Create your first collection

This tutorial will guide you through creating your first Open Terms Archive collection.

By the end, you’ll have a working collection that tracks changes to a service’s privacy policy. You will also have a basic understanding of how to create a collection.

Prerequisites 🔗

Node.js is installed on your system.
You have basic familiarity with the command line.
You know how to use a text editor.

Create a collection 🔗

Step 1: Set up the directory structure 🔗

Create a new directory:

mkdir ota-tutorial-declarations
cd ota-tutorial-declarations

Create a declarations directory inside the project. This is where you will declare the service and terms you want to track:
```
mkdir declarations
```
Create the configuration file for the collection:
```
mkdir config
```

Step 2: Create the service declaration 🔗

Create a file declarations/Open Terms Archive.json with the following content. For detailed instructions on how to structure it, follow the Tracking terms tutorial:

{
  "name": "Open Terms Archive",
  "documents": {
    "Privacy Policy": {
      "fetch": "https://opentermsarchive.org/en/privacy-policy",
      "select": ".textcontent"
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Create the metadata file 🔗

Create a file metadata.yaml:

id: ota-tutorial
name: Tutorial collection
tagline: Learn how to create a collection
description: |
  A step-by-step tutorial collection that guides through creating an Open Terms Archive collection.
  Track terms and conditions from websites while learning the basics of declarations, configuration, and metadata.  
languages: [en]
jurisdictions: [EU]

Step 3: Create the configuration file 🔗

Create a file config/development.json and set the tracking schedule to every minute:
```
{
  "trackingSchedule": "* * * * *"
}
```

Step 4: Install and run the engine 🔗

Install the Open Terms Archive engine:

npm install --save @opentermsarchive/engine

Start the scheduled tracking of the declared terms:
```
npx ota track --schedule
```
After one minute, check the results:

Check the extracted version, which should contain the Privacy Policy of Open Terms Archive in Markdown format without any other content (no header, footer…): ./data/versions/Open Terms Archive/Privacy Policy.md.
Check the snapshot, which is the original HTML document of the Open Terms Archive Privacy Policy: ./data/snapshots/Open Terms Archive/Privacy Policy.html.

Congratulations! You have created your first collection.