Building Your First Project with BlueBox — Step‑by‑Step

Building Your First Project with BlueBox — Step‑by‑StepBlueBox is a flexible, modern toolkit designed to help developers build, test, and deploy modular applications quickly. This step‑by‑step guide will walk you through creating your first BlueBox project, from environment setup and project scaffolding to development, testing, and deployment. Examples use common tooling (Node.js, Docker, Git) but BlueBox concepts apply to other ecosystems.

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What you’ll learn

• How to install and configure BlueBox
• Project structure and key configuration files
• Creating modules/components and connecting them
• Running the project locally and writing basic tests
• Packaging and deploying to a container platform

Prerequisites: basic command-line knowledge, Git, Node.js (>=16) installed, Docker (optional for deployment).

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1. Install and initialize BlueBox

1. Install the BlueBox CLI (replace with the actual package name if different):

   npm install -g bluebox-cli 

2. Initialize a new project:

   mkdir my-bluebox-project cd my-bluebox-project bluebox init 

The init command scaffolds a starter project with a default directory layout and configuration files.

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2. Project structure overview

Typical BlueBox project layout:

my-bluebox-project/ ├─ bluebox.config.json ├─ package.json ├─ services/ │  ├─ api/ │  │  ├─ index.js │  │  └─ bluebox.module.json │  └─ worker/ │     ├─ index.js │     └─ bluebox.module.json ├─ shared/ │  └─ utils.js ├─ tests/ └─ Dockerfile 

• bluebox.config.json — global config for BlueBox (service discovery, env, routing).
• services/* — individual modules/services. Each has its own module descriptor.
• shared — code shared across modules.
• tests — integration and unit tests.

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3. Configure bluebox.config.json

A minimal bluebox.config.json:

{   "projectName": "my-bluebox-project",   "env": {     "PORT": 3000   },   "services": {     "api": { "path": "./services/api", "port": 3000 },     "worker": { "path": "./services/worker" }   } } 

This tells BlueBox which services to run and which ports to expose.

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4. Create your first service (API)

Create services/api/index.js:

const http = require('http'); const port = process.env.PORT || 3000; const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {   if (req.url === '/health') {     res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' });     res.end(JSON.stringify({ status: 'ok' }));     return;   }   res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });   res.end('Hello from BlueBox API!'); }); server.listen(port, () => {   console.log(`API running on port ${port}`); }); 

Module descriptor services/api/bluebox.module.json:

{   "name": "api",   "type": "service",   "entry": "index.js",   "env": {     "PORT": 3000   } } 

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5. Add a background worker

Create services/worker/index.js:

setInterval(() => {   console.log('Worker heartbeat:', new Date().toISOString()); }, 5000); 

services/worker/bluebox.module.json:

{   "name": "worker",   "type": "worker",   "entry": "index.js" } 

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6. Run the project locally

Use BlueBox CLI to run all services:

bluebox up 

Expected output: both api and worker services start. Visit http://localhost:3000/health to see JSON status.

For development, you can run individual services:

cd services/api node index.js 

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7. Add shared utilities

Create shared/utils.js:

module.exports.now = () => new Date().toISOString(); 

Use it in the API:

const { now } = require('../../shared/utils'); // ... res.end(`Hello from BlueBox API! Time: ${now()}`); 

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8. Write basic tests

Install a test runner:

npm install --save-dev mocha chai 

Create tests/api.test.js:

const chai = require('chai'); const chaiHttp = require('chai-http'); const { expect } = chai; chai.use(chaiHttp); describe('API', () => {   let server;   before(() => {     server = require('../services/api/index.js'); // adjust export if needed   });   it('responds to /health', (done) => {     chai.request('http://localhost:3000')       .get('/health')       .end((err, res) => {         expect(res).to.have.status(200);         expect(res.body.status).to.equal('ok');         done();       });   }); }); 

Run tests:

npx mocha tests --exit 

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9. Dockerize the project

Create a Dockerfile:

FROM node:18-alpine WORKDIR /app COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm install --production COPY . . CMD ["bluebox", "start"] 

Build and run:

docker build -t my-bluebox-project . docker run -p 3000:3000 my-bluebox-project 

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10. Deployment tips

• Use BlueBox’s configuration to set environment-specific variables.
• Deploy each service as a separate container if you need horizontal scaling.
• Use a process manager (PM2, Docker Compose, or Kubernetes) for orchestration.
• Configure health checks and logging (stdout -> centralized logging).

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Troubleshooting

• Port conflicts: ensure services use different ports or rely on internal routing.
• Module path errors: verify bluebox.module.json “entry” paths.
• Missing dependencies: run npm install in root and service folders if needed.

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Next steps and features to explore

• Inter-service RPC or message bus (e.g., NATS, RabbitMQ)
• Service versioning and rolling updates
• Observability: metrics, tracing, centralized logs
• CI/CD pipeline integration

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This guide gives a practical path to create, run, and deploy a basic BlueBox project. Adjust configurations and tooling to match your environment and scale needs.