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MEAN.JS is a full-stack JavaScript open-source solution, which provides a solid starting point for MongoDB, Node.js, Express, and AngularJS based applications. The idea is to solve the common issues with connecting those frameworks, build a robust framework to support daily development needs, and help developers use better practices while working with popular JavaScript components.

Before You Begin

Before you begin we recommend you read about the basic building blocks that assemble a MEAN.JS application:

• MongoDB - Go through MongoDB Official Website and proceed to their Official Manual, which should help you understand NoSQL and MongoDB better.
• Express - The best way to understand express is through its Official Website, which has a Getting Started guide, as well as an ExpressJS Guide guide for general express topics. You can also go through this StackOverflow Thread for more resources.
• AngularJS - Angular's Official Website is a great starting point. You can also use Thinkster Popular Guide, and the Egghead Videos.
• Node.js - Start by going through Node.js Official Website and this StackOverflow Thread, which should get you going with the Node.js platform in no time.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed all of the following prerequisites on your development machine:

• Node.js - Download & Install Node.js and the npm package manager. If you encounter any problems, you can also use this GitHub Gist to install Node.js.
• MongoDB - Download & Install MongoDB, and make sure it's running on the default port (27017).
• Bower - You're going to use the Bower Package Manager to manage your front-end packages. Make sure you've installed Node.js and npm first, then install bower globally using npm:

$ npm install -g bower

• Grunt - You're going to use the Grunt Task Runner to automate your development process. Make sure you've installed Node.js and npm first, then install grunt globally using npm:

$ npm install -g grunt-cli

Downloading MEAN.JS

There are several ways you can get the MEAN.JS boilerplate:

Yo Generator

The recommended way would be to use the Official Yo Generator, which generates the latest stable copy of the MEAN.JS boilerplate and supplies multiple sub-generators to ease your daily development cycles.

Cloning The GitHub Repository

You can also use Git to directly clone the MEAN.JS repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/meanjs/mean.git meanjs

This will clone the latest version of the MEAN.JS repository to a meanjs folder.

Downloading The Repository Zip File

Another way to use the MEAN.JS boilerplate is to download a zip copy from the master branch on GitHub. You can also do this using wget command:

$ wget https://github.com/meanjs/mean/archive/master.zip -O meanjs.zip; unzip meanjs.zip; rm meanjs.zip

Don't forget to rename mean-master after your project name.

Quick Install

Once you've downloaded the boilerplate and installed all the prerequisites, you're just a few steps away from starting to develop your MEAN application.

The first thing you should do is install the Node.js dependencies. The boilerplate comes pre-bundled with a package.json file that contains the list of modules you need to start your application. To learn more about the modules installed visit the NPM & Package.json section.

To install Node.js dependencies you're going to use npm again. In the application folder run this in the command-line:

$ npm install

This command does a few things:

• First it will install the dependencies needed for the application to run.
• If you're running in a development environment, it will then also install development dependencies needed for testing and running your application.
• Finally, when the install process is over, npm will initiate a bower install command to install all the front-end modules needed for the application.

Running Your Application

After the install process is over, you'll be able to run your application using Grunt. Just run grunt default task:

$ grunt

Your application should run on port 3000, so in your browser just go to http://localhost:3000

That's it! Your application should be running. To proceed with your development, check the other sections in this documentation. If you encounter any problems, try the Troubleshooting section.

Testing Your Application

You can run the full test suite included with MEAN.JS with the test task:

$ grunt test

This will run both the server-side tests (located in the app/tests/ directory) and the client-side tests (located in the public/modules/*/tests/).

To execute only the server tests, run the test:server task:

$ grunt test:server

And to run only the client tests, run the test:client task:

$ grunt test:client

Development and deployment With Docker

• Install Docker

• Install Fig

• Local development and testing with fig:

$ fig up

• Local development and testing with just Docker:

$ docker build -t mean .
$ docker run -p 27017:27017 -d --name db mongo
$ docker run -p 3000:3000 --link db:db_1 mean
$

• To enable live reload, forward port 35729 and mount /app and /public as volumes:

$ docker run -p 3000:3000 -p 35729:35729 -v /Users/mdl/workspace/mean-stack/mean/public:/home/mean/public -v /Users/mdl/workspace/mean-stack/mean/app:/home/mean/app --link db:db_1 mean

Running in a secure environment

To run your application in a secure manner you'll need to use OpenSSL and generate a set of self-signed certificates. Unix-based users can use the following command:

$ sh ./scripts/generate-ssl-certs.sh

Windows users can follow instructions found here. After you've generated the key and certificate, place them in the config/sslcerts folder.

Getting Started With MEAN.JS

You have your application running, but there is a lot of stuff to understand. We recommend you go over the Official Documentation. In the docs we'll try to explain both general concepts of MEAN components and give you some guidelines to help you improve your development process. We tried covering as many aspects as possible, and will keep it updated by your request. You can also help us develop and improve the documentation by checking out the gh-pages branch of this repository.

Community

• Use the Official Website to learn about changes and the roadmap.
• Join #meanjs on freenode.
• Discuss it in the new Google Group
• Ping us on Twitter and Facebook

Live Example

Browse the live MEAN.JS example on http://meanjs.herokuapp.com.

Credits

Inspired by the great work of Madhusudhan Srinivasa The MEAN name was coined by Valeri Karpov

License

(The MIT License)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.