# Installation

## Installing Node

Before triggering Elixir, you must first ensure that [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/) is installed on your machine.

```
node -v
```

## Installing Gulp

Next, you'll want to pull in Gulp as a global NPM package so you have it available for any ColdBox application.

```
npm install -g gulp
```

If you use a version control system, you may wish to run the npm [shrinkwrap](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/shrinkwrap) to lock your NPM requirements:

```
npm shrinkwrap
```

Once you have run this command, feel free to commit the `npm-shrinkwrap.json` into source control.

## Installing ColdBox Elixir

The only remaining step is to install Elixir! If you generate a ColdBox application using any of our [elixir templates](https://github.com/coldbox-templates/) then you will find a `package.json` file in the root of the application already. Think of this like your `box.json` file, except it defines Node dependencies instead of ColdFusion (CFML) dependencies. A typical example can look like this:

```javascript
{
  "private": true,
  "devDependencies": {
    "gulp": "^3.9.1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "bootstrap-sass": "^3.3.6",
    "coldbox-elixir": "^2.1.0",
    "jquery": "^2.2.3"
  }
}
```

It defines ColdBox Elixir, Bootstrap and jQuery as your dependencies. You may then install the dependencies it references by running:

```
npm install
```

Please note that jQuery and Bootstrap are added for convenience, they are not needed for ColdBox Elixir. So feel free to remove them or add any other UI dependency you like.

This will install ColdBox Elixir, Bootstrap and jQuery into the `node_modules` folder in your root. This folder has been already added to the `.gitignore` file as well, so no need to further ignore it.

> **Note** : If you are developing on a Windows system or you are running your VM on a Windows host system, you may need to run the `npm install` command with the `--no-bin-links` switch enabled: `npm install --no-bin-links`

> **Tip** : If you are integrating with Vue.js, please see our [Vue.js](https://coldbox-elixir.ortusbooks.com/v2/vuejs_integration) section