hello-world.md

Hello world app without CLI

Manual code way walkthrough (alternative to CLI) for building a minimal AdminForth app without the CLI, including project setup, resources, authentication, and server configuration.

Hello world app without CLI

While AdminForth CLI is the fastest way to create a new project, you can also create a new project manually.

This might help you better understand how AdminForth project is structured and how to customize it.

Here we create database with users and posts tables and admin panel for it.

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

When back-office user creates a new post it will be automatically assigned using authorId to the user who created it.

Prerequisites

We will use Node v20 for this demo. If you have other Node versions, we recommend using NVM to switch them easily:

nvm install 20
nvm alias default 20
nvm use 20

Installation

mkdir af-hello
cd af-hello
pnpm init
pnpm add adminforth express@^4 @dotenvx/dotenvx @types/express typescript tsx @types/node prisma @prisma/client -D
npx --yes tsc --init --module NodeNext --target ESNext

Environment variables

Create two files in your project's root directory:

.env.local — Place your non-sensitive environment variables here (e.g., local database paths, default configurations). This file can be safely committed to your repository as a demo or template configuration.
.env — Store sensitive tokens and secrets here (for example, ADMINFORTH_SECRET and other private keys). Ensure that .env is added to your .gitignore to prevent accidentally committing sensitive data.

Put the following content to the .env.local file:

ADMINFORTH_SECRET=123
NODE_ENV=development
DATABASE_URL=sqlite://.db.sqlite
PRISMA_DATABASE_URL=file:.db.sqlite

☝️ Production best practices:

Most likely you not need .env file at all, instead you should use environment variables (from Docker, Kubernetes, Operating System, etc.)

Set NODE_ENV to production in your deployment environment to optimize performance and disable development features like hot reloading.

You should generate very unique value ADMINFORTH_SECRET and store it in Vault or other secure place.

Setting up the scripts

Open package.json and add the following scripts:

{
  ...
//diff-add
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    ...
//diff-add
    "dev": "pnpm _env:dev tsx watch index.ts",
//diff-add
    "prod": "pnpm _env:prod tsx index.ts",
//diff-add
    "start": "pnpm dev",
//diff-add
    "makemigration": "pnpm _env:dev npx --yes prisma migrate dev --create-only",
//diff-add
    "migrate:local": "pnpm _env:dev npx --yes prisma migrate deploy",
//diff-add
    "migrate:prod": "pnpm _env:prod npx --yes prisma migrate deploy",
//diff-add
    "_env:dev": "dotenvx run -f .env -f .env.local --",
//diff-add
    "_env:prod": "dotenvx run -f .env.prod --"
  },
//diff-add
  "engines": {
    //diff-add
    "author": "",
    //diff-add
    "node": ">=20"
    //diff-add
  },
}

Create ./pnpm-workspace.yaml and put next content there:

onlyBuiltDependencies:
  - better-sqlite3

Run installation command to apply all dependencies

pnpm install

Setting up AdminForth

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

import express from 'express';
import AdminForth from 'adminforth';
import usersResource from "./resources/adminuser.js";
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
import path from 'path';
import { Filters } from 'adminforth';
import { initApi } from './api.js';
import { logger } from 'adminforth';

const ADMIN_BASE_URL = '';

export const admin = new AdminForth({
  baseUrl: ADMIN_BASE_URL,
  auth: {
    usersResourceId: 'adminuser',
    usernameField: 'email',
    passwordHashField: 'password_hash',
    rememberMeDuration: '30d', 
    loginBackgroundImage: 'https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1534239697798-120952b76f2b?q=80&w=3389&auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D',
    loginBackgroundPosition: '1/2',
    loginPromptHTML: async () => { 
      const adminforthUserExists = await admin.resource("adminuser").count(Filters.EQ('email', 'adminforth')) > 0;
      if (adminforthUserExists) {
        return "Please use adminforth as username and adminforth as password"
      }
    },
  },
  customization: {
    brandName: "myadmin",
    title: "myadmin",

    datesFormat: 'DD MMM',
    timeFormat: 'HH:mm a',
  showBrandNameInSidebar: true,
  showBrandLogoInSidebar: true,
    emptyFieldPlaceholder: '-',
    styles: {
      colors: {
        light: {
          primary: '#1a56db',
          sidebar: { main: '#f9fafb', text: '#213045' },
        },
        dark: {
          primary: '#82ACFF',
          sidebar: { main: '#1f2937', text: '#9ca3af' },
        }
      }
    },
  },
  dataSources: [
    {
      id: 'maindb',
      url: `${process.env.DATABASE_URL}`
    },
  ],
  resources: [
    usersResource
  ],
  menu: [
    { type: 'heading', label: 'SYSTEM' },
    {
      label: 'Users',
      icon: 'flowbite:user-solid',
      resourceId: 'adminuser'
    }
  ],
});

if (fileURLToPath(import.meta.url) === path.resolve(process.argv[1])) {
  const app = express();
  app.use(express.json());

  initApi(app, admin);

  const port = 3500;
  
  admin.bundleNow({ hotReload: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' }).then(() => {
    logger.info('Bundling AdminForth SPA done.');
  });

  admin.express.serve(app);

  admin.discoverDatabases().then(async () => {
    if (await admin.resource('adminuser').count() === 0) {
      await admin.resource('adminuser').create({
        email: 'adminforth',
        password_hash: await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash('adminforth'),
        role: 'superadmin',
      });
    }
  });

  admin.express.listen(port, () => {
    logger.info(`\x1b[38;5;249m ⚡ AdminForth is available at\x1b[1m\x1b[38;5;46m http://localhost:${port}${ADMIN_BASE_URL}\x1b[0m\n`);
  });
}

☝️ For simplicity we defined whole configuration in one file. Normally once configuration grows you should move each resource configuration to separate file and organize them to folder and import them in index.ts.

