Prerequisites for working on a docs site

The following tools are required before you can create or edit a docs site. You only need to install them one time, no matter how many docs sites you work on.

Tool	Used for	Notes
Visual Studio Code	Editing source files; running commands in the terminal; source control tasks (for example, committing to Azure DevOps).	Some tasks require you to run VS Code as an administrator. You can set this as your default using these instructions.
Node.js	Downloading template/theme elements stored in node packages; running some automated tasks.	If the latest version causes errors when building your site, roll back to v14.17.6; for Windows, choose node-v14.17.6-x64.msi.
Gulp	Running automated backend tasks.	You can use Node.js to install Gulp. See the steps below.

important

The docs site instructions assume that you are using the tools listed above. You can choose to use a different text editor or command line window. If you choose to do so, you might need to modify the provided instructions to accommodate those other tools.

Installation steps

1. Install Visual Studio Code by following the instructions here: code.visualstudio.com

2. Install Node.js by following the instructions here: nodejs.org/en/download

   note

   The latest version of Node may give you errors when building your site. If so, roll back to 14.17.6, nodejs.org/download/release/v14.17.6 [for Windows, choose node-v14.17.6-x64.msi].

3. Use Node to install Gulp. To do this, open a command line terminal with administrator permissions and run npm install gulp -g. To open a command-line terminal on Windows:

   • Press the Windows key and type cmd.
   • Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.