Create Your First Service With Amplication
Amplication accelerates your Node.js development by helping you build production-ready backends. These automatically-generated backends are known as services.
Services are built with modern frameworks like NestJS and Prisma. They also include a REST and GraphQL API and an interactive React Admin UI. Services are a full solution complete with authentication, authorization, logging, git sync, and other essential features for back-end management.
Let's get you started on creating your first service using our service creation onboarding wizard.
Prerequisites
First, sign up for an Amplication account with GitHub or your business email address.
If this is your first time using Amplication, the Service Creation Wizard start automatically will guide you through the process.
Step 1: Name Your Service
When naming your service, consider its primary function. What will it do? What problem is it solving? An appropriately named service will be easier to identify and maintain.
Step 2: Connect Your GitHub Repository
Amplication will keep your generated service synced with a GitHub repository that you choose.
First, install the Amplication GitHub App into your account or organization.
Next, select the repository to store your generated code. You can also create a new repository by clicking on the Create repository button.
In addition to GitHub, Amplication also supports Bitbucket and AWS CodeCommit for Enterprise users.
Step 3: Customize Your Service
Amplication can generate GraphQL APIs, REST APIs, and an Admin UI for each of your services. Select the components you need for your service.
Step 4: Select Your Repo Style
Choose how your service will be stored in your repository: Monorepo or Polyrepo.
Monorepo generates a folder at the root and stores services in specified sub-folders.
./apps
- apps/my-new-service
- apps/my-new-service-admin
Monorepo is recommended if you plan on having multiple services in a single GitHub repository
Polyrepo stores each service in individual folders at the root of your repository.
- ./my-new-service
- ./my-new-service-admin
Step 5: Choose Your Database
Amplication supports PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and MySQL out of the box. Choose the one that suits your needs.
You're not locked into your choice - you can always change your database type later in your project's plugin page.
Step 6: Define Your Data Model
Define entities and fields for your database. You can manually define your own or use a template provided by Amplication.
Entities are the objects you want to keep track of in your app, like a User or a Product. They become tables in your database. Each row represents an instance of the entity.
A field is a column in that table that represents an attribute of that entity.
Step 7: Include Authentication (Optional)
You can optionally choose to include all the necessary code for authentication in your service. If your service does not require authentication, select the Skip Authentication option.
You're Done!
Congratulations! You've successfully set up your first service on Amplication. You will now be taken to a screen where Amplication will start generating all the necessary code for your service. You can watch this happen in real time.
Clicking on the View my code button will take you to the GitHub repository you chose in Step 2. Specifically, you'll see Amplication's first commit to that repository.
If you're curious about what the generated code for a service looks like, we have an example on GitHub for you. Check out the following repository:
Next Steps
After successfully creating your first service, the next steps are to create entities for your new service: Set Up Entities, Roles, and Permissions On Your Service
You can also learn more about the specific details, structure, and technologies that a service consists of.