# What do I need to work with Reaction?

One of the most common questions we get is what sort of technical background do I need in order to work with Reaction.

What you need to know depends heavily on what you want to do. Find the category that most matches what you want to accomplish.

## I want to just use Reaction Commerce to create and run my store.

If you want to just run RC without any modifications and are using our hosted plan, you really don't need to know anything more than you would with any web application. (that is, just learning how to use it) Our docs cover how to create and administer products and how to process orders. Within the Dashboard you can upload your logo, change the name of your store and set your shipping and payment options.

## I want to change the look of some of the pages.

If you are going to change things beyond just basic colors, etc. (which can be changed in the Dashboard) you will need to understand HTML and CSS which we won't cover here. In additional, if you are using any of our starter themes you should also understand LESS. (http://lesscss.org/) and jQuery (http://jquery.org).

In addition, it's important to at least understand what makes Meteor different from other web framework so that you won't spend so much time scratching your head. Because depending on your level of experience, Meteor may operate differently than you expect. Check out the "What is Meteor" and "Meteor Basics" sections for a quick overview of what makes Meteor different and how to get started with learning some Meteor. Specifically you will want to understand these Meteor concepts:

* Basics of Meteor reactivity
* How the Blaze engine works (using Templates)
* How the Blaze Layout Engine works

Our own documentation guides you in how to create themes, but if you want to understand what is really going on it's best to understand these basics.

## I want to change the behavior of some of the pages

To start making changes to the behavior of pages you will need to understand at least these concepts:

* A basic understanding of Javascript and specifically the ES6 version of Javascript.
* A basic understand of reactivity in Meteor and how and when data gets updated.
* Publications and Subscriptions in Meteor

## I want to create my own package

* Understand how Meteor's packaging system works and how to create a `package.js`

## I want to create payment or shipping packages

* How to use NPM package in Meteor (most payment providers provide Node drivers, but not Meteor-specific)
* How to `wrapAsync` or `Promise` to wrap async NPM packages as sync methods.

If your payment provider does **not** provide a Node driver, then you will need to probably understand how to make and process REST calls using the `http` library.

## I want to change the checkout workflow

* Understand how FlowRouter works (which our own `ReactionRouter` is based on)
* A solid understanding of Pub/Sub in Meteor
* A strong understanding Meteor Reactivity and how the Blaze Layout engine works.

# What is Meteor?
http://joshowens.me/what-is-meteor-js/

# Meteor Basics
Fill in later plus links