Prerequisites

These are the steps you must complete before you can run the tutorials for the KeepIT API.

Expect this preparation to take about 15 minutes.

What you need

To complete the tutorials, install the following on your development system. You might want to open the links in separate browser tabs before you start.

A current version of Node.js (LTS version recommended)
Version 0.17.4 of json-server
A fork of the KeepIT repository
The Postman desktop app

Note: Because KeepIT runs locally on http://localhost:3000, the web version of Postman can’t connect to it. Use the desktop app.

Start the KeepIT server

Open a terminal and navigate to the api folder in your local copy of the KeepIT repository.
```
 cd <your repository workspace>
 cd KeepIt/api
```
Start the json-server using the KeepIT data file in the terminal.
```
 json-server -w keepit-source.json
```

Confirm the server is running. You should see output like this:

 \{^_^}/ hi!

 Loading keepit-source.json
 Done

 Resources
 http://localhost:3000/collections
 http://localhost:3000/items

 Home
 http://localhost:3000

Test your setup

Run a test call from another terminal to confirm the server responds correctly.

curl http://localhost:3000/collections/1

If the server is running correctly, you should see a list of collections like this:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Austin Photographs",
    "description": "Historical and contemporary photographs of Austin, Texas.",
    "location": "Server A, Folder /austin-photos/",
    "itemCount": 18
  }
]

Troubleshooting

If you get an error, check the following:

You’re in the correct directory (KeepIt/api)
The keepit-source.json file exists in that folder
json-server version 0.17.4 is installed (json-server --version)
Node.js is installed and up to date (node --version)

Once your server responds correctly, you’re ready to start the tutorials.