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Getting Started

This Getting Started Page has some explanations and tables with various field types. For faster and shorter hello world example check out Hello World

Prerequisites​

AdminForth requires Node v18 or higher:

nvm install 20
nvm alias default 20
nvm use 20

Installation​

mkdir myadmin
cd myadmin
npm init -y
npm install adminforth

AdminForth does not provide own HTTP server, but can add own listeners over exisitng Express server (Fastify support is planned in future). This allows to create custom APIs for backoffice in a way you know.

npm install express

You can use AdminForth in pure Node, but we recommend using TypeScript for better development experience:

npm install typescript@5.4.5 tsx@4.11.2  @types/express  @types/node --save-dev
npx --yes tsc --init --module NodeNext --target ESNext

Basic Philosophy​

AdminForth connects to existing databases and provides a back-office for managing data including CRUD operations, filtering, sorting, and more.

Database should be already created by using any database management tool, ORM or migrator. AdminForth does not provide a way to create tables or columns in the database.

Once you have a database, you pass a connection string to AdminForth and define resources(tables) and columns you would like to see in back-office. For most DBs AdminForth can "discover" column types and constraints (e.g. max-length) by connecting to DB. However you can redefine them in AdminForth configuration. Type and constraints definition are take precedence over DB schema.

Also in AdminForth you can define in "Vue" way:

  • how each field will be rendered
  • create own pages e.g. Dashboards
  • insert injections into standard pages (e.g. add diagram to list view)

Setting up a first demo​

In the demo we will create a simple database with 2 tables: apartments and users. We will just use plain SQL to create tables and insert some fake data.

Users table will be used to store a credentials for login into backoffice itself.

Open package.json, set type to module and add start script:

./package.json
{
  ...
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    ...
    "start": "tsx watch --env-file=.env index.ts"
  },
}

Create .env file in root directory with following content:

./.env
DATABASE_FILE=./db.sqlite
DATABASE_FILE_URL=file:${DATABASE_FILE}
ADMINFORTH_SECRET=123
NODE_ENV=development

☝️ In production:

  1. you should set NODE_ENV to production so it will not waste extra resources on hot reload.
  2. You should autogenerate ADMINFORTH_SECRET

☝️ If you are using Git, obviously you should make sure you will never commit .env file to the repository, because it might contain your own sensitive secrets. So to follow best practices, we recommend to add .env into .gitignore and create .env.sample as template for other repository users. During deployment you should set ADMINFORTH_SECRET in environment variables of Docker image or in other way without using .env file.

Database creation​

☝️ For demo purposes we will create a database using Prisma and SQLite. You can also create it using any other favorite tool or ORM and skip this step.

Create ./schema.prisma and put next content there:

./schema.prisma
generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client-js"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "sqlite"
  url      = env("DATABASE_FILE_URL")
}

model users {
  id            String     @id
  created_at    DateTime 
  email         String   @unique
  role          String     
  password_hash String
}

model apartments {
  id                String     @id
  created_at        DateTime? 
  title             String 
  square_meter      Float?
  price             Decimal
  number_of_rooms   Int?
  description       String?
  country           String?
  listed            Boolean
  realtor_id        String?
}

Create database using prisma migrate:

npx --yes prisma migrate dev --name init

☝️ In future, if you will need to change schema, you can create new migration with npx prisma migrate dev --name <name>

Create index.ts file in root directory with following content:

./index.ts
import express from 'express';
import AdminForth, { Filters } from 'adminforth';
import usersResource from "./resources/users";
import apartmentsResource from "./resources/apartments";


const ADMIN_BASE_URL = '';

