AdonisJS Tutorial: The Ultimate Guide (2023)

Source: Dev.to

This tutorial covers AdonisJS 5 from scratch to an advanced level, guiding you through building and deploying your first AdonisJS application.

Chapter 1: Complete AdonisJS Overview

What is AdonisJS?

AdonisJS is a Node.js framework focused on developer ergonomics, stability, and speed. It follows the MVC pattern used by frameworks such as Laravel, Rails, and Spring, making it familiar to developers coming from those ecosystems. As a full‑stack web framework, AdonisJS includes many built‑in features and addons that set it apart from other Node.js frameworks.

Features of AdonisJS

• Database

  • Robust ORM (Lucid) with query builder, migrations, seeds, and factories.
  • SQL First Design: Full support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, and other mainstream SQL servers.
  • Active Record ORM: Inspired by Laravel Eloquent and Rails Active Record, offering a clean API for complex queries and relationships.

• HTTP

  • Advanced routing system with route groups, subdomains, pattern matching, and resourceful routes.
  • Form Validator: Runtime request validation with TypeScript type inference.
  • JSON Serializers: Built‑in support for JSON:API specifications.

• Security

  • Built‑in CSRF protection, XSS, click‑jacking, and script injection defenses.
  • Configurable CORS settings to control cross‑origin requests.

• Auth

  • Multi‑driver authentication (sessions, opaque tokens, basic auth).
  • In‑built RBAC (role‑based access control) for authorization.
  • Health Check: Endpoint for monitoring application health, configurable for Kubernetes and other platforms.

Why You Should Learn AdonisJS

• Familiarity: Shares conventions with Laravel and Rails, easing the transition for developers from those frameworks.
• Rapid Development: Emphasizes ergonomics and productivity, allowing you to build applications quickly.
• Full‑Stack Capabilities: Provides an integrated system, reducing the need for glue code between disparate libraries.
• TypeScript First: Offers first‑class TypeScript support while still compatible with plain JavaScript.

AdonisJS Framework vs Other Frameworks

AdonisJS can be compared with NestJS, Express, Koa, and others. A helpful video by Chimezie Enyinnaya of Adonis Mastery demonstrates the advantages of AdonisJS over these alternatives.

For a deeper dive, consider the course Learn AdonisJS: From Zero to Deploy, which walks you through building a production‑ready application from scratch.

Chapter 2: AdonisJS The Framework

Exploring The Framework

This chapter examines the structure of AdonisJS, its interaction with various components, and how to approach the framework as a beginner. Like Laravel, AdonisJS follows the MVC architectural pattern, which is well documented in resources such as the Laravel Framework: The Ultimate Guide and the Wikipedia article on MVC.

AdonisJS is a complete web framework equipped with tooling to handle HTTP requests, routing, validation, authentication, and more—providing a cohesive environment for building modern web applications.