# Initialize Forest Admin in creating project

**URL:** <https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385>\
**Category:** Help me!\
**Tags:** setup\
**Created:** [June 5, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385 "2023-06-05T15:20:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.forestadmin.com/ian/32/6200_2.png) [@Ian](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Ian)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/1 "2023-06-05T15:20:07Z")

</div>

## Feature(s) impacted

hello  
I’m trying to follow the guide creating new project  
i select Advanced setup → inside my own app → selected Node js, express, Sequelize. → install Forest Package → Initialize Forest Admin → Configure my environment variables → npm start  
it successfully mounted on my Express.js  
but i think it has some problem with adding data source.  
my Express and Sequelize version satisfy requirements.  
Node : 16.13.0  
Sequelize : ^6.26.0  
Express : ^4.18.2  
@forestadmin/agent : ^1.9.2  
@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize : ^1.3.1

## Observed behavior

“Cannot convert undefined or null to object” type error message came out from node\_modules/@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize/dist/datasource.js:24:16

## Expected behavior

complete my setup successfully

## Failure Logs

TypeError: Cannot convert undefined or null to object  
at Function.values ()  
at SequelizeDataSource.createCollections (/server/node\_modules/@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize/dist/datasource.js:24:16)

## Context

- Agent (forest package) name & version: @forestadmin/agent(^1.9.2) @forestadmin/datasource-sequelize(^1.3.1)
- Database type: MySql

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anon7284711](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/2 "2023-06-05T15:46:36Z")

</div>

Hello @Ian and welcome to our community !

I am sorry to hear that you encounter issues with the onboarding.

Is it possible that the database you have used for the onboarding is empty ? Forest Admin requires a database with at least one collection defined.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.forestadmin.com/ian/32/6200_2.png) [@Ian](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Ian)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:30am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/4 "2023-06-06T08:30:11Z")

</div>

Thank you for your reply  
My database is not empty. i defined some tables and there’s no problem with CRUD data.  
Could using Amazon RDS be a problem?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anon39940173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@anon39940173](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon39940173)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/5 "2023-06-06T08:47:50Z")

</div>

> [@Ian](#):
>
> Amazon RDS be a problem

Not at all, it is a very common setup among our customers.

> [@Ian](#):
>
> “Cannot convert undefined or null to object” type error message came out from node\_modules/@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize/dist/datasource.js:24:16

As per the [source code](https://github.com/ForestAdmin/agent-nodejs/blob/main/packages/datasource-sequelize/src/datasource.ts#L26) the line that is throwing an error is when we try to access `sequelize.models` which seems to be null.

Can you:

- Check that you loaded your models into sequelize because initializing our agent (we need the models definitions for startup)
- Check that you are passing the [proper arguments](https://docs.forestadmin.com/developer-guide-agents-nodejs/data-sources/provided-data-sources/sequelize) in the `createSequelizeDataSource` call

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.forestadmin.com/ian/32/6200_2.png) [@Ian](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Ian)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/6 "2023-06-09T13:29:27Z")

</div>

Thank you for the solution. and sorry for the late reply.  
I was trying to fix my code after seeing the link you posted.  
I’m embarrassed to say this, but I haven’t solved the problem yet.

and this is my code…

server  
|\_models  
| |  
| |\_index.js  
| |\_user.js  
|  
|\_index.js

index.js

```javascript
require("dotenv").config();
const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const cors = require("cors");
const app = express();
const indexRouter = require("./routes");
const port = process.env.SERVER_PORT || 80;

const { createAgent } = require('@forestadmin/agent');
const { createSequelizeDataSource } = require('@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize');
const sequelizeInstance = require('./models');

createAgent({
    authSecret: process.env.FOREST_AUTH_SECRET,
    envSecret: process.env.FOREST_ENV_SECRET,
    isProduction: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production',
})
.addDataSource(createSequelizeDataSource(sequelizeInstance))
.mountOnExpress(app)
.start()

app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(
    cors({
        origin: ["..."],
        method: ["GET", "POST", "PATCH", "PUT", "DELETE"],
        credentials: true,
        SameSite: "None",
    }),
);
app.use("/", indexRouter);
app.listen(port, () => {
    console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});

module.exports = app;

```

server/models/index.js

```js
'use strict';
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const Sequelize = require('sequelize');
const process = require('process');
const basename = path.basename(__filename);
const env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';
const config = require(__dirname + '/../config/config.js');
const db = {};

let sequelize = new Sequelize({
  host: config.host,
  username: config.username,
  password: config.password,
  port: config.port,
  database: config.database,
  dialect: 'mysql'
})

fs
  .readdirSync(__dirname)
  .filter(file => {
    return (file.indexOf('.') !== 0) && (file !== basename) && (file.slice(-3) === '.js');
  })
  .forEach(file => {
    const model = require(path.join(__dirname, file))(sequelize, Sequelize.DataTypes);
    db[model.name] = model;
  });

Object.keys(db).forEach(modelName => {
  if (db[modelName].associate) {
    db[modelName].associate(db);
  }
});

db.sequelize = sequelize;
db.Sequelize = Sequelize;

module.exports = db;

```

server/models/user.js

```javascript
require("dotenv").config();
const { createAgent } = require('@forestadmin/agent');
const { createSequelizeDataSource } = require('@forestadmin/datasource-sequelize');
"use strict"

const { Model } = require('sequelize');
module.exports = (sequelize, DataTypes) => { 
  class User extends Model {
    static associate(models) {
      this.hasOne(models.Purchase, { foreignKey: "userId", sourceKey: "id" });
      this.hasOne(models.UserInfo, { foreignKey: "userId", sourceKey: "id" });
    }
  }
  User.init(
    {
      id: {
        type: DataTypes.INTEGER,
        autoIncrement: true,
        primaryKey: true,
      },
      identification: {
        type: DataTypes.STRING,
        allowNull: false,
      },  
      password: {
        type: DataTypes.STRING,
        allowNull: false,
      },
      email: {
        type: DataTypes.STRING,
        allowNull: false,
      },
    }, 
    { sequelize, modelName: 'User',}
  );
  // Create agent and import collections from sequelize
  const agent = createAgent({
    authSecret: process.env.FOREST_AUTH_SECRET,
    envSecret: process.env.FOREST_ENV_SECRET,
    isProduction: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production',
  }).addDataSource(createSequelizeDataSource(sequelize));
  return User;
};

```

I tried to fix the model file after seeing [link you sent me](https://docs.forestadmin.com/developer-guide-agents-nodejs/data-sources/provided-data-sources/sequelize), but I don’t understand it well.  
should I make agent in model file and main application file both?  
and does the agent in the model file just have to declare?

I would appreciate it if you could give me a solution to the insufficient questions. Or is there any example file to refer to?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anon7284711](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/7 "2023-06-09T14:33:23Z")

</div>

I think the documentation mislead you, you only need to instantiate the agent once in your `index.js` file.

As you can see in the `server/models/index.js` file, we create a Sequelize instance that will be used to define every model present in the folder, the instance will then be exported via the object `db`. You simply need to require it in your index.js file and pass it to createSequelizeDataSource.

It should be something like `createSequelizeDataSource(db.sequelize)`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.forestadmin.com/ian/32/6200_2.png) [@Ian](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Ian)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/initialize-forest-admin-in-creating-project/6385/8 "2023-06-09T15:49:05Z")

</div>

I solved the problem with your advice. Thank you very much! 🙂