known issues.