turf node example

This is an example of how to use Turf for a scripting task with node. This technique lets you process bigger amounts of data than you could in a browser, and have node read and write files.

You'll need a few skills to get started:

• Basic JavaScript proficiency: you might want to do a Codecademy lesson or two to get comfortable with the language if you haven't coded before.
• A text editor for code. Good options include Atom, Sublime Text, and Brackets.
• node: nodejs.org provides a free download and installer for all major platforms.
• Ability to use your terminal: here's an introduction for Mac users

Installation

If you have node installed, you also have a command called npm installed: this is what you use to download extra software for node. This project has some preset requirements, which are stored in package.json, so if you open a terminal in the same folder as this project and run the command

$ npm install

Then the npm command with automatically find, download, and install turf to this directory.

Next, you should open index.js, either locally or on GitHub, read through the code comments to understand what it does.

When you feel comfortable with your understanding of the process, run it:

$ node index.js

This tells node to run the code in index.js. That should quickly report:

$ node index.js
saved output/convex_hull.geojson

And you can open the files input/random.geojson and output/convex_hull.geojson to see what the script did.