How it works

This is the official documentation of the @forestadmin/agent Node.js agent.

Before you start writing a single line of code, it’s a good idea to get an overview of how Forest Admin works. The magic lies in its architecture.

Forest Admin provides you with:

  • An API, hosted on your server, to retrieve your data. We call it the Agent. It can be a standalone project or embedded within your app.

  • A user interface, to access and manage your data from your browser. This Forest Admin User Interface is built and managed through resources hosted on Forest Admin's servers.

For a more in-depth explanation of Forest Admin's architecture (the Node.JS agent version), please read the following article ↗.

The agent

The agent is generated upon installation and hosted on your end.

It includes an API allowing you to translate calls made from the Forest Admin UI into queries to your database (covering actions such as CRUD, search & filters, pagination, sorting, etc.).

It also provides the Forest Admin servers with the information needed to build the User Interface (the Forest Admin Schema). This information includes table names, column names and types, and relationships. It is sent when you run your agent within a file called forestadmin-schema.json.

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