PocketBase is distributed as a Go package, which means that in order to run the project you'll have to create a Go `main` program that imports the package.
The repository already includes such program, located in `/examples/base`, that is also used for the prebuilt executables.
So, let's assume that you already done some changes in the PocketBase Go code and you want now to run them:
1. Navigate to `examples/base`
2. Run `go run main.go serve`
This will start a web server on `http://localhost:8090` with the embedded prebuilt Admin UI from `ui/dist`. And that's it!
**Before making a PR to the main repository, it is a good idea to:**
- Add unit/integration tests for your changes (we are using the standard `testing` go package).
To run the tests, you could execute (while in the root project directory):
```sh
go test ./...
# or using the Makefile
make test
```
- Run the linter - **golangci** ([see how to install](https://golangci-lint.run/usage/install/#local-installation)):
```sh
golangci-lint run -c ./golangci.yml ./...
# or using the Makefile
make lint
```
## Making changes in the Admin UI
PocketBase Admin UI is a single-page application (SPA) built with Svelte and Vite.
To start the Admin UI:
1. Navigate to the `ui` project directory
2. Run `npm install` to install the node dependencies
3. Start vite's dev server
```sh
npm run dev
```
You could open the browser and access the running Admin UI at `http://localhost:3000`.
Since the Admin UI is just a client-side application, you need to have the PocketBase backend server also running in the background (either manually running the `examples/base/main.go` or download a prebuilt executable).
> By default, the Admin UI is expecting the backend server to be started at `http://localhost:8090`, but you could change that by creating a new `ui/.env.development.local` file with `PB_BACKEND_URL = YOUR_ADDRESS` variable inside it.
Every change you make in the Admin UI should be automatically reflected in the browser at `http://localhost:3000` without reloading the page.
Once you are done with your changes, you have to build the Admin UI with `npm run build`, so that it can be embedded in the go package. And that's it - you can make your PR to the main PocketBase repository.
