Visual Backend

Visual Backend is a low code wrapper around NodeJS which helps you rapidly build APIs by offering an intuitive interface that automates boilerplate actions (e.g. configuring your project router, managing your project directory), allowing you to write the functions that truly matter to your app immediately.

There are 3 primary features of Visual Backend:

1. API Builder

   • Create your route functions in one click
   • Manage & organise your routes via an intuitive tree view similar to what you'd see when managing your folders & files

2. Modules

   • The section to manage your usage of external services like Firebase, Stripe, etc.
   • Set up and initialise your external services simply by adding required config files (e.g. API key) and clicking a button
   • Start off with common functions for each module
   • Use GPT to kickstart your functions without having to write a single prompt
   • We currently have support for the following modules:
     1. Firebase Auth & Firestore
     2. MongoDB
     3. JWT
     4. Stripe
     5. Resend
     6. GPT

3. Hosting

   • Deploy your app in just one click
   • Environment variables are automatically transferred to the cloud for you (and securely using GCloud Secret Manager)

Install

Clone project

git clone https://github.com/vbackend/visual-backend.git visual-backend

Install dependencies

npm install

Start the app

npm start

Note: Visual Backend requires a node.js version <=18.18.2. This is because with other versions, ts-node-esm doesn't work. As such, please configure your PATH such that the node binary points to a correct version of node.

Note: Hosting & OpenAI usage is run on the Visual Backend server, and is therefore not available with a self-hosted copy of this tool. To learn how to host your Visual Backend project by yourself, read the following

GPT Usage: We are currently working on adding support for using your own OpenAI API key, however, at this stage, it is not currently available

Documentation

We are working on developing a proper website for Visual Backend documentation. At the moment however, you may find the appropriate guides for understanding Visual Backend and the codebase over here

Contributing

• Contribution Guide

Authors

John Yeo (@johnyeocx)

• Email: john@visual-backend.com

License

MIT License