Building Serverless apps with FaunaDB    

Example of using FaunaDB with Netlify functions and Netlify identity for authentication.

About this application

This application is using React Gatsby for the frontend, Netlify Functions for API calls, FaunaDB as the backing database, and Netlify Identity for Authenticating users.

Deploy with one click

Click the Deploy to Netlify Button

Setup & Run Locally

1. Clone down the repository

   git clone https://github.com/viveksonar/faunareviews.git

2. Enter the repo directory

   cd faunareviews

3. Install the dependencies

   npm install

4. Sign up for a FaunaDB account

   https://dashboard.fauna.com/accounts/register

5. Create a database

   In the Fauna Cloud Console:

   • Click “New Database”
   • Enter “faunareviews” as the “Database Name”
   • Click “Save”

6. Create a database access key

   In the Fauna Cloud Console:

   • Click “Security” in the left navigation
   • Click “New Key”
   • Make sure that the “Database” field is set to “Netlify”
   • Make sure that the “Role” field is set to “Admin”
   • Enter “admin” as the “Key Name”
   • Click “Save”

7. Copy the database access key’s secret

   Save the secret somewhere safe; you won’t get a second chance to see it.

8. Create a .env file and put the line below and replace YourFaunaDBSecretHere with value of the secret that you copied in previous step.

   In your terminal, run the following command:

   FAUNA_ADMIN_SECRET=YourFaunaDBSecretHere

9. Bootstrap your FaunaDB collection and indexes

   npm run bootstrap

10. Run project locally

    netlify dev

Backend Functions

Let have a overview of the 4 funciton we have created in this project.

1. Graphql Query

We have created a graphql query in the /functions/utils folder as query.js to interact with the fauna inbuit graphql engine.

// query.js

const axios = require("axios");
require("dotenv").config();

module.exports = async (query, variables) => {
  const result = await axios({
      url: "https://graphql.fauna.com/graphql",
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
          Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FAUNA_ADMIN_SECRET}`
      },
      data: {
        query,
        variables
      }
 });

 return result.data;
};

2. Create-review

Create in /function as create-review.js this function creates new review entry in database.

// create-review.js

const query = require("./utils/query");

const CREATE_REVIEW = `
  mutation($name: String!, $text: String!, $rating: Int!){
    createReview(data: {name: $name, text: $text, rating: $rating}){
      _id
      name
      text
      rating
    }
  }
`;

exports.handler = async event => {
  const { name, text, rating } = JSON.parse(event.body);
  const { data, errors } = await query(
          CREATE_REVIEW, { 
name, text, rating });

  if (errors) {
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify(errors)
    };
  }

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ review: data.createReview })
  };
};

3. Delete-review

This will delete the review from the database according to the id we pass in the body.

// delete-review.js

const query = require("./utils/query");

const DELETE_REVIEW = `
  mutation($id: ID!) {
    deleteReview(id: $id){
      _id
    }
  }
`;

exports.handler = async event => {
  const { id } = JSON.parse(event.body);
  const { data, errors } = await query(
    DELETE_REVIEW, { id });

  if (errors) {
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify(errors)
    };
  }

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ deletedReview: data.deleteReview
   })
  };
};

4. Get-reviews This function gets all reviews from the database.

// get-reviews.js

const query = require("./utils/query");

const GET_REVIEWS = `
    query {
        allReviews {
          data {
             _id
             name
             text
             rating
          }
        }
     }
`;

 exports.handler = async () => {
    const { data, errors } = await query(GET_REVIEWS);

    if (errors) {
       return {
         statusCode: 500,
         body: JSON.stringify(errors)
       };
    }

    return {
      statusCode: 200,
      body: JSON.stringify({ reviews: data.allReviews.data })
    };
  };

5. Update-review

This function update the review of the id which we pass in the body.

// update-review.js

const query = require("./utils/query");

const UPDATE_REVIEW = `
    mutation($id: ID!,$name: String!, $text: String!, $rating: Int!){
        updateReview(id: $id, data: {name: $name, text: $text, rating: $rating}){
            _id
            name
            text
            rating
        }
    }
`;

exports.handler = async event => {
  const { id,name, text, rating } = JSON.parse(event.body);
  const { data, errors } = await query(
       UPDATE_REVIEW, { id,name, text, rating });

  if (errors) {
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify(errors)
    };
  }

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ updatedReview: 
data.updateReview })
  };
};

Wrapping Up

That's it. You now have your own CRUD API using Netlify Functions and FaunaDB.

You will also be able to setup authentication using Netlify Identity.

As you can see, functions can be extremely powerful when combined with a cloud database!

The sky is the limit on what you can build with the JAMstack and we'd love to hear about what you make.