Get started with NPL

You can start developing NPL in various ways:

Use Codespaces to get started without installing anything locally
Set up your local NPL development environment locally - all you need is the NPL CLI, docker, and NPL IDE plugins.

Explore these options below by editing, running and deploying to cloud the sample code of a Hello World application.

Develop in Codespaces

Prerequisite: a GitHub account with Codespaces access.

In the npl-init repository, click on Use this template (visible once logged into your github account) and Open in codespaces at the top right of the screen. This will start a GitHub Codespace, pre-configured with the NPL CLI, the NPL-Dev extension and a sample project.

Once the Codespace is open, you can follow the steps in the README.md.

If you have a NOUMENA Cloud account, your NOUMENA Cloud tenants and applications will be listed in the NOUMENA Cloud pane. Hover over an application and select the upload button to deploy the NPL code. If you have a frontend, you can deploy it as well.

Deploying the Hello World demo frontend from Codespaces to NOUMENA Cloud

In case you want to deploy the complete Hello World demo app, including the frontend, from Codespaces to NOUMENA Cloud, you may repeat the above steps with the npl-demo repository. Before deploying the frontend, adjust webapp/.env, build the frontend and configure users on the NOUMENA Cloud portal as detailed in section Deploy backend and frontend to NOUMENA Cloud below.

For further step-by-step instructions, check out Starter tracks and How-to guides.

Develop locally

Run locally

Prerequisites: docker and (optionally) npm installed. We recommend Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) when using Windows.

Steps:

Get the CLI (MacOS/Linux/Windows with WSL):
Homebrew (MacOS)Binary (MacOS/Linux/Windows with WSL)Windows without WSL
```
brew install NoumenaDigital/tools/npl
```
```
curl -s https://documentation.noumenadigital.com/get-npl-cli.sh | bash
```
You may have to restart the terminal to ensure the CLI is available in your PATH after installing the NPL CLI.
Download and install the latest .exe executable here.
Create a new project from the NPL starter template containing the Hello World backend. You can do this by running:
```
npl init --projectDir my-project
```
Alternatively, if you want to deploy the complete Hello World demo application, including frontend, you can clone the npl-demo repository:
```
git clone https://github.com/NoumenaDigital/npl-demo.git
```
Start the NPL Runtime locally. From the root of the new project, run:
```
docker compose up -d
```
Deploy NPL to the NPL Runtime:
```
npl deploy --sourceDir api/src/main/
```
Follow the remainder of the README.md in project directory to interact with the backend deployed locally.
If you have cloned npl-demo and want to run the frontend locally, execute the following from the webapp directory:
```
npm i && npm run dev
```
Navigate to the frontend URL http://localhost:5173/

Note that the local deployment uses an embedded OIDC server with seeded users. The embedded OIDC server should be used for development purposes only.

Deploy backend and frontend to NOUMENA Cloud

Prerequisites:

npm installed
NPL CLI installed (see above)
The NPL-demo project containing the Hello World application running locally.
To clone the NPL-demo repository, run:
```
git clone https://github.com/NoumenaDigital/npl-demo.git
```

Steps:

Sign up to NOUMENA Cloud
Create a new tenant and a new application in the NOUMENA Cloud portal (more details here on application creation, if needed). Pay attention to the resulting tenant and application slugs, as displayed in the portal.noumena.cloud/<tenant-slug>/<app-slug> URL of your application.
Also log in from the command line using the NPL CLI:
```
npl cloud login
```
This will open a browser window to authenticate with NOUMENA Cloud. Provide your credentials, choose Sign In, and grant access privileges. After successful authentication, you can close the browser window and return to the terminal.
Deploy the NPL source code by running the following command from the npl-demo/ root of the cloned repository and replacing $YOUR_TENANT_SLUG and $YOUR_APP_SLUG with the slugs you noted in the previous step:
```
npl cloud deploy npl --tenant $YOUR_TENANT_SLUG --app $YOUR_APP_SLUG --sourceDir api
```
If you are deploying once more, clear the NPL package first (or implement a migration):
```
npl cloud clear --tenant $YOUR_TENANT_SLUG --app $YOUR_APP_SLUG && \
    npl cloud deploy npl --tenant $YOUR_TENANT_SLUG --app $YOUR_APP_SLUG --sourceDir api
```
With this step, you already have a fully functional backend running on NOUMENA Cloud, as reflected by the Swagger UI available under https://engine-<tenant-slug>-<app-slug>.noumena.cloud. Let's now deploy the frontend to NOUMENA Cloud.
Change the webapp/.env file to match your NOUMENA Cloud tenant and application. Make sure to use the tenant and application slugs rather than the full names
From the webapp directory, build the frontend:
```
npm i && npm run build
```

Deploy the frontend to NOUMENA Cloud

npl cloud deploy frontend --tenant $YOUR_TENANT_SLUG --app $YOUR_APP_SLUG --sourceDir dist

Configure users on the NOUMENA Cloud portal. You will need to create alice, bob and carol users according to the create application users guide.

The hardcoded demo password in the webapp is password12345678 for all users. Feel free to change it to your liking, ensuring that the password of application users created on NOUMENA Cloud is matching the one used across the webapp.
Navigate to the https://<tenant-slug>-<app-slug>.noumena.cloud frontend URL of your NOUMENA Cloud application and try out the Hello World application flow

Edit NPL in your IDE

Prerequisites:

docker and (optionally) npm installed
NPL CLI installed (see Run locally)
Hello World backend code created with npl init or complete Hello World application (backend and frontend) code cloned from npl-demo repository (see Run locally)

Steps:

Install the embedded NPL-Dev Plugin in your IDE (IntelliJ, VS Code, or VS Code-derived)
Edit the NPL code in the api/src/main directory. You may for example start by changing the string (Text) returned by the sayHello permission
From the npl-demoroot of the cloned repository, start the NPL Runtime locally
```
docker compose up -d
```
Clear and upload the NPL code to the NPL Runtime
```
npl deploy --sourceDir api/src/main/ --clear
```
If using the Hello World frontend cloned from the npl-demo repository, update the frontend code in the webapp directory (in particular revert to local URLs in webapp/.env if you have deployed to NOUMENA Cloud previously) and, from the webapp directory, install dependencies and run the frontend:
```
npm i && npm run dev
```

Take your next steps

Now you are familiar with development and deployment options:

Follow Starter tracks to take your next steps
Explore more NPL examples
Check out the reference documentation for the NPL Language, the NPL Runtime and NOUMENA Cloud