Set up the backend for your first app in the no-code way!
(Hint: Appwrite)
Are you a no-code or a low-code developer? Or Are you trying to get started with developing web apps or mobile applications?
What if I could tell you, that you can set up the backend for your app without getting overwhelmed with long lines of code? Exciting, right?
Let’s get started by setting up a backend server for our first/next web application on Appwrite!
What is Appwrite?
Appwrite is an open-source solution that helps developers to manage their core backend needs by providing easy-to-use and integrate REST APIs. They provide these solutions for web, mobile and flutter application developers.
Setting up the backend server:
Step 1: Install and launch Appwrite, compatible to your device using the official docs for installation.
Step 2: Sign up on Appwrite after launching it on your localhost.
After you successfully sign up, this is your dashboard. You can view all the projects that you have ever created on this account.
Step 3: Click “Create Project” button in order to create a new project for which we have to set up the backend server.
Provide a suitable name to your project and then create the project. I am using the name “First-Project” for demo purposes.
This is the homepage of the project that we just created. It gives information on the essential parameters for the project we just created.
Step 4: Using the “Add Platform” button, add a platform suitable to your application. I would be using the web application platform for this demonstration.
Provide a name for the web app, a hostname where it runs and register it using the “Register” button.
On successful registering, your homepage reflects the platforms that your project consists of. You can see the “My First Web App” registered on the hostname provided in the screenshot below.
Now, we would add the other parameters to our backend. Check out the features in the tool bar at the left. Let’s create a database for the web app.
Step 5: Click on “Add Collection” to add a new database to your Web App and name it as you like.
On creating a collection, you can then see the Collection ID generated for this collection on the right. This page also shows you the rules and the permissions that have been set up for this collection.
You can add a rule for a label and a key, edit or remove an existing rule using the same page.
Similarly, we can set the read and write access permissions for this collection to a particular user ID, team ID, a role or provide wildcard access.
And then here is a view of all the collections that the project database consists of.
Step 6: We can now add users to our project. For this, select users from the left bar and then create a user by providing the credentials.
Similarly, we can also add scheduled tasks every few minutes or hours. You can read more about scheduling tasks from the official docs.
Step 7: Add a new task and then you can view all the tasks that have been scheduled on the Tasks homepage as shown below.
Step 8: We can also add API keys and provide scopes for each API key. Select “API Keys” from the left bar and then create a new API key with the desired scope as shown below. On creating, you can see the API Keys homepage listing out all the API keys that you have added in your project. You can view the secret API key for every key by clicking on the “Show Secret” option.
And, woah! You have created a basic backend server for your first project in just 8 steps. You can keep customizing this server as you realize the addition or deletion of more features in your project. This is what the homepage of the project looks like.
Wasn’t this easy and stress-free? Check out Appwrite and wishing you all the very best for your next project!
