Creating a new Serverpod project
The full version of Serverpod needs access to a Postgres database. The easiest way to set that up is to use our pre-configured Docker container. Install Flutter, Serverpod and Docker Desktop before you begin.
Create a new project by running serverpod create.
$ serverpod create mypod
Serverpod executes the flutter create command inside the flutter package during project creation. On Windows, flutter commands require that developer mode is enabled in the system settings.
This command will create a new directory called mypod, with three dart packages inside; mypod_server, mypod_client, and mypod_flutter.
mypod_server: This package contains your server-side code. Modify it to add new endpoints or other features your server needs.mypod_client: This is the code needed to communicate with the server. Typically, all code in this package is generated automatically, and you should not edit the files in this package.mypod_flutter: This is the Flutter app, pre-configured to connect to your local server.
Starting the server
Make sure that Docker Desktop is running, then start your Docker containers with docker compose up --build --detach. It will start Postgres and Redis. Then, run dart bin/main.dart --apply-migrations to start your server.
$ cd mypod/mypod_server
$ docker compose up --build --detach
$ dart bin/main.dart --apply-migrations
If everything is working, you should see something like this on your terminal:
SERVERPOD version: 2.x.x, mode: development, time: 2022-09-12 17:22:02.825468Z
Insights listening on port 8081
Server default listening on port 8080
Webserver listening on port 8082
If you need to stop the Docker containers at some point, just run docker compose stop or use the Docker Desktop application. You can also use Docker Desktop to start, stop, and manage your containers.
In your development environment it can be helpful to always start Serverpod with the --apply-migrations flag, as this will ensure that the database is always up-to-date with your latest migration. However, in production you should typically start the server without the flag, unless you want to actually apply a new migration.
Running the demo app
Start the default demo app by changing the directory into the Flutter package that was created and running flutter run.
$ cd mypod/mypod_flutter
$ flutter run -d chrome
The flag -d chrome runs the app in Chrome, for other run options please see the Flutter documentation.
iOS Simulator: Because an iOS simulator has its own localhost, it won't find the server running on your machine. Therefore, you will need to pass the IP address of your machine when creating the client in mypod/mypod_flutter/lib/main.dart. Depending on your local network, it might look something like this:
var client = Client('http://192.168.1.117:8080/')
..connectivityMonitor = FlutterConnectivityMonitor();
MacOS:
If you run the app on MacOS, you will need to add permissions for outgoing connections in your Xcode project. To this, open the Runner.xcworkspace in Xcode. Then check the Outgoing Connections (Client) under Runner > Signing & Capabilities > App Sandbox. Make sure to add the capability for all run configurations.