Start a New Project...How?

I realise that you’re probably going to think I’m a troll, or tell me that if I’m this stupid that I shouldn’t be here but I’m going to try asking anyway. I’m asking in good faith.

I’m following a tutorial from another site (yes I AM still just learning how to code) and they said come here and create a new Node app that I can then muck around with and practice coding as part of their tutorial.

And yet, for the love of each and every God you may hold dear, I can’t find ANY way to start a new plain project. I’ve found “Build your dream app” which I’m guessing has something to do with it, but the only available options are for way more advanced things than what I need.

I know what an SQL database is, and I know I definitely don’t need one. I have no idea what Express is, so obviously that’s more complicated than what I want. And it’s not a website I want to build. Those seem to be the only three options???

How do I just get the most basic, blank, boring, stop offering me bells and whistles I don’t understand yet, empty sandbox your site offers? And why isn’t there a simple and obvious “NEW PROJECT” button???

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The recommended starter project, which is the one Glitch used to remix when you hit the new project button, is the Express one.

I think you’re right @sockporg, I’m sure there used to be a start project button on the front page.

Anyway, the way to get into the editor is to click the 01%20am button in the top right-hand corner. That gets you into the editor, and then you can start a new project as discussed here

(Edited to get the nice discourse onebox.)

Basically, it gives you three options.

  1. The Node app with Express is a starting point for any Node.js application. Express basically lets you host a webpage from a Node serverside.

  2. The Node app with SQLite is basically an extension of the Node app with Express - basic webpage hosting with a database on the serverside for you to work with.

  3. The webpage is, obviously, a basic website without a serverside.

At the moment, there’s no built-in way to create a blank project, and the platform is designed in a way where you have to have at least one project at all times - and, oddly, if you delete all files from a project, then that project will cease to exist.

So, yes, this platform has it’s shortcomings when creating new projects, but it is what it is, and most of that is pretty good.

For now, just create a new Node app and remove what you don’t want. Alternatively, you could remix this project, and start with nothing but a README.md and a project.json.

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Though, Glitch should simplify the webpage as it is hard to use: A new user joins Glitch, Resume Coding though, he has never done coding on Glitch, I would really recommend to simplify the webpage.

related New project button is GONE

I really do think the website layout is user hostile. And I’m not trying to be mean when I say that, I just… This is the only website I’ve found where I have to ask for help on the support forum just to figure out how to get started.

I’m sure it does make sense to those of you who have been here for a while and know what you’re looking for, but to me it looks like a confusing mess of things I don’t understand and don’t want to poke at in case I break things.

I tried hitting “resume coding” before all of you had contributed answers, and from what it looks like to me, I was added to someone else’s project? At random?? I’m scared to touch anything on it in case I screw it up. I did manage to get my own started thanks to your answers, but I don’t know how to leave the other one.

Is there any way to let the staff know just how badly confusing the front page is to people who haven’t been using it regularly?

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Yep, all valid points. The plan is to re-add the new project button to the homepage. See Add ability to create new project from Glitch homescreen for details.

The resume coding button loads the editor with the last project you were editing or viewing. We don’t add you to projects at random. To remove yourself from a project, click on your avatar in the list of project members at the top left of the editor when viewing the project. You’ll see the option from there.

I hadn’t ever viewed ANY projects, though, so how did I get added to one when I hit “resume coding”? I never viewed or edited anything before pressing that button, and suddenly I’m added to some project I’ve never seen before.

If you let us know the project name we can take a look.

Hey @sockporg, the project you were taken to when you clicked “resume coding” should be one of the starter projects. Don’t worry, you won’t wreck anyone else’s project by editing it. It was created automatically for you because of how the platform is designed - it’s impossible to not have an ongoing project.

If you don’t want that project, just click on the project name in the top right, select “advanced options”, and then “delete this project”.

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Hi, just updating to let you know we’ve made it easier to create a new project, straight from the header of glitch.com

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Looks cool! What do you think about stripping the hello- from the project names before displaying them?

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we do plan on doing that in the future for sure, we can’t just change them right now cuz it’ll break the editor in the short term

Couldn’t you make it a display-only change? (i.e. change it in that menu but leave it the same everywhere else)

it’s a display only shim on the editor, what I’d prefer to do is change that to be accurate and then change the project to a better/less-noisy name. That way it’s less of a maintenance burden in the future

The same situation was with my personal project- Bitcoin Flip Trading game. At the beginning I had no mentor on my road of my dream app, but then in one party I met programmer who afterwords helped me and did everything for me, but I will sent him the link to your problem maybe he could check this out :slight_smile: