Quickstart
Prerequisites
Before you get started, make sure you have the following installed:
- Node.js v18.17 or later
- npm v9 or later
- git v2.14.1 or later
- You will also need to create an AWS Account. Note that AWS Amplify is part of the AWS Free Tier.
- Configure your AWS account to use with Amplify instructions.
- A stable version of Flutter.
Once you have installed Flutter, you can create a new Flutter project using the following command:
flutter create my_amplify_app
Create Backend
The easiest way to get started with AWS Amplify is through npm with create-amplify
command. You can run it from your base project directory. First, go to the base project directory with the following command:
cd my_amplify_app
After that, run the following to create an Amplify project:
npm create amplify@latest -y
Running this command will scaffold Amplify backend files in your current project with the following files added:
├── amplify/│ ├── auth/│ │ └── resource.ts│ ├── data/│ │ └── resource.ts│ ├── backend.ts│ └── package.json├── node_modules/├── .gitignore├── package-lock.json├── package.json└── tsconfig.json
To deploy your backend use Amplify's per-developer cloud sandbox. This feature provides a separate backend environment for every developer on a team, ideal for local development and testing. To run your application with a sandbox environment, you can run the following command:
npx ampx sandbox --outputs-format dart --outputs-out-dir lib
Adding Authentication
The initial scaffolding already has a pre-configured auth backend defined in the amplify/auth/resource.ts
file. We've configured it to support email and password login but you can extend it to support a variety of login mechanisms, including Google, Amazon, Sign In With Apple, and Facebook.
The fastest way to get your login experience up and running is to use our Authenticator UI component available in the Amplify UI library.
To use the Authenticator, you need to add the following dependencies to your project:
dependencies: amplify_flutter: ^2.0.0 amplify_auth_cognito: ^2.0.0 amplify_authenticator: ^2.0.0
You will add:
amplify_flutter
to connect your application with the Amplify resources.amplify_auth_cognito
to connect your application with the Amplify Cognito resources.amplify_authenticator
to use the Amplify UI components.
After adding the dependencies, you need to run the following command to install the dependencies:
flutter pub get
Lastly update your main.dart file to use the Amplify UI components:
import 'package:amplify_auth_cognito/amplify_auth_cognito.dart';import 'package:amplify_authenticator/amplify_authenticator.dart';import 'package:amplify_flutter/amplify_flutter.dart';import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'amplify_outputs.dart';
Future<void> main() async { try { WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized(); await _configureAmplify(); runApp(const MyApp()); } on AmplifyException catch (e) { runApp(Text("Error configuring Amplify: ${e.message}")); }}
Future<void> _configureAmplify() async { try { await Amplify.addPlugin(AmplifyAuthCognito()); await Amplify.configure(amplifyConfig); safePrint('Successfully configured'); } on Exception catch (e) { safePrint('Error configuring Amplify: $e'); }}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { const MyApp({super.key}); Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Authenticator( child: MaterialApp( builder: Authenticator.builder(), home: const Scaffold( body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: [ SignOutButton(), Text('TODO Application'), ], ), ), ), ), ); }}
The Authenticator component auto-detects your auth backend settings and renders the correct UI state based on the auth backend's authentication flow.
Run your application in your local environment again. You should be presented with a login experience now.
Adding Data
The initial scaffolding already has a pre-configured data backend defined in the amplify/data/resource.ts
file. The default example will create a Todo model with content
field.
Let's modify this to add the following:
- A boolean
isDone
field. - An authorization rules specifying owners, authenticated via your Auth resource can "create", "read", "update", and "delete" their own records.
- Update the
defaultAuthorizationMode
to sign API requests with the user authentication token.
import { type ClientSchema, a, defineData } from "@aws-amplify/backend";
const schema = a.schema({ Todo: a .model({ content: a.string(), isDone: a.boolean(), }) .authorization(allow => [allow.owner()]),});
export type Schema = ClientSchema<typeof schema>;
export const data = defineData({ schema, authorizationModes: { defaultAuthorizationMode: "userPool", },});
Next, let's implement UI to create, list, and delete the to-do items.
