Idyll Installation Instructions

Installation instructions: npm & Idyll & vega-lite for Idyll

1. Install npm

There are a few ways to do this. Probably the easiest is to download the correct version from the Node.js page.

If you go this route, make sure you follow the final install instructions and have the npm executable in your PATH. On my Mac the prompt looks like:

If you try any of the npm commands and it gives you an error about not knowing what npm is it is likely because it doesn’t know where it is (given the example posted in the image above you could expliclity call npm with: /usr/local/bin/npm).

Notes for Windows install:

  • You need to have git installed - download link here. You will have to restart your computer.

Another way: with conda

If the “default” way doesn’t work for any reason you can try with conda in your terminal/Anaconda prompt:

  1. conda activate DataViz
  2. conda install nodejs

If you go this route, make sure you activate your DataViz environment before using any npm calls.

2. Use npm to install Idyll & other packages

You’ll run these commands in a terminal (Mac) or anaconda prompt (Windows) so make sure you open them up.

NOTE: to install things globally (-g) you might have to use sudo in front of the npm commands.

  1. Use npm to install Idyll (you might need root privileges to do so) 
    npm install -g idyll
  2. Create new post with idyll (you can use the defaults) 
    idyll create
  3. cd into post directory (with defaults this is my-idyll-post)
  4. Install dependencies to install vegalite 
    npm install --save vega-lite react react-dom vega
  5. Install vegalite for Idyll 
    npm install --save idyll-vega-lite
  6. Test by:
    • downloading this index.idyll file and replacing the default index.idyll file in your my-idyll-post directory
    • downloading the LakeHuron.csv file and putting this in the data/ sub-folder in the my-idyll-post directory
    • do idyll in your my-idyll-post directory and make sure it looks like whats in the test video below
    • NOTE: if you get an error and it won’t build try idyll --compileLibs=true instead of just idyll. You might get a “BABEL” warning that you can ignore for now.