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Getting Started

Introduction​

Let's go through some basic concepts in Kontenbase:

  • Project
  • Service
  • Authorization
  • Customize Fields
  • API Client
  • Data Table
  • Relational Services
  • and SDK

Project​

Once in the dashboard, you can create a new Project or use the existing Project you already have.

The project can be named for apps such as:

  • Blog
  • Task
  • Todo
  • Chat
  • Address book
  • Store
  • Dictionary
  • Comedy
  • and so on

After creating the Project, you can see the Project Settings here by clicking the gear icon:

  • Name of the project
  • REST API Key which we can copy
  • or if we want to delete the project

Service​

Within the Project, you can create some services.

It will automatically generate their REST API endpoints or functionalities with available requests such as:

  • GET
  • POST
  • PATCH
  • and DELETE

The REST API URL will be something like:

https://api.kontenbase.com/query/api/v1 with the REST API Key

The default built-in services are:

  • Authentication on /auth
  • Storage on /storage
  • Users on /users

You can also create your services such as:

  • Articles
  • Authors
  • Todos
  • Messages
  • Contacts
  • Products
  • Carts
  • Words
  • Jokes
  • and so on

We should name the services with plural words (except the Authentication) because that's what is usually recommended for naming the endpoints in REST API.

Authentication​

Authentication service can:

  • Register new user with name, email, and password
  • Login with email and password
  • Logout a user
  • Get user information
  • and Update user information

Storage​

Storage service can:

  • Find files
  • Create or upload file
  • and Delete the file by id

Users​

Users service can:

  • Find users
  • Get users
  • Create a new user
  • Update existing user
  • Delete a user by id
  • Link a user to certain fields
  • and Unlink a user to certain fields

Records or Items​

Any service we created will have generic available requests similar to Users service such as:

  • Find records
  • Get records
  • Create a new record
  • Update existing record
  • Delete record by id
  • Link a record to certain fields
  • and Unlink a record to certain fields

Authorization​

Authorization allows us to manage each role in our project such as:

  • Public
  • Authenticated
  • and Admin

Then we can also toggle the permissions for certain requests such as:

  • GET
  • POST
  • PATCH
  • and DELETE

With additional rules like:

  • Only find their data?
  • Prevent updating others' data?
  • and Prevent deleting others' data?

Customize Fields​

We can customize each service's fields with what we need:

  • Edit existing field
  • Delete existing field
  • Or add a new field

We can name the field with a certain type based on what we need:

  • Link to Record
  • Single line text
  • Long text
  • Attachment for files in storage
  • Check box
  • Multi-select
  • Single select
  • Date and time
  • Phone number
  • Email
  • URL
  • Number
  • Currency
  • Percent
  • Duration in time
  • Rating
  • Created at
  • Updated at
  • Created by
  • and Updated by

API Client​

To interact with the API, we can use the built-in API Client interface or try the API directly in the app. Of course, we can still use other API clients such as cURL, HTTPie, Postman, Insomnia, and as we like.

With this, we can send the request and receive the response right away.

There are also 2 modes, Simple and Advanced.

In Simple Mode, you can:

  • Set the "Authenticated as" certain user
  • And use modifiers:
    • Filter with condition
    • Sort field with the order method
    • Pagination with limit and skip
    • Toggle auto Lookup link to record fields
    • Select only certain fields

In Advanced Mode, you can:

  • Set the Headers key and value
  • Set the Params key and value

Data Table​

What's nice about Kontenbase is other than using the REST API or API Client interface, we can also use the Data Table interface.

Similar to a spreadsheet, where we can do some things directly:

  • Edit the records
  • Hide certain fields
  • Filtering
  • and Grouping

Relational Services​

To link different records together, we can do relational services.

Just make sure the Service fields have a "Link to Record" field.

We can also toggle "Allow linking to multiple records" too.

Therefore when we create or update the record, we can set the relation to the other records.

SDK​

The SDK or Software Development Kit for Kontenabse is available on npm:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@kontenbase/sdk

We can install it in our project like this:

npm install @kontenbase/sdk

Then configure it with the API key obtained from the dashboard:

import { KontenbaseClient } from '@kontenbase/sdk'

const kontenbase = new KontenbaseClient({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' })

After that we can do data manipulation as usual:

const { data, error } = await kontenbase.service('articles').create({
  title: 'The new world',
})