The best way to build an API, now for Heroku. Updated for PostgREST >= v9.0.0
Free and hobby Heroku PostgreSQL add-on do not support having multiple database roles (e.g. read-only or read-write roles).
Heroku Postgres paid tiers do support multiple database roles, though you'll have to create them through Heroku Postgres Credentials as explained below.
-
Log into Heroku using the Heroku CLI:
# If you have multiple Heroku accounts, use flag '--interactive' to switch between them heroku login --interactive
-
Create a new Heroku app using this Heroku buildpack:
mkdir ${YOUR_APP_NAME} cd ${YOUR_APP_NAME} git init . heroku apps:create ${YOUR_APP_NAME} --buildpack https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest-heroku.git heroku git:remote -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME}
-
Create a new Heroku Postgres add-on attached to the app and keep notes of the assigned add-on name (e.g. postgresql-curly-58902) referred later as ${HEROKU_PG_DB_NAME}
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME} # wait until the add-on is available heroku pg:wait -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME}
-
Create the necessary user roles according to the PostgREST documentation:
heroku pg:credentials:create --name api_user -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME} # use the following command to ensure the new credential state is active before attaching it heroku pg:credentials -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME} heroku addons:attach ${HEROKU_PG_DB_NAME} --credential api_user -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME}
-
Connect to the Postgres database and create some sample data:
heroku psql -a ${YOUR_APP_NAME}
# from the psql command prompt execute the following commands: create schema api; create table api.todos ( id serial primary key, done boolean not null default false, task text not null, due timestamptz ); insert into api.todos (task) values ('finish tutorial 0'), ('pat self on back'); grant usage on schema api to api_user; grant select on api.todos to api_user;
-
Create the
Procfile
:web: PGRST_SERVER_HOST=0.0.0.0 PGRST_SERVER_PORT=${PORT} PGRST_DB_URI=${PGRST_DB_URI:-${DATABASE_URL}} ./postgrest-${POSTGREST_VER}
Set the following environment variables on Heroku:
heroku config:set POSTGREST_VER=10.0.0 heroku config:set PGRST_DB_SCHEMA=api heroku config:set PGRST_DB_ANON_ROLE=api_user
PGRST_DB_URI can be set if an external database is used or if it's different from the default Heroku DATABASE_URL. This latter is used if nothing is provided.
POSTGREST_VER is mandatory to select and build the required PostgREST release.See https://postgrest.org/en/stable/configuration.html#environment-variables for the full list of environment variables.
-
Build and deploy your app:
git add Procfile git commit -m "PostgREST on Heroku" git push heroku master
Your Heroku app should be live at
${YOUR_APP_NAME}.herokuapp.com
-
Test your app
From a terminal display the application logs:
heroku logs -t
From a different terminal retrieve with curl the records previously created:
curl https://${YOUR_APP_NAME}.herokuapp.com/todos
and test that any attempt to modify the table via a read-only user is not allowed:
curl https://${YOUR_APP_NAME}.herokuapp.com/todos -X POST \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"task": "do bad thing"}'