Getting started
This guide covers the prerequisites and tools you need to start building extensions.
Prerequisites
Before you can create your first extension make sure you have the following prerequisites.
- You are familiar with Airtable and Extensions.
- You are familiar with JavaScript and React. Don't worry, you don't need to be an expert!
- If you need some help with the basics, check out Mozilla's guides for JavaScript and React's Getting Started guide.
- The core React concepts used in the Blocks SDK are function components and hooks.
- You have familiarity with the terminal. You should know how to
cd
into a folder and run commands. Again, no need to be an expert! - You have a Windows, macOS, or Linux computer. Other operating systems may work but are untested.
- You have Node.js installed. You'll need Node 18 or higher. You can download it from Node's website or use a package manager. If you're not sure how to install Node, we recommend nvm on macOS and Linux and its Windows port.
- You have a text editor installed, such as Visual Studio Code, Atom, Sublime Text, or Vim. If you're not sure which editor to use, we recommend Visual Studio Code.
Running commands in the terminal
We'll be running a number of commands in the terminal. In this guide, if you see a code snippet that
starts with $
, that means it should be run in the terminal, but you don't need to type the $
.