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Membrane

Creating Programs

To create a program, click the + NEW button (top-left) and choose a template. You can also install packages which are program bundles published by other users.

Code organization

A Membrane program contains at least two files:

  1. memconfig.json describes the program’s schema, i.e. its API.
  2. index.ts: exports functions that will be called to handle queries, actions, events, etc.

Our IDE provides a schema editor so you rarely need to modify memconfig.json by hand, but you can if convenient.

Programs using NPM packages will also include a package.json file.

There’s also memconfig.lock:, which tracks versions of graph connections. It’s automatically generated when connections are modified. This file is hidden by default, and you rarely have to worry about it.

Stopping and deleting programs

In Membrane you rarely need to stop a program because you can modify its code. However, if you need to stop a program for any reason, you can do so by right clicking on its name in the Navigator and selecting Stop. A program must be stopped in order to delete it.

Currently, when a program is stopped and started again its state will be lost. Membrane can resume stopped programs, but this functionality is currently not exposed in the IDE. Let us know if you need to restore the state of a stopped program and we’ll do it for you. Keep in mind that this might not be possible if a program has been stopped for too long.

Once a program is stopped, its files will remain in the Navigator under the NOT RUNNING section. From there you can redeploy it if you want.

You can permanently delete these files from the right-click context menu.