Warning: The StrongLoop slc tool is still available, however it is not
recommended for LoopBack development, as it will be deprecated in the future. To upgrade an
existing installation to the latest version, see Updating to the latest version.
Installing Node and StrongLoop on Windows presents some special challenges and requirements.
Important: StrongLoop Process Manager does not run on Windows. Therefore, you cannot use it to deploy an application to a Windows system. However, you can build and deploy on a Windows system and deploy from there to a Linux or MacOS system.
Prerequisites
Install compiler tools
If you want features such as application profiling or monitoring, you must install compiler tools and Python before you start.
See Installing compiler tools for more information.
Install Git
The Node package manager tool, npm, uses Git to download packages from Github.
To install Git:
- Go to http://git-scm.com/download,
- Download the version for Windows. Currently this is version 1.9.4.
- Run installer:
- Accept default install location
- Accept or modify Components
- Accept start menu folder
- Modify “Adjusting your PATH environment” to “Use Git from Windows Command Prompt”
- Accept default “Configuring the line ending conversions”
Configuration
By default, Git on Windows does not support paths longer than 260 characters; to avoid errors you must enable long paths with the following command:
C:\> git config --system core.longpaths true
Install Node.js
If you haven’t already installed Node, download and install Node.js. For best results, use the latest LTS (long-term support) release of Node.js.
Warning: LoopBack does not support Node.js versions prior to 4.x.
Install latest version of npm
The version of npm installed as part of the Node installation has known issues on Windows. To avoid these problems, install the latest version of npm:
C:\> npm install -g npm
Install StrongLoop
Important: Node does not support Cygwin. You must use the Windows Command Prompt (shell).
Follow these steps:
- After installing the prerequisites as instructed above, restart your machine to ensure all configuration changes have taken effect.
- Open a Windows Command Prompt.
-
Install StrongLoop:
C:\> npm install -g strongloop
Troubleshooting
Try the following:
-
Restart Windows, to ensure configuration has taken effect.
-
Verify dependencies are installed:
python --versionShould be 2.7.xnode --versionShould be v4.0 or greater.npm --versionShould be 2.x or 3.x.
If you continue to have problems installing StrongLoop:
- IBM customers entitled to support, please open an issue in the IBM support portal.
- Open-source users, please search the LoopBack Developer Forum. If you don’t find an answer, post your issue there.
In general, provide as much information as possible. If npm install failed, attach the npm-debug.log file.
Confirm basic npm actions
Ensure you can install a simple npm package. Enter this command in a Windows Command Prompt shell:
C:\> npm install -g semver
You should not see any error messages. Then enter:
C:\> semver --help
You should see a usage message displayed in the Command Prompt window.
Ensure you can install a simple Node compiled addon. Enter this command in a Windows Command Prompt shell:
C:\> npm install -g buffertools
This command should compile and install without errors.
Tips and tricks
If you have multiple versions of Python installed, use this command to select which one npm uses for building compiled add-ons:
npm config set python c:/Python2.7/python
If you have multiple versions of Microsoft Visual Studio installed, use this command to select which one npm uses to build compiled add-ons:
set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2012
Or append npm --msvs_version=2012 or --msvs_version=2013 (as appropriate) to the end of npm install commands, for example: npm install -g strongloop --msvs_version=2012.
If you are behind a corporate proxy, you may need to configure npm to use it:
npm config set proxy http://proxy.company.com:8080
npm config set https-proxy http://proxy.company.com:8080