Difference with https://github.com/harperfast/application-template/

[dawsontoth]

Can this use https://github.com/harperfast/application-template/ instead of creating a new repository?

[Ethan-Arrowood]

I felt like there was too much going on in that template for the purpose of a getting started guide.

I want the user to go through the activity of creating the schema for the first time as well as wiring up config.yaml

The template does all of that for them and it feels messy to include a "open this file and delete its contents" step.

I'd rather keep guide repos separate from templates and examples.

Guide repos are going to start using branches as well so users can check their work as well as skip ahead to different steps using git checkout. Wouldn't love muddying templates and repos with guide-specific needs.

[dawsontoth]

@Ethan-Arrowood Being barebones is the stated goal of application-template, without requiring you to delete things. It isn't there yet, but we should move it there. The https://github.com/HarperFast/application-template/tree/fabric and https://github.com/HarperFast/application-template/tree/fabric-typescript branches are moving closer to that. The guidance from Kris is that they're not examples with a bunch of stuff that need to be deleted.

I'm worried that the guides are diverging from the guidance provided inside Studio itself.

[Ethan-Arrowood]

I think those templates are great getting started points, especially for developers loosely familiar with Harper already or those taking a different pathway such as self-discovery by tinkering.

The new Learn content is its own pathway. That of any course-like, step-by-step instruction guidance.

[Ethan-Arrowood]

Future guides could even use those same starting points... but the very first getting-started guide? I believe it should basically have nothing in it.

[dawsontoth]

@Ethan-Arrowood Have you signed up for a fabric account at https://fabric.harper.fast/#/sign-up and followed the in-browser guidance fully to create a cluster, create an application, and read through it?

[Ethan-Arrowood]

No, I've only ever gotten as far as creating the application step and then I use the git url tab.

I think you're touching on exactly what I'm trying to say though. Using and learning through Fabric is one pathway. Reading docs is another.

I'm writing these docs for local-first development. Fabric experience can be PaaS-first. I think it is fine to have that separation.

[dawsontoth]

Can you try the other options? Don't import from a URL, just create using one of the template options. There are different pathways, yes, but we need to learn from and leverage each other. If what you're creating is better, then let's adapt what we have to follow it, and play the same game.

[Ethan-Arrowood]

(Just created an app from the template and I see the next-steps now).

I think what you have is a great, but it is still a very different experience from the getting started guide we have today. If you take another look at my PR here HarperFast/documentation#404 you'll see that I'm not adding much more than what already exists at https://docs.harperdb.io/docs/getting-started/quickstart today. In fact, I've taken some pieces out and included more examples.

This fabric template flow has 4 separate tasks:

• Define Schema
• Custom Endpoint
• Website
• Use the API

And the last one even includes the complexity of Authentication.

This to me is way too much info all at once. It may work for some devs, in fact it'd probably be the pathway I'd want personally. But the #1 feedback I'm solving for is reducing complexity. We need to keep things dumb simple and introduce topics gradually. That was the whole point to the content outline too.

Previous attempts at putting too much stuff in a getting started guide have been rejected during review process. The goal of the new Learn section is to have the space to build out as many guides as necessary. They can build from one another while simultaneously presenting concepts in isolation for easier learning.