docs/modules/ROOT/pages/set-up-project.adoc

= Set up a UI Project
// Settings:
:idprefix:
:idseparator: -
// URIs:
:uri-project: https://gitlab.com/antora/antora-ui-default.git

Before you can start working on the UI, you need to grab the sources and initialize the project.
The sources can be {uri-project}[Antora's default UI] or an existing UI project structured to work with Antora.

== Fetch the Default UI project

To start, clone the default UI project using git:

[subs=attributes+]
 $ git clone {uri-project} &&
   cd "`basename $_`"

The example above clones Antora's default UI project and then switches to the project folder on your filesystem.
Stay in this project folder in order to initialize the project using npm.

== Install dependencies

Next, you'll need to initialize the project.
Initializing the project essentially means downloading and installing the dependencies into the project.
That's the job of npm.

In your terminal, execute the following command (while inside the project folder):

 $ npm install

This command installs the dependencies listed in [.path]_package.json_ into the [.path]_node_modules/_ folder inside the project.
This folder does not get included in the UI bundle.
The folder is safe to delete, though npm does a great job of managing it.

You'll notice another file which seems to be relevant here, [.path]_package-lock.json_.
npm uses this file to determine which concrete version of a dependency to use, since versions in [.path]_package.json_ are typically just a range.
The information in this file makes the build reproducible across different machines and runs.

If a new dependency must be resolved that isn't yet listed in [.path]_package-lock.json_, npm will update this file with the new information when you run `npm install`.
Therefore, you're advised to commit the [.path]_package-lock.json_ file into the repository whenever it changes.

== Supported build tasks

Now that the dependencies are installed, you should be able to run the `gulp` command to find out what tasks the build supports:

 $ gulp --tasks-simple

You should see:

[.output]
....
default
clean
lint
format
build
bundle
bundle:pack
preview
preview:build
....

We'll explain what each of these tasks are for and when to use them.