Too Long; Didn't Read
<a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/elm" target="_blank">Elm</a> ports is one of the main ways to interact with <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/javascript" target="_blank">JavaScript</a>. However I feel like I need to tell you that if you can get away with it, you should just use flags. Flags pass in some initial value to Elm to start with and is the easiest way no doubt. However if you want more back and forth communication ports is the way.