Getting Started · Unleash

Requirements

You will need:

Node.js (version 12 or later)
PostgreSQL (version 10 or later)
Create an unleash user and database.

Start Unleash server

Whichever option you choose to start Unleash, you must specify a database URI (it can be set in the environment variable DATABASE_URL).

Once the server has started, you will see the message:

Unleash started on http://localhost:4242

Option one - from a terminal/bash shell

npm install unleash-server -g
unleash -d postgres://unleash_user:password@localhost:5432/unleash -p 4242

Option two - from Node.js

Create a new folder/directory on your development computer.
From a terminal/bash shell, install the dependencies:
```
npm init
npm install unleash-server --save
```

Create a file called server.js, paste the following into it and save.

const unleash = require('unleash-server');

unleash
  .start({
    databaseUrl: 'postgres://unleash_user:password@localhost:5432/unleash',
    port: 4242,
  })
  .then(unleash => {
    console.log(
      `Unleash started on http://localhost:${unleash.app.get('port')}`,
    );
  });

Run server.js:
```
node server.js
```

Option three - use Docker

View the image on dockerhub

Docker-compose

Clone the unleash-docker repository.
Run docker-compose build in repository root folder.
Run docker-compose up in repository root folder.

Manually

Create a network by running docker create network unleash
Run

docker run -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD={INSERT_PASSWORD} -e POSTGRES_USER={INSERT_USER} -e POSTGRES_DB=unleash --network unleash postgres

docker run -p 4242:4242 --network unleash -e DATABASE_URL=postgres://{INSERT_USER}:{INSERT_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/unleash unleashorg/unleash-server

Test your server and create a sample API call

Once the Unleash server has started, go to localhost:4242 in your browser. If you see a list of example feature toggles, try modifying one of them with curl from a terminal/bash shell:

curl --location --request PUT 'http://localhost:4242/api/admin/features/Feature.A' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{\
  "name": "Feature.A",\
  "description": "Dolor sit amet.",\
  "type": "release",\
  "enabled": false,\
  "stale": false,\
  "strategies": [\
    {\
      "name": "default",\
      "parameters": {}\
    }\
  ]\
}'\

Version check

Unleash checks that it uses the latest version by making a call to https://version.unleash.run.
- This is a cloud function storing instance id to our database for statistics.
This request includes a unique instance id for your server.
If you do not wish to check for upgrades define the environment variable CHECK_VERSION to anything else other than true before starting, and Unleash won't make any calls
- export CHECK_VERSION=false