Flow State Flow State

Working locally

Introduction

Working on your local computer is essential for development. It allows you to work on your code without affecting the live site and work on versions of the code allowing you to safely create new features and collaborate with others.

If we think about the journey we go on to create digital experiences, local development is at the beginning.

In this section we’ll learn how create digital experiences locally.

We will also take a look at development accelerators, such as templates and components from Plug and Play and the Component Service .

Choosing a starting point

When starting a new project, you have a few options to choose from. It’s not always obvious which one to choose, so let’s take a look at the options. Click on the cards below to learn more about each option.

When to use an accelerator

This is where you want to start most of the time. Accelerators are a great way to get started quickly and have a lot of the work done for you.

Accelerators include the Plug & Play templates and components, namely:

  • Skeleton
  • Raptor

These can be installed as a whole or you can pick and choose the components you want.

To install a full template or just some components simply run the command and follow the prompts:

npx @squiz/dxp-plugin-template

You can read more here

When to use Component Service

Component Service is a new and great way to build components that easily integrate with Matrix. Provided the Matrix instance you are building for meets the specifications, you should build features using Component Service.

You can use Component Service to add extra components to existing Matrix websites or build a whole new website using Component Service.

Whether or not you use Component Service, you should still build your sites and applications in a component-driven way.

To learn about the Component Service check out the official documentation.

When to use something else

Squiz Boilerplate is a long standing starting point for Matrix projects. It is a great way to get started with a new project and is a good option when you are unable to use an accelerator.

While it might be in need of an overhaul, it gets the job done and works well.

Find out more about Boilerplate here.