Using Phoenix to create a REST API

12/08/2024

2 min read

Install Elixir and Erlang

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S elixir

# Debian
sudo apt install erlang-dev elixir

# Fedora
sudo dnf install elixir erlang

# macOS
brew install elixir

$ elixir -v

Erlang/OTP 27 [erts-15.1.2] [source] [64-bit] [smp:12:12] [ds:12:12:10] [async-threads:1] [jit:ns]

Elixir 1.17.3 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 27)

Install Hex

mix local.hex

Install Phoenix

mix archive.install hex phx_new

Create a new Phoenix project (since we are creating a REST API, we will skip some of the options)

mix phx.new $FOLDERNAME \
            --app $APPNAME \
            --database $DATABASE \
            --no-install \
            --no-live \
            --no-assets \
            --no-html \
            --no-dashboard \
            --no-mailer \
            --binary-id

Options:

folder name - The name of the folder where the project will be created.
app name - The name of the OTP application.
database - Specify the database adapter for Ecto. One of:
- postgres - via https://github.com/elixir-ecto/postgrex
- mysql - via https://github.com/elixir-ecto/myxql
- mssql - via https://github.com/livehelpnow/tds
- sqlite3 - via https://github.com/elixir-sqlite/ecto_sqlite3
  Defaults to postgres.
--no-install - Skip installing dependencies.
--no-live - Skip LiveView.
--no-assets - Skip assets.
--no-html - Skip HTML views.
--no-dashboard - Skip the Phoenix Dashboard.
--no-mailer - Skip generating Swoosh mailer files.
--binary-id - Use binary UUIDs for primary keys.

Example:

mix phx.new my_app \
            --app my_app \
            --database postgres \
            --no-install \
            --no-live \
            --no-assets \
            --no-html \
            --no-dashboard \
            --no-mailer \
            --binary-id

Change directory to the project folder

cd my_app

Change the database configuration in config/dev.exs

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import Config
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# Configure your database
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config :my_app, My_app.Repo,
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  username: "postgres",
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  password: "postgres",
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  hostname: "localhost",
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  database: "my_app_dev",
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  stacktrace: true,
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  show_sensitive_data_on_connection_error: true,
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  pool_size: 10

Install dependencies

mix deps.get

Create the database

mix ecto.create

Start the Phoenix server

mix phx.server

Visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser to see the Phoenix welcome page.

Resources:

# phoenix # elixir # api # backend