export const admin = new AdminForth({
  baseUrl : ADMIN_BASE_URL,
  auth: {
    usersResourceId: 'users',  // resource to get user during login
    usernameField: 'email',  // field where username is stored, should exist in resource
    passwordHashField: 'password_hash',
    rememberMeDays: 30, // users who will check "remember me" will stay logged in for 30 days
  },
  customization: {
    brandName: 'My Admin',
    datesFormat: 'D MMM YY',
    timeFormat: 'HH:mm:ss',
    emptyFieldPlaceholder: '-',
  },
  dataSources: [
    {
      id: 'maindb',
      url: `sqlite://${process.env.DATABASE_FILE}`
    },
  ],
  resources: [
    apartmentsResource,
    usersResource,
  ],
  menu: [
    {
      label: 'Core',
      icon: 'flowbite:brain-solid', // any icon from iconify supported in format <setname>:<icon>, e.g. from here https://icon-sets.iconify.design/flowbite/
      open: true,
      children: [
        {
          homepage: true,
          label: 'Apartments',
          icon: 'flowbite:home-solid',
          resourceId: 'aparts',
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      type: 'gap'
    },
    {
      type: 'divider'
    },
    {
      type: 'heading',
      label: 'SYSTEM',
    },
    {
      label: 'Users',
      icon: 'flowbite:user-solid',
      resourceId: 'users',
    }
  ],
});

if (import.meta.url === `file://${process.argv[1]}`) {
  // if script is executed directly e.g. node index.ts or npm start


  const app = express()
  app.use(express.json());
  const port = 3500;

  // needed to compile SPA. Call it here or from a build script e.g. in Docker build time to reduce downtime
  await admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development'});
  console.log('Bundling AdminForth done. For faster serving consider calling bundleNow() from a build script.');


  // serve after you added all api
  admin.express.serve(app)

  admin.discoverDatabases().then(async () => {
    if (!await admin.resource('users').get([Filters.EQ('email', 'adminforth')])) {
      await admin.resource('users').create({
        email: 'adminforth',
        password_hash: await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash('adminforth'),
        role: 'superadmin',
      });
    }
  });

  app.listen(port, () => {
    console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`)
    console.log(`\n⚡ AdminForth is available at http://localhost:${port}${ADMIN_BASE_URL}\n`)
  });
}

Next step you need to create resources folder.

Create apartments.ts in resources:

/apartments.ts
import { AdminForthDataTypes, AdminForthResource } from 'adminforth';

export default {
  dataSource: 'maindb',
  table: 'apartments',
  resourceId: 'aparts', // resourceId is defaulted to table name but you can redefine it like this e.g. 
  // in case of same table names from different data sources
  label: 'Apartments',   // label is defaulted to table name but you can change it
  recordLabel: (r) => `🏡 ${r.title}`,
  columns: [
    {
      name: 'id',
      label: 'Identifier',  // if you wish you can redefine label, defaulted to uppercased name
      showIn: ['filter', 'show'], // show column in filter and in show page
      primaryKey: true,
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => Math.random().toString(36).substring(7),  // called during creation to generate content of field, initialRecord is values user entered, adminUser object of user who creates record
    },
    {
      name: 'title',
      required: true,
      showIn: ['list', 'create', 'edit', 'filter', 'show'],  // all available options
      maxLength: 255,  // you can set max length for string fields
      minLength: 3,  // you can set min length for string fields
    },
    {
      name: 'created_at',
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.DATETIME,
      allowMinMaxQuery: true,
      showIn: ['list', 'filter', 'show', 'edit'],
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => (new Date()).toISOString(),
    },
    {
      name: 'price',
      allowMinMaxQuery: true,  // use better experience for filtering e.g. date range, set it only if you have index on this column or if you sure there will be low number of rows
      editingNote: 'Price is in USD',  // you can put a note near field on editing or creating page
    },
    {
      name: 'square_meter',
      label: 'Square',
      allowMinMaxQuery: true,
      minValue: 1,  // you can set min /max value for number columns so users will not be able to enter more/less
      maxValue: 1000,
    },
    {
      name: 'number_of_rooms',
      allowMinMaxQuery: true,
      enum: [
        { value: 1, label: '1 room' },
        { value: 2, label: '2 rooms' },
        { value: 3, label: '3 rooms' },
        { value: 4, label: '4 rooms' },
        { value: 5, label: '5 rooms' },
      ],
    },
    {
      name: 'description',
      sortable: false,
      showIn: ['show', 'edit', 'create', 'filter'],
    },
    {
      name: 'country',
      enum: [{
        value: 'US',
        label: 'United States'
      }, {
        value: 'DE',
        label: 'Germany'
      }, {
        value: 'FR',
        label: 'France'
      }, {
        value: 'GB',
        label: 'United Kingdom'
      }, {
        value: 'NL',
        label: 'Netherlands'
      }, {
        value: 'IT',
        label: 'Italy'
      }, {
        value: 'ES',
        label: 'Spain'
      }, {
        value: 'DK',
        label: 'Denmark'
      }, {
        value: 'PL',
        label: 'Poland'
      }, {
        value: 'UA',
        label: 'Ukraine'
      }, {
        value: null,
        label: 'Not defined'
      }],
    },
    {
      name: 'listed',
      required: true,  // will be required on create/edit
    },
    {
      name: 'realtor_id',
      foreignResource: {
        resourceId: 'users',
      }
    }
  ],
  options: {
    listPageSize: 12,
    allowedActions: {
      edit: true,
      delete: true,
      show: true,
      filter: true,
    },
  },
} as AdminForthResource;

