We've been working hard to make it easier for developers to build GraphQL APIs on any data source. StepZen was always designed to be easy to use, but we've taken it to the next level with this new experience.

With the new Getting Started experience, you can visually configure and build a GraphQL API on your data in under 5 minutes. Building GraphQL APIs with StepZen has always been CLI-first, and you can now use the dashboard to get started with the CLI even faster.

In this blog post, we'll look at how to build a GraphQL API from the StepZen dashboard using our new Getting Started onboarding experience.

Creating a GraphQL API with StepZen has never been easier

The new Getting Started experience allows every developer to build a GraphQL API on their data in under 5 minutes. Here are the biggest improvements and additional features for this new experience. More features will be added over time:

Visually Configure Your Data Source

The new Getting Started experience allows you to configure your data source visually. For example, you can find a list of database providers and select the one you want to use. You can also set a custom data source, which allows you to configure your data source - for example, by providing a GraphQL endpoint or REST API.

You can input the credentials needed to connect to your data source when configuring your data. For example, when you select a database provider, you can input the database name, username, and password. StepZen won't store these details but will only use them to generate the CLI commands needed to connect to your data source.

Generate CLI commands

As StepZen is a CLI-first tool, you can use the Getting Started experience to generate the CLI commands needed to build your GraphQL API. The Getting Started experience will generate the CLI commands needed to connect to your data source based on your provided credentials. You can copy these commands and run them in your terminal.

You can run the commands from the CLI to connect to your data source. StepZen will then generate a GraphQL schema file based on your data source, which you can deploy to StepZen to get a production-ready GraphQL API.

Explore your GraphQL API

After you've deployed your GraphQL API, you can explore your GraphQL API in the StepZen dashboard. The Explorer in the dashboard will show you the GraphQL schema for your API, which you can use to request your data.

In the Explorer, you can also preview the data returned by your GraphQL API, export code blocks for different programming languages, and much more. Visit the Explorer documentation to learn more about the Explorer.

What's next?

We're excited to launch this new Getting Started experience and will continue to improve it over time. We're continuously adding new data sources to this experience and will introduce more features to make it easier for developers to build GraphQL APIs on any data source.

Curious? Head over to the StepZen dashboard to try the new Getting Started experience. We'd love to connect with you on Discord here for any feedback or questions.