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

import { Express, Response } from "express";
import { IAdminForth, IAdminUserExpressRequest } from "adminforth";
import * as z from "zod";

export function initApi(app: Express, admin: IAdminForth) {
  app.get(`${admin.config.baseUrl}/api/hello/`,

    admin.express.withSchema(
      {
        description: "Returns example data from a custom Express API together with the current authenticated AdminForth user.",
        response: z.object({
          message: z.string(),
          users: z.array(z.record(z.string(), z.unknown())),
          adminUser: z.record(z.string(), z.unknown()),
        }),
      },

      // you can use data API to work with your database https://adminforth.dev/docs/tutorial/Customization/dataApi/
      // and admin.express.authorize to inject req.adminUser
      admin.express.authorize(
        async (req: IAdminUserExpressRequest, res: Response) => {
          const allUsers = await admin.resource("adminuser").list([]);
          res.json({
            message: "Hello from AdminForth API!",
            users: allUsers,
            adminUser: req.adminUser,
          });
        }
      )
    )
  );
}

Install and import Zod before using this pattern: pnpm add zod or npm install zod, then import * as z from 'zod';. admin.express.withSchema(...) will convert the Zod schema to OpenAPI for you.

Update tsconfig.json file in root directory with following content:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "esnext",
    "module": "nodenext",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "strict": true
  },
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "dist"]
}

Create new directory ./resources/adminuser.ts with following content:

import AdminForth, { AdminForthDataTypes } from 'adminforth';
import type { AdminForthResourceInput, AdminForthResource, AdminUser } from 'adminforth';
import { randomUUID } from 'crypto';
import { logger } from 'adminforth';

async function allowedForSuperAdmin({ adminUser }: { adminUser: AdminUser }): Promise<boolean> {
  return adminUser.dbUser.role === 'superadmin';
}

export default {
  dataSource: 'maindb',
  table: 'adminuser',
  resourceId: 'adminuser',
  label: 'Admin Users',
  recordLabel: (r) => `👤 ${r.email}`,
  options: {
    allowedActions: {
      edit: allowedForSuperAdmin,
      delete: allowedForSuperAdmin,
    },
  },
  columns: [
    {
      name: 'id',
      primaryKey: true,
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.STRING,
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => randomUUID(),
      showIn: {
        edit: false,
        create: false,
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'email',
      required: true,
      isUnique: true,
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.STRING,
      validation: [
        // you can also use AdminForth.Utils.EMAIL_VALIDATOR which is alias to this object
        {
          regExp: '^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$',
          message: 'Email is not valid, must be in format example@test.com'
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      name: 'created_at',
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.DATETIME,
      showIn: {
        edit: false,
        create: false,
      },
      fillOnCreate: ({ initialRecord, adminUser }) => (new Date()).toISOString(),
    },
    {
      name: 'role',
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.STRING,
      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: { // to show field only on create and edit pages
        show: false,
        list: false,
        filter: false,
      },
      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',
      type: AdminForthDataTypes.STRING,
      backendOnly: true,
      showIn: { all: false }
    }
  ],
  hooks: {
    create: {
      beforeSave: async ({ record, adminUser, resource }: { record: any, adminUser: AdminUser, resource: AdminForthResource }) => {
        record.password_hash = await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash(record.password);
        return { ok: true };
      }
    },
    edit: {
      beforeSave: async ({ oldRecord, updates, adminUser, resource }: { oldRecord: any, updates: any, adminUser: AdminUser, resource: AdminForthResource }) => {
        logger.info(`Updating user, ${updates}`);
        if (oldRecord.id === adminUser.dbUser.id && updates.role) {
          return { ok: false, error: 'You cannot change your own role' };
        }
        if (updates.password) {
          updates.password_hash = await AdminForth.Utils.generatePasswordHash(updates.password);
        }
        return { ok: true }
      },
    },
  },
} as AdminForthResourceInput;

Create new directory ./custom/tsconfig.json with following content:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@/*": ["../node_modules/adminforth/dist/spa/src/*"],
      "@@/*": ["./*"]
    }
  }
}

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:

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client-js"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "sqlite"
}

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

Create ./prisma.config.ts and put next content there:

import 'dotenv/config'
import { defineConfig, env } from 'prisma/config'

export default defineConfig({
  datasource: {
    url: env('PRISMA_DATABASE_URL'),
  },
})

Create database using prisma migrate:

pnpm run makemigration --name init ; pnpm run migrate:local

Now you can run your app:

pnpm start

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

Initializing custom directory

If you are not using CLI, you can create custom directory and initialize it with npm:

cd ./custom
npm init -y

We will use this directory for all custom components. If you want to call your dir with other name then custom, just set customComponentsDir option

Also, for better development experience we recommend to create file custom/tsconfig.json with the following content:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@/*": [
        "../node_modules/adminforth/dist/spa/src/*"
      ],
      "*": [
        "../node_modules/adminforth/dist/spa/node_modules/*"
      ],
      "@@/*": [
        "."
      ]
    }
  }
}

Possible configuration options

Check AdminForthConfig for all possible options.

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Hello world app without CLI

Hello world app without CLI

Prerequisites

Installation

Environment variables

Setting up the scripts

Setting up AdminForth

Database creation

Initializing custom directory

Possible configuration options

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Hello world app without CLI

Hello world app without CLI

Prerequisites

Installation

Environment variables

Setting up the scripts

Setting up AdminForth

Database creation

Initializing custom directory

Possible configuration options