Foxx CLI Details

Install

foxx-cli runs on Node.js and can be installed with yarn:

  1. yarn global add foxx-cli

Or with npm:

  1. npm install --global foxx-cli

Note: using yarn you can also run foxx-cli from your project’s devDependencies:

  1. yarn add --dev foxx-cli
  2. yarn foxx help

If you’re using a recent version of npm you can also use npx:

  1. npx -p foxx-cli foxx help

Usage

After you’ve installed foxx-cli, you should be able to use the foxx program. You can learn more about the different commands foxx supports by using the --help flag.

  1. foxx --help

You can also use the --help flag with commands to learn more about them, e.g.:

  1. foxx install --help # Help for the "install" command
  3. foxx server --help # Help for the "server" command
  5. foxx server list --help # Subcommands are supported, too

If you have no prior knowledge of Foxx, you can get started by installing ArangoDB locally and then creating a new Foxx service in the current directory using the init command:

  1. foxx init -i # answer the interactive questions

If you want an example, you can also let init create an example service for you:

  1. foxx init -e # create an example service please

You can also just use foxx init to create a minimal service without the example code.

You can inspect the files created by the program and tweak them as necessary. Once you’re ready, install the service at a mount path using the install command:

  1. foxx install /hello-foxx # installs the current directory

You should then be able to view the installed service in your browser at the following URL:

http://localhost:8529/_db/_system/hello-foxx

If you continue to work on your Foxx service and want to upgrade the installed version with your local changes use the upgrade command to do so.

  1. foxx upgrade /hello-foxx # upgrades the server with the current directory

Special files

manifest.json

The manifest.json or manifest file contains a service’s meta-information. See the Foxx reference documentation.

The directory containing a service’s manifest.json file is called the root directory of the service.

foxxignore

If you want to exclude files from the service bundle that will uploaded to ArangoDB you can create a file called .foxxignore in the root directory of your service. Each line should specify one pattern you wish to ignore:

  • Patterns starting with ! will be treated as an explicit whitelist. Paths matching these patterns will not be ignored even if they would match any of the other patterns.

    Example: !index.js will override any pattern matching a file called index.js.

  • Patterns starting with / will only match paths relative to the service’s root directory.

    Example: /package.json will not match node_modules/joi/package.json.

  • Patterns ending with / will match a directory and any files inside of it.

    Example: node_modules/ will exclude all node_modules directories and all of their contents.

  • A single * (glob) will match zero or more characters (even dots) in a file or directory name.

    Example: .* will match any files and directories with a name starting with a dot.

  • A double ** (globstar) will match zero or more levels of nesting.

    Example: hello/**/world will match hello/world, hello/foo/world, hello/foo/bar/world, and so on.

  • Patterns starting with # are considered comments and will be ignored.

For more details on the pattern matching behavior, see the documentation of the minimatch module (with the dot flag enabled).

If no .foxxignore file is present in the service’s root directory the following patterns will be ignored automatically: .git/, .svn/, .hg/, *.swp, .DS_Store.

Should you need to include files that match these patterns for some reason, you can override this list by creating an empty .foxxignore file.

You can also create a .foxxignore file in the current directory using the ignore command:

  1. foxx ignore # creates a file pre-populated with the defaults
  3. foxx ignore --force # creates an empty file

To add individual patterns to the .foxxignore file just pass them as additional arguments:

  1. foxx ignore .git/ .svn/ # you can pass multiple patterns at once
  3. foxx ignore '*.swp' # make sure to escape special characters

foxxrc

If you define servers using the server commands, a .foxxrc file will be created in your $HOME directory, which is typically one of the following paths:

  • /home/$USER on Linux

  • /Users/$USER on macOS

  • C:\Users\$USER on Windows

This file contains sections for each server which may contain server credentials should you decide to save them.