Blockspring CLI

The Blockspring CLI is used to manage, run, and deploy cloud functions (we call them "blocks") from the command line.

Once deployed, you can use your blocks from just about anywhere. For more info, check out: https://www.blockspring.com.

Getting Started

Let's deploy our first block in less than 60 seconds.

To get started, we'll need ruby. If you don't have ruby on your machine, first visit https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/installation/ to install it.

Step 1: Install the Blockspring-CLI tool

$ gem install blockspring-cli

Step 2: Login to Blockspring

We'll need to login with our Blockspring account. No Blockspring account yet? Sign up here first: https://api.blockspring.com/users/sign_up.

$ blockspring login
Enter your Blockspring credentials.
Username or email: jason@example.com
Password (typing will be hidden):
You are logged in as jason.

Step 3: Create a new block

We can create blocks in ruby, python, javascript, php, or R (and more languages are coming soon). Let's create a ruby block since ruby is already installed on our machine.

$ blockspring new rb "My new Ruby block"
Creating directory my-new-ruby-block
Creating script file my-new-ruby-block/block.rb
Creating config file my-new-ruby-block/blockspring.json

Step 4: Deploy your block

Let's enter our new block's directory and deploy.

$ cd my-new-ruby-block
$ blockspring push
Syncronizing script file ./block.rb
Syncronizing config file ./blockspring.json

Step 5: Visit your block's homepage

Now that our block is now deployed we can visit its homepage to see it in action.

$ blockspring open

That's it! We've deployed our first block. To learn more about the Blockspring-CLI, check out the API in Detail section below. Otherwise, let's pick out our favorite language and start writing our own blocks.

Language-Specific Libraries

If you prefer this language...	Use this library...
Ruby	https://github.com/blockspring/blockspring.rb
Python	https://github.com/blockspring/blockspring.py
Javascript	https://github.com/blockspring/blockspring.js
PHP	https://github.com/blockspring/blockspring.php
R	https://github.com/blockspring/blockspring.R

API in Detail

Let's explore the Blockspring-CLI tool API in detail.

Authentication

LOGIN

You must be logged in to run Blockspring-CLI tool commands.

$ blockspring login

LOGOUT

$ blockspring logout

Block Management

GET

We can GET a block down to our local machine. The block will be saved in a new directory and can be edited or even executed locally.

$ blockspring get <block id>

Below is an example GET request for the following block: https://api.blockspring.com/pkpp1233/6dd22564137f10b8108ec6c8f354f031. The block id can be found directly in the URL.

$ blockspring get pkpp1233/6dd22564137f10b8108ec6c8f354f031

NEW

To create a NEW block:

$ blockspring new <language> <block name>

Here are explicit commands to create a new block in each supported language:

// Ruby: creates dir w/ block.rb & blockspring.json
$ blockspring new rb "fun ruby block"

// Python: creates dir w/ block.py & blockspring.json
$ blockspring new py "fun python block"

// Javascript: creates dir w/ block.js & blockspring.json
$ blockspring new js "fun javascript block"

// PHP: creates dir w/ block.php & blockspring.json
$ blockspring new php "fun php block"

// R: creates dir w/ block.R & blockspring.json
$ blockspring new R "fun R block"

The NEW command creates a working directory for your block and populates that directory with two files: a block.* (asterisk is for your language of choice - file holds your function) and a blockspring.json (this file holds the block's configs and additional data).

PULL

We can PULL a block's recent changes down to our machine. PULL is used from our block's working directory.

$ blockspring pull

Note: If the block isn't in a directory on our machine yet, we either need to use GET to retrieve it or NEW to create it.

PUSH

We can PUSH a block's recent changes up to Blockspring. PUSH is used from our block's working directory.

$ blockspring push

OPEN

We can OPEN our block's homepage on Blockspring. OPEN is used from our block's working directory.

$ blockspring open

Executing Blocks from the Command Line

RUN

We can execute our blocks directly from the command line with the RUN command. RUN can be used to execute blocks remotely, or to execute blocks locally on your machine. Blocks, whether they're executed in the cloud or locally, can easily pipe together with other command-line tools.

Let's execute a block remotely by passing parameters into stdin or via command-line arguments.

// execute with stdin (recommended).
$ echo '{"num1": 30, "num2": 50}' | blockspring run <block id>

// execute with args.
$ blockspring run <block id> --num1=30 --num2=50

Remember, a block id can be found directly in a block's URL. The block id for https://api.blockspring.com/pkpp1233/ce6c7c230d8a4ff4d22ae96654ca4bd2 is pkpp1233/ce6c7c230d8a4ff4d22ae96654ca4bd2. Try running the sum with this block id.

$ echo '{"num1": 30, "num2": 50}' | blockspring run pkpp1233/ce6c7c230d8a4ff4d22ae96654ca4bd2

RUN:LOCAL

We can also run blocks locally on our computer. Let's do a GET request to a local directory and then use RUN:LOCAL to execute that block locally without sending any data to Blockspring.

$ blockspring get pkpp1233/ce6c7c230d8a4ff4d22ae96654ca4bd2
$ cd summer-ce6c7c23
$ echo '{"num1": 30, "num2": 50}' | blockspring run:local python block.py

Note: ToRUN blocks locally, we need to have the proper runtimes and dependencies installed. This is a Blockspring WIP. To run the above example locally, we need to make sure we have the python runtime and the blockspring python library installed (see Language-Specific Libraries).

Help

$ blockspring help

If HELP isn't particularly helpful for your problem, just email us: founders@blockspring.com

License

MIT - see the license file.