Developer Guide
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  • Forest Admin
  • Getting Started
    • Quick start
    • Development workflow
  • Reference Guide
    • How it works
      • Environments
      • Developing on Forest Admin
        • Using branches
        • Deploying your changes
        • Forest CLI commands
          • init
          • login
          • branch
          • switch
          • set-origin
          • push
          • environments:reset
          • environments:create
          • deploy
          • schema:diff [beta]
        • Express packages
    • Models
      • Enrich your models
      • Relationships
        • Create a Smart relationship
          • GetIdsFromRequest
        • Smart Relationship Examples
          • Smart hasMany relationship in mongoDB
    • Actions
      • Create and manage Smart Actions
        • Use a Smart Action Form
        • Use a Smart Action Intent
      • Smart Action Examples
        • Calculate the distance between two string addresses
        • Impersonate a user
        • Create a record with a multiselect through a many-to-many relationship
        • Handle enums with alias labels in a smart action
        • Dropdown with list of values in smart action form
        • Custom dynamic dropdown in a form using smart collections
        • Refresh hasMany relationship in smart action
        • Smart segment to restrict access to an action on a record details view
        • BelongsToMany edition through smart collection
        • Upload files to amazon s3
        • Upload several files with the File Picker
        • Retrieve smart field info in a smart action
        • Smart action to create several records from the input of a single smart action form
        • Add many existing records at the same time (hasMany-belongsTo relationship)
        • Call a webhook with record ids
        • Bulk update records
    • Smart Fields
      • Smart Field Examples
        • Add an HTML credit card as a smart field in a summary view
        • Display field with complex info in html format (rich text editor)
        • Generate signed urls to display S3 files in a smart field
        • Print a status object in a single line field
        • Sort by smart field
        • Sort by smart field that includes value from a belongsTo relationship
        • Add fields destined to the create form
        • Add validation to a smart field edition
        • Display smart field as progress bar using rich text editor
        • Update point geometry field using a smart field and algolia api
    • Smart Collections
      • Examples
        • Create a Smart Collection with Amazon S3
        • Smart relationship between model and stripe cards
        • Create records from a Smart collection
        • Searchable smart collection with records fetched from hubspot API
      • Serializing your records
    • Routes
      • Default routes
      • Extend a route
      • Override a route
    • Integrations
      • Stripe
      • Mixpanel
      • Intercom
      • Elasticsearch
        • Interact with your Elasticsearch data
        • Elasticsearch service/utils
        • Another example
      • Zendesk
        • Authentication, Filtering & Sorting
        • Display Zendesk tickets
        • Display Zendesk users
        • View tickets related to a user
        • Bonus: Direct link to Zendesk + change priority of a ticket
      • Dwolla
        • Display Dwolla customers
        • Display Dwolla funding sources
        • Display Dwolla transfers
        • Link users and Dwolla customers
        • Dwolla Service
      • Razorpay
      • Hubspot
        • Create a Hubspot company
        • Display Hubspot companies
      • Twilio
        • Send an SMS with Twilio and Zapier
      • Azure Table Storage
      • Slack
        • Send Smart Action notifications to Slack
      • Algolia
        • Geocode an address with Algolia
    • Smart Views
      • Create a Map view
      • Create a Calendar view
      • Create a Shipping view
      • Create a Gallery view
      • Create a custom tinder-like validation view
      • Create a dynamic calendar view for an event-booking use case
      • Create a custom moderation view
    • Smart Segments
    • Scopes
      • Create a scope more than one level away based on a Smart field
      • Scope on a smart field extracting a json's column attribute
    • Performance
    • Charts
      • Create an API-based Chart
      • Create a Smart Chart
      • Create Charts with AWS Redshift
  • Extra help
    • Setup
      • Install
      • Connecting Forest Admin to Your Database (Forest Cloud)
      • Forest Admin IP white-listing (Forest Cloud)
      • Why HTTPS is necessary even locally
      • Troubleshooting
      • Prevent permission errors at installation
      • Deploy your admin backend to AWS
      • Deploy your admin backend on Heroku
      • Deploy your admin backend to Ubuntu server
      • Deploy your admin backend to Google Cloud Platform
      • Install Forest Admin on a remote machine
      • Use Forest Admin with a read-only database
      • Configuring CORS headers
      • Running Forest Admin on multiple servers
      • Flatten nested fields (MongoDB)
    • Upgrade
      • Upgrade notes (Rails)
        • Upgrade to v9
        • Upgrade to v8
        • Upgrade to v7
        • Upgrade to v6
        • Upgrade to v5
        • Upgrade to v4
        • Upgrade to v3
      • Upgrade notes (SQL, Mongodb)
        • Upgrade to v9
        • Upgrade to v8
        • Upgrade to v7
        • Upgrade to v6
        • Upgrade to v5
        • Upgrade to v4
        • Upgrade to v3
      • Update your models' definition
      • Monitor your Forest's status
      • Manage your Forest Admin environments programmatically
      • Changing your domain name
      • Migrate to the new role system
      • Push your new version to production
    • Databases
      • Use a demo SQL database
      • Use a demo MongoDB database
      • Populate a postgreSQL database on Heroku
      • Connect to a read replica database
      • Plug multiple schemas
      • Add new databases
      • Manage SQL views
    • Settings
      • Customize your /forest folder
      • Disable automatic Forest Admin schema update
      • Include/exclude models
      • Display extensive logs
      • Laravel specific settings
    • Releases Support
    • Other documentations
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  • Install
  • Requirements

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  1. Extra help
  2. Setup

Install

PreviousSetupNextConnecting Forest Admin to Your Database (Forest Cloud)

Last updated 1 year ago

Was this helpful?