Create users.ts in resources:

/users.ts
import AdminForth, { AdminForthDataTypes, AdminForthResource } from 'adminforth';
export default {
  dataSource: 'maindb',
  table: 'users',
  resourceId: 'users',
  label: 'Users',
  recordLabel: (r) => `👤 ${r.email}`,
  columns: [
    {
      name: 'id',
      primaryKey: true,
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => Math.random().toString(36).substring(7),
      showIn: ['list', 'filter', 'show'],
    },
    {
      name: 'email',
      required: true,
      isUnique: true,
      validation: [
        // you can also use AdminForth.Utils.EMAIL_VALIDATOR which is alias to this object 
        {
          regExp: '^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$',
          message: 'Email is not valid, must be in format example@test.com'
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      name: 'created_at',
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.DATETIME,
      showIn: ['list', 'filter', 'show'],
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => (new Date()).toISOString(),
    },
    {
      name: 'role',
      enum: [
        { value: 'superadmin', label: 'Super Admin' },
        { value: 'user', label: 'User' },
      ]
    },
    {
      name: 'password',
      virtual: true,  // field will not be persisted into db
      required: { create: true }, // make required only on create page
      editingNote: { edit: 'Leave empty to keep password unchanged' },
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.STRING,
      showIn: ['create', 'edit'], // to show field only on create and edit pages
      masked: true, // to show stars in input field

      minLength: 8,
      validation: [
        // request to have at least 1 digit, 1 upper case, 1 lower case
        AdminForth.Utils.PASSWORD_VALIDATORS.UP_LOW_NUM,
      ],
    },
    { name: 'password_hash', backendOnly: true, showIn: [] }
  ],
  hooks: {
    create: {
      beforeSave: async ({ record, adminUser, resource }) => {
        record.password_hash = await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash(record.password);
        return { ok: true };
      }
    },
    edit: {
      beforeSave: async ({ record, adminUser, resource }) => {
        if (record.password) {
          record.password_hash = await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash(record.password);
        }
        return { ok: true }
      },
    },
  }
} as AdminForthResource;

Now you can run your app:

npm start

Open http://localhost:3500 in your browser and login with credentials adminforth / adminforth.

alt text

Generating fake records​

./index.ts
async function seedDatabase() {
  if (await admin.resource('aparts').count() > 0) {
    return
  }
  for (let i = 0; i <= 50; i++) {
    await admin.resource('aparts').create({
      id: `${i}`,
      title: `Apartment ${i}`,
      square_meter: (Math.random() * 100).toFixed(1),
      price: (Math.random() * 10000).toFixed(2),
      number_of_rooms: Math.floor(Math.random() * 4) + 1,
      description: 'Next gen apartments',
      created_at: (new Date(Date.now() - Math.random() * 60 * 60 * 24 * 14 * 1000)).toISOString(),
      listed: i % 2 == 0,
      country: `${['US', 'DE', 'FR', 'GB', 'NL', 'IT', 'ES', 'DK', 'PL', 'UA'][Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)]}`
    });
  };
};

if (import.meta.url === `file://${process.argv[1]}`) {

  ...

  admin.discoverDatabases().then(async () => {
    if (!await admin.resource('users').get([Filters.EQ('email', 'adminforth')])) {
      await admin.resource('users').create({
        email: 'adminforth',
        password_hash: await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash('adminforth'),
        role: 'superadmin',
      });
    }
    await seedDatabase();
  });

This will create records during first launch. Now you should see: alt text

Possible configuration options​

Check AdminForthConfig for all possible options.