This topic describes how to use DataV to develop widgets.

Prepare an environment

  1. Go to the official website of Node.js and download and install Node.js. We recommend that you install Node.js of a version that ranges from 8.0.0 to 10.12.0.
    Note We recommend that you use Node Version Manager (NVM) to manage multiple Node.js versions. If you use NVM, you can install another version of Node.js without the need to uninstall the existing version. To install NVM, visit GitHub - creationix/nvm: Node Version Manager - Simple bash script to manage multiple active node.js versions.
  2. After you install NVM, run the node -v and npm -v commands in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to view the Node.js and npm versions.

Install DataV

  1. Run the following command in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to install DataV: 
    npm install datav-cli -g
  2. After DataV is installed, run the datav --version command to view the version of DataV.

Set the language

The default language of DataV is English. You can run the datav locale command in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to change the language.

After you run the command, the following result is returned: 

? What is your language? (Use arrow keys)
> English
  Chinese
  Japanese

Press the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys to select a language and press Enter.

If you want the language to change based on the region of your Alibaba Cloud account, log on to the DataV developer console and run the datav locale-clear | datav lc command to clear the language settings. Then, you can set the language again.

Log on to the DataV developer console

Run the datav login command in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to log on to the DataV developer console. After you run the command, specify the parameters described in the following table.
Parameter Description
Username Enter your username that is displayed in the upper-right corner of the DataV console. If you are a RAM user, enter the username of the Alibaba Cloud account to which your RAM user belongs.
Developer Token Enter the developer token that is obtained from the Widgets tab in the DataV console.
Do you want to set an alias? Press Y or N.
Alias Name Enter an alias.
If a message appears, indicating that the configuration is successful, you have logged on to the DataV developer console.
Note If you only want to create or preview widgets, you do not need to log on to the DataV developer console. To publish widgets, you must log on to the DataV developer console.

Generate a widget package

Run the datav init command in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to generate a widget package. After you run this command, enter the information provided in the following table.
Widget information Description
? Widget Name The name of the widget. It can contain letters, digits, and hyphens (-).
? Widget Display Name The name that you want to display for the widget in the widget list of a project.
? Widget Description The description of the widget.
? Select Template from Template List

Basic text

Basic text (international edition)

 The template that you want to use for the widget. Valid values: Basic text and Basic text (international edition).

Press the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys to select a template and press Enter.

If the message "The widget has been created." appears in the command output, the widget package is generated. Widget created

Preview a widget

You can run the following commands in the macOS Terminal or Windows Command Prompt to preview a widget: 
cd <Widget name>
datav run
If a message appears, indicating that the service has started, Google Chrome is opened to display the preview of the widget. Service started
Note
  • If Google Chrome does not open automatically, you may not have installed it. We recommend that you install Google Chrome and manually access localhost:1111/ to preview the widget.
  • If a message appears, indicating that a service is activated on port 1111, this port may be occupied by another application. You can run the datav run -p 1112 command to change the preview service port to 1112.
  • If you access localhost:1111/ but the preview of the widget is not displayed, check whether you have mapped localhost to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file. If the mapping exists, you can access 127.0.0.1:1111/ to preview the widget.
The following figure shows the preview of a widget. Widget preview
The preview page consists of a canvas, a bottom toolbar, and a right-side panel.
  • Canvas
    • The canvas displays the widget and all changes to the widget in real time.
    • Widget settings and data changes on the right-side panel are shown on the canvas.
    • You can drag and drop the borders to resize the widget.
  • Bottom toolbar

    You can change the language of the widget.

  • Right-side panel

    The right-side panel consists of four tabs: Settings, Data, Interaction, and Publish.

    Tab Description
    Settings This tab contains the style settings of the widget. If you change the settings, the changes take effect immediately on the canvas. For example, if you adjust the font size slider, the font size of the text in the widget changes immediately. Click Save to save the current settings as default for a widget. Settings tab
    Data This tab provides the API data of the widget. If you update the data of a widget on this tab, the widget on the canvas changes immediately. Click Save to save the current data as default for the widget. Data tab
    Interaction This tab provides information related to widget interactions. Interaction tab
    Publish This tab provides the type, icon, and publish version of the widget. Click Publish in the upper-right corner of this tab to publish the widget. Publish tab

Publish a widget

You can use one of the following methods to publish a widget:
  • Method 1 (recommended)

    Go to the directory of the widget and run the datav publish command. The widget is compressed into a package and published to a server in the same region as your Alibaba Cloud account.

  • Method 2

    Go to the directory of the widget and run the datav package command. A tar.gz package named in the format of Widget name-Version number is generated in the parent directory. Upload the package to datav.aliyun.com to publish the widget.

  • Method 3

    On the widget preview page, click Publish.