# Tower.js

Thanks for installing Tower and using it to build an application! You can read this file for more information on how to get started. You can also read the website we've made: http://towerjs.org. There are also plenty of screencasts here: http://towerjs.org/screencast.

## Install

You've probably already got `tower` installed if you're reading this, but just in case we've provided a little instruction. To get started with Tower you'll need the following software:

- [Node.js](http://nodejs.org/)
- [Node Package Manager](https://npmjs.org/) (aka, npm)
- [MongoDB](http://www.mongodb.org/)

With those two installed you only need to do the following steps to create your first app:

1. `npm install -g forever tower`
2. `tower new app-name-here`
3. `cd app-name-here`
4. `npm install`

Next you need to run the watcher to compile your assets. Run this in a new window that you'll keep open:

```
cake watch
```

If you don't have the `cake` command, install coffeescript globally with `npm install -g coffee-script`.

Now your application is fully setup and ready to run with `forever`:

```
forever server.js
```

You can discover the other commands by using `tower --help`. You also have access to a console with `tower console`. Look to the `Cakefile` for more commands.

## Test

Run tests:

```
npm test
```

Read up on [testing Tower.js apps](http://towerjs.org/guides/testing).

## Deploy

[How to deploy Tower Apps to Heroku](http://towerjs.org/guides/deployment#heroku).

## Documentation

- [Tower.js](http://towerjs.org/guides)
- [Ember.js](http://emberjs.com/)
- [MongoDB](http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Advanced+Queries)
- [Node.js](http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.6.11/api/fs.html)
- [Mocha](https://github.com/visionmedia/mocha)
- [CoffeeScript](http://coffeescript.org/)
- [Stylus](http://learnboost.github.com/stylus/)

If all else fails, see the [Rails Guides](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/), should be fairly close.