Appwrite, giving it a shot this Hacktoberfest ‘21

This is in reference to me finally trying out Appwrite!! I have been curious since I knew about it but never got around to understanding it or really when should I use it. I am finally giving this a shot and thanking Muthu Annamalai for this article on its introduction.

On its Github page it says,

Appwrite is a secure end-to-end backend server for Web, Mobile, and Flutter developers that is packaged as a set of Docker containers for easy deployment. My plan is to install it and work with one of its getting started guide, that’s what I have done in my blog too.

First step is downloading Docker Desktop. For installing Appwrite, installing Docker is a very big part of it. I don’t really know what Docker is, you can read about it here; I am installing it. *fingers crossed* (You ask why? It didn’t run the first time :|, said it a little early; note the sarcasm, it’s a deathwish to install Docker really, I have been in front of this screen for half of the day and it still won’t run; I am gonna write an article for it and maybe provide an easy way out *cries in docker*). Well, after three-fourish days, I have downloaded it and its running finally, YESS (I had some system problem, so ya it was my problem). You can read my article to know what helped me, here.

Now that Docker is installed and running, we can install Appwrite.

First for installing it, make sure your firewall is off (though I don’t think everybody has to do it but I had to); Docker is running, check that by writing this in Command or PowerShell (I’m using PowerShell here):

wsl -l -v

Then use code given here to complete it, sometimes the code written in Command may not work (Idk why) then try PowerShell, I am pretty sure it’ll work there. This video was quite helpful:

Appwrite installing and running video. Credit: React Bits

Unix:

Command:

PowerShell:

Then these defaults will come, you can set or just put default values here like this:

Since I’m a windows user, it took few minutes. Wow, finally, I have installed Appwrite, horraay :)

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

After that write in Command, PowerShell or Ubuntu:

A list of Appwrite appears:

To check the health of appwrite app installed, write this:

cd appwrite (to go into appwrite folder)
docker-compose exec appwrite doctor (to check it’s condition)

expect something like this:

or

To look at Appwrite logs,

It’s working properly, there aren’t any errors.

Now, we can access our installation from localhost. Just write “localhost” in your browser. You should see something like this:

Sign up and let’s get started.

Now that we have installed Appwrite and have it running in our machine. Let’s see how to use it.

Create Project:

Dashboard of Appwrite

Click on Create Project and name the project and click create to create your first Appwrite project. Easy right?

Now it navigates to the homepage of your project:

Appwrite CLI

As a beginner with using this, I am going to try Appwrite CLI, it seems pretty easy. The Appwrite CLI is a command-line application that allows you to interact with the Appwrite server-side APIs and perform server-side tasks quickly using the terminal.

For Windows user, in PowerShell, write the code given below and then copy the code given in its end, run it and then write N (re. that you have no problem with executing it) and then close PowerShell and re-run it again with the code below. Other systems can follow this, here.

To validate the installation:

To initialize the CLI with:

_ -_-_ Starting Prompt

Choose your API Endpoint: ( default: http://localhost/v1 ) 

Press ‘Enter’.

Enter your project from the Appwrite console:

Go to your dashboard in browser, Home> Select Project (Here, Project-1)> Settings> Overview> Project ID, copy it and paste it in PowerShell.

Enter your key from the Appwrite console:

On the left sidebar> select API Keys> Add API Key> Name it(cli here)> Select All> Create> Show Secret> Copy and paste it in PowerShell after the code above.

Enter your locale: : ( default: en-US )

Press ‘Enter’.

Let’s create a user:

Output may look like:

Let’s create some more user emails and passwords:

Now, let’s see the list of users and related information:

Output may look like:

The project has three users now:

We can also view the list of continents using:

That’s all from my side in this blog of first trying Appwrite. I would like to do more with it and write about my experience here :) It was very nice to finally be able to use it but I think it is capable of more than what I have worked with till now.

Till then, be safe and take care of yourself.

Also, this is the month of Hacktoberfest, do participate and contribute to open source!!

Happy Appwriting!! Do join Appwrite community, here.

Thank you for reading.