Most static resources for the NetBox UI are housed within the netbox/project-static/ directory.
| Path | Description |
|---|---|
dist/ |
Destination path for installed dependencies |
docs/ |
Local build path for documentation |
img/ |
Image files |
js/ |
Miscellaneous JavaScript resources served directly |
src/ |
TypeScript resources (to be compiled into JS) |
styles/ |
Sass resources (to be compiled into CSS) |
Front end scripting is written in TypeScript, which is a strongly-typed extension to JavaScript. TypeScript is "transpiled" into JavaScript resources which are served to and executed by the client web browser.
All UI styling is written in Sass, which is an extension to browser-native Cascading Stylesheets (CSS). Similar to how TypeScript content is transpiled to JavaScript, Sass resources (.scss files) are compiled to CSS.
The following software is employed by the NetBox user interface.
NetBox generally follows the following guidelines for front-end code:
@param JSDoc block tags.To contribute to the NetBox UI, you'll need to review the main Getting Started guide in order to set up your base environment.
Once you have a working NetBox development environment, you'll need to install a few more tools to work with the NetBox UI:
After Node and Yarn are installed on your system, you'll need to install all the NetBox UI dependencies:
$ cd netbox/project-static
$ yarn
!!! warning "Check Your Working Directory"
You need to be in the `netbox/project-static` directory to run the below `yarn` commands.
Run yarn outdated to identify outdated dependencies.
$ yarn outdated
yarn outdated v1.22.19
info Color legend :
"<red>" : Major Update backward-incompatible updates
"<yellow>" : Minor Update backward-compatible features
"<green>" : Patch Update backward-compatible bug fixes
Package Current Wanted Latest Workspace Package Type URL
bootstrap 5.3.1 5.3.1 5.3.3 netbox dependencies https://getbootstrap.com/
Run yarn upgrade --latest to automatically upgrade these packages to their most recent versions.
$ yarn upgrade bootstrap --latest
yarn upgrade v1.22.19
[1/4] Resolving packages...
[2/4] Fetching packages...
[3/4] Linking dependencies...
[4/4] Rebuilding all packages...
success Saved lockfile.
success Saved 1 new dependency.
info Direct dependencies
└─ bootstrap@5.3.3
info All dependencies
└─ bootstrap@5.3.3
Done in 0.95s.
package.json will be updated to reflect the new package versions automatically.
In order for the TypeScript and Sass (SCSS) source files to be usable by a browser, they must first be transpiled (TypeScript → JavaScript, Sass → CSS), bundled, and minified. After making changes to TypeScript or Sass source files, run yarn bundle.
yarn bundle is a wrapper around the following subcommands, any of which can be run individually:
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
yarn bundle |
Bundle TypeScript and Sass (SCSS) source files. |
yarn bundle:styles |
Bundle Sass (SCSS) source files only. |
yarn bundle:scripts |
Bundle TypeScript source files only. |
All output files will be written to netbox/project-static/dist, where Django will pick them up when manage.py collectstatic is run.
!!! info "Remember to re-run manage.py collectstatic"
If you're running the development web server — `manage.py runserver` — you'll need to run `manage.py collectstatic` to see your changes.
Before committing any changes to TypeScript files, and periodically throughout the development process, you should run yarn validate to catch formatting, code quality, or type errors.
!!! tip "IDE Integrations"
If you're using an IDE, it is strongly recommended to install [ESLint](https://eslint.org/docs/user-guide/integrations), [TypeScript](https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript-Editor-Support), and [Prettier](https://prettier.io/docs/en/editors.html) integrations, if available. Most of them will automatically check and/or correct issues in the code as you develop, which can significantly increase your productivity as a contributor.
yarn validate is a wrapper around the following subcommands, any of which can be run individually:
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
yarn validate |
Run all validation. |
yarn validate:lint |
Validate TypeScript code via ESLint only. |
yarn validate:types |
Validate TypeScript code compilation only. |
yarn validate:formatting |
Validate code formatting of JavaScript & Sass/SCSS files. |
yarn validate:formatting:styles |
Validate code formatting Sass/SCSS only. |
yarn validate:formatting:scripts |
Validate code formatting TypeScript only. |
You can also run the following commands to automatically fix formatting issues:
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
yarn format |
Format TypeScript and Sass (SCSS) source files. |
yarn format:styles |
Format Sass (SCSS) source files only. |
yarn format:scripts |
Format TypeScript source files only. |