Development workflow

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

Node.js

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 @forestadmin/agent v1.

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

Ruby on Rails

Python

PHP

Development workflow

Forest Admin lets you get started easily, but soon you'll be wondering how to set up a clean workflow to control every step of your development process.

The following workflow requires that you have generated your project and pushed it to Production. If it's not the case, check out our quick start.

Here's our recommended development workflow:

Step 1: Install forest-cli

We've developed a CLI tool to help you seamlessly control your layout (UI) as you develop. You should first install it:

npm install -g forest-cli

For further details on the package, check out this page.

Step 2: Set up your development environment

This step is not necessary if you are the creator of the project, as your development environment is already generated.

To get started with forest-cli, simply run the following command in your project's folder:

forest init

This will create a development environment for you to develop locally in.

For a more in-depth walkthrough of the init command, check out this page.

Step 3: Create a branch

Got a new feature to develop? Create a branch based on the origin environment you want!

forest branch my-new-feature --origin the-origin-environment

Your new branch is now available with a layout you can play with.

For a more in-depth walkthrough of the branch command, check out this page.

Step 4: Develop your feature

Your feature may require frontend (layout) and backend changes.

For frontend changes, use our Layout Editor mode from the branch you've just created.

Step 5: Deploy

Your feature works as intended on your local branch? You now need to deploy it to your production environment:

• Deploy backend changes (if any) using your usual workflow

• Deploy frontend changes using the following command:

forest deploy

That's it! Your new feature is now available in production 🎉

Want to add a testing phase before you deploy to production? Check out how to create a staging environment and how to push changes onto it.