Amplify can automatically generate code for interacting with the backend API. Run the command in the terminal to generate dart model classes from the Data schema under lib/models
:
npx ampx generate graphql-client-code --format modelgen --model-target dart --out lib/models
Once you are done, add the API dependencies to your project. You will add amplify_api
to connect your application with the Amplify API.
dependencies: amplify_api: ^2.0.0
After adding the dependencies, update the _configureAmplify
method in your main.dart
file to use the Amplify API:
Future<void> _configureAmplify() async { try { await Amplify.addPlugins( [ AmplifyAuthCognito(), AmplifyAPI( options: APIPluginOptions( modelProvider: ModelProvider.instance, ), ), ], ); await Amplify.configure(amplifyConfig); safePrint('Successfully configured'); } on Exception catch (e) { safePrint('Error configuring Amplify: $e'); }}
Next create a new widget called TodoScreen
and add the following code to the end of the main.dart file:
class TodoScreen extends StatefulWidget { const TodoScreen({super.key});
State<TodoScreen> createState() => _TodoScreenState();}
class _TodoScreenState extends State<TodoScreen> { Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton.extended( label: const Text('Add Random Todo'), onPressed: () async { final newTodo = Todo( id: uuid(), content: "Random Todo ${DateTime.now().toIso8601String()}", isDone: false, ); final request = ModelMutations.create(newTodo); final response = await Amplify.API.mutate(request: request).response; if (response.hasErrors) { safePrint('Creating Todo failed.'); } else { safePrint('Creating Todo successful.'); } }, ), body: const Placeholder(), ); }}
This will create a random Todo every time a user clicks on the floating action button. You can see the ModelMutations.create
method is used to create a new Todo.
And update the MyApp
widget in your main.dart file like the following:
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { const MyApp({super.key}); Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Authenticator( child: MaterialApp( builder: Authenticator.builder(), home: const SafeArea( child: Scaffold( body: Column( children: [ SignOutButton(), Expanded(child: TodoScreen()), ], ), ), ), ), ); }}
Next add a _todos
list in _TodoScreenState
to add the results from the API and call the refresh function:
List<Todo> _todos = [];
void initState() { super.initState(); _refreshTodos();}
and create a new function called _refreshTodos
:
Future<void> _refreshTodos() async { try { final request = ModelQueries.list(Todo.classType); final response = await Amplify.API.query(request: request).response;
final todos = response.data?.items; if (response.hasErrors) { safePrint('errors: ${response.errors}'); return; } setState(() { _todos = todos!.whereType<Todo>().toList(); }); } on ApiException catch (e) { safePrint('Query failed: $e'); }}
and update the build
function like the following:
Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton.extended( label: const Text('Add Random Todo'), onPressed: () async { final newTodo = Todo( id: uuid(), content: "Random Todo ${DateTime.now().toIso8601String()}", isDone: false, ); final request = ModelMutations.create(newTodo); final response = await Amplify.API.mutate(request: request).response; if (response.hasErrors) { safePrint('Creating Todo failed.'); } else { safePrint('Creating Todo successful.'); } _refreshTodos(); }, ), body: _todos.isEmpty == true ? const Center( child: Text( "The list is empty.\nAdd some items by clicking the floating action button.", textAlign: TextAlign.center, ), ) : ListView.builder( itemCount: _todos.length, itemBuilder: (context, index) { final todo = _todos[index]; return Dismissible( key: UniqueKey(), confirmDismiss: (direction) async { return false; }, child: CheckboxListTile.adaptive( value: todo.isDone, title: Text(todo.content!), onChanged: (isChecked) async {}, ), ); }, ), );}
Now let's add the update and delete functionality.
For update, add the following code to the onChanged
method of the CheckboxListTile.adaptive
widget:
final request = ModelMutations.update( todo.copyWith(isDone: isChecked!),);final response = await Amplify.API.mutate(request: request).response;if (response.hasErrors) { safePrint('Updating Todo failed. ${response.errors}');} else { safePrint('Updating Todo successful.'); await _refreshTodos();}
This will call the ModelMutations.update
method to update the Todo with a copied/updated version of the todo item. So now the checkbox will get an update as well.
For delete functionality, add the following code to the confirmDismiss
method of the Dismissible
widget:
if (direction == DismissDirection.endToStart) { final request = ModelMutations.delete(todo); final response = await Amplify.API.mutate(request: request).response; if (response.hasErrors) { safePrint('Updating Todo failed. ${response.errors}'); } else { safePrint('Updating Todo successful.'); await _refreshTodos(); return true; }}return false;
This will delete the Todo item when the user swipes the item from right to left. Now if you run the application you should see the following flow.
You can terminate the sandbox environment now to clean up the project.
Publishing changes to cloud
Publishing changes to the cloud requires a remote git repository. Amplify offers fullstack branch deployments that allow you to automatically deploy infrastructure and application code changes from feature branches. To learn more, visit the fullstack branch deployments guide.
🥳 Success
That's it! You have successfully built a fullstack app on AWS Amplify. If you want to learn more about how to work with Amplify, here's the conceptual guide for how Amplify works.