Please be sure of your agent type and version and pick the right documentation accordingly.

This is the documentation of the forest-express-sequelize and forest-express-mongoose Node.js agents that will soon reach end-of-support.

forest-express-sequelize v9 and forest-express-mongoose v9 are replaced by v1.

Please check your agent type and version and read on or switch to the right documentation.

This is still the latest Ruby on Rails documentation of the forest_liana agent, you’re at the right place, please read on.

This is the documentation of the django-forestadmin Django agent that will soon reach end-of-support.

If you’re using a Django agent, notice that django-forestadmin v1 is replaced by v1.

If you’re using a Flask agent, go to the v1 documentation.

Please check your agent type and version and read on or switch to the right documentation.

This is the documentation of the forestadmin/laravel-forestadmin Laravel agent that will soon reach end-of-support.

If you’re using a Laravel agent, notice that forestadmin/laravel-forestadmin v1 is replaced by v3.

If you’re using a Symfony agent, go to the v1 documentation.

Please check your agent type and version and read on or switch to the right documentation.

Install

Forest Admin is a low-code internal tool solution that scales with your project. With 30+ out-of-the-box tools and pre-built UI components, you can ship an admin panel in a few minutes, and then easily customize it to meet your specific business logic. Thanks to the layout editor, non-technical team members can adjust the UI to their needs.

Forest Admin has a unique hybrid architecture - only the frontend is managed on Forest Admin servers, which gives you the flexibility of a SaaS tool without compromising on data security.

Requirements

  • A local or remote working database (non empty)

or

  • An existing app (Django, Rails or Express with Sequelize and Mongoose)

  • NPM or Docker installed

  • Browser Support: we highly recommend Google Chrome or Firefox

Once you start , you will be able to choose a datasource, the source of the data your admin panel will use.

Forest Admin can be implemented in two very different ways :

  • Using an existing app: integrate Forest Admin into your Ruby on Rails, Django, Node.js app with Express (and Sequelize ORM or Mongoose ORM).

  • As a dedicated app: create a dedicated app directly linked to your PostgreSQL, MySQL / MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server or MongoDB database.

At Forest Admin, if you have the choice, we recommend integrating in an existing app as it is easier to maintain.

Install Forest Admin using an existing app

At the moment, we are supporting:

  • Ruby on Rails app

  • Django project

  • Node.js app with Express and Sequelize ORM

  • Node.js app with Express and Mongoose ORM

Install Forest Admin using an existing Ruby on Rails app

Requirements: Your Rails app must be version 4 or above.

You are asked to provide the URL of your application that runs locally. When you follow the steps and integrate the gems, you should automatically be redirected to your admin panel!

Install Forest Admin using an existing Django app

Requirements:

  • Python version should be between 3.6 and 3.10.

  • Django version must be 3.2 or higher.

You are asked to provide the URL of your project that runs locally. When you follow the steps, add our app to your installed apps, and set up your agent, you should automatically be redirected to your admin panel!

Install Forest Admin using an existing Node.js app with Express

Requirements:

  • Using Sequelize or Mongoose ORM

  • Sequelize version must be 5.21 or higher

  • Mongoose version must be 5 or higher

  • Express version must be 4.17.3 or higher

You are asked to provide the URL of your application that runs locally. When you follow the steps, you should automatically be redirected to your admin panel!

Troubleshooting

Install using a database as your datasource

At the moment, we are supporting:

  • PostgreSQL

  • MySQL / MariaDB

  • Microsoft SQL Server

  • MongoDB

When choosing one of these databases, you will be prompted to enter your database credentials. Your database credentials never leave the browser, they are only used to generate the environment variables in the setup instructions for the next step.

It is possible to use a local or remote database, but note that this database will be used with your Development environment.

It is possible to skip the authentication in the browser and use directly the CLI to authenticate.

Then, you will be able to create and connect your admin backend, with the following options.

Option
Description

-c, --connection-url

The database credentials with a connection URL.

-S, --ssl

Use SSL for database connection (true | false).

-s, --schema

Your database schema.

-H, --application-host

Hostname of your admin backend application.

-p, --application-port

Port of your admin backend application.

-h, --help

Output usage information.

Option
Description

APPLICATION_HOST

Hostname of your admin backend application.

APPLICATION_PORT

Port of your admin backend application.

DATABASE_SSL

Use SSL for database connection (true | false).

DATABASE_SCHEMA

Your database schema.

DATABASE_URL

The database credentials with a connection URL.

FOREST_EMAIL

Your Forest Admin account email.

FOREST_TOKEN

Your Forest Admin account token.

FOREST_PASSWORD

Your Forest Admin account password. Although not recommended, you can use this instead of FOREST_TOKEN. Wrap it in double quotes if it contains special characters.

Help us get better!

Finally, when your local server is started, you should be automatically redirected to a satisfaction form. Rate us so we can improve, then go to your newly created admin panel 🎉

In case of an error, you can consult the or ask in the Community forum.

If you installed using a local database, your generated admin backend will have as an endpoint (Notice the HTTP protocol). This explains why, if you try to visit **https://**app.forestadmin.com, you will be redirected to **http://**app.forestadmin.com as this is the only way it can communicate with your local admin backend.

Next up, we suggest you go through our .

@forestadmin/agent
forestadmin-agent-django
forestadmin-agent-flask
forestadmin/laravel-forestadmin
forestadmin/symfony-forestadmin
creating a project
troubleshooting page
http://localhost:3310
Quick start