mikro-orm
Advanced tools
Simple typescript ORM for node.js based on data-mapper, unit-of-work and identity-map patterns. Supports MongoDB and MySQL databases.
Mikro-ORM is a TypeScript ORM for Node.js based on Data Mapper, Unit of Work, and Identity Map patterns. It supports multiple databases including MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MariaDB. It provides a powerful and flexible way to interact with your database using TypeScript and JavaScript.
Entity Definition
Defines an entity with properties that map to database columns. The `@Entity` decorator marks the class as a database entity, while `@PrimaryKey` and `@Property` decorators define the primary key and other properties respectively.
```typescript
import { Entity, PrimaryKey, Property } from 'mikro-orm';
@Entity()
class User {
@PrimaryKey()
id!: number;
@Property()
name!: string;
@Property()
email!: string;
}
```CRUD Operations
Demonstrates basic Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations. The `persistAndFlush` method saves a new entity to the database, and the `find` method retrieves entities from the database.
```typescript
const user = new User();
user.name = 'John Doe';
user.email = 'john.doe@example.com';
await orm.em.persistAndFlush(user);
const users = await orm.em.find(User, {});
console.log(users);
```Query Builder
Shows how to use the query builder to construct and execute complex queries. The `createQueryBuilder` method creates a new query builder instance, and the `select` and `where` methods build the query.
```typescript
const qb = orm.em.createQueryBuilder(User);
const users = await qb.select('*').where({ name: 'John Doe' }).execute();
console.log(users);
```Transactions
Illustrates how to perform operations within a transaction. The `transactional` method ensures that all operations within the callback are executed within a single transaction.
```typescript
await orm.em.transactional(async em => {
const user = new User();
user.name = 'Jane Doe';
user.email = 'jane.doe@example.com';
await em.persistAndFlush(user);
});
```TypeORM is another TypeScript ORM for Node.js that supports Active Record and Data Mapper patterns. It is highly popular and supports multiple databases. Compared to Mikro-ORM, TypeORM has a larger community and more extensive documentation, but Mikro-ORM offers a more modern and flexible API.
Sequelize is a promise-based Node.js ORM for Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use. While Sequelize is more mature and has a larger user base, Mikro-ORM provides better TypeScript support and more advanced features like Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns.
Objection.js is an SQL-friendly ORM for Node.js, built on top of the SQL query builder Knex.js. It aims to stay as close to the SQL syntax as possible while providing a powerful and flexible API. Compared to Mikro-ORM, Objection.js offers more control over raw SQL queries but lacks some of the higher-level abstractions and features provided by Mikro-ORM.
Simple typescript ORM for node.js based on data-mapper, unit-of-work and identity-map patterns. Supports MongoDB and MySQL databases.
Heavily inspired by doctrine.
Fist install the module via yarn or npm and do not forget to install the database driver as well:
$ yarn add mikro-orm mongodb # for mongo
$ yarn add mikro-orm mysql2 # for mysql
or
$ npm i -s mikro-orm mongodb # for mongo
$ npm i -s mikro-orm mysql2 # for mysql
Then call MikroORM.init as part of bootstrapping your app:
const orm = await MikroORM.init({
entitiesDirs: ['entities'], // relative to `baseDir`
dbName: 'my-db-name',
clientUrl: '...', // defaults to 'mongodb://localhost:27017' for mongodb driver
baseDir: __dirname, // defaults to `process.cwd()`
});
console.log(orm.em); // EntityManager
And do not forget to clear entity manager before each request if you do not want to store all loaded entities in memory:
const app = express();
app.use((req, res, next) => {
orm.em.clear();
next();
});
Or ideally use the RequestContext helper to have dedicated identity maps for each request,
as described here.
Now you can define your entities (in one of the entitiesDirs folders):
@Entity()
export class Book {
@PrimaryKey()
_id: ObjectID;
@Property()
createdAt = new Date();
@Property({ onUpdate: () => new Date() })
updatedAt = new Date();
@Property()
title: string;
@ManyToOne({ entity: () => Author }) // you can pass the entity as class reference
author: Author;
@ManyToOne({ entity: () => Publisher.name }) // or you can pass the string name directly
publisher: Publisher;
constructor(title: string, author: Author) {
this.title = title;
this.author = author;
}
}
export interface Book extends IEntity { }
You will need to extend Book's interface with IEntity or your entity must extend BaseEntity
which does that for you. IEntity interface represents internal methods added to your entity's
prototype via @Entity decorator.
With your entities set up, you can start using entity manager and repositories as described
in following section. For more examples, take a look at
tests/EntityManager.mongo.test.ts.
To save entity state to database, you need to persist it. Persist takes care or deciding
whether to use insert or update and computes appropriate change-set. Entity references
that are not persisted yet (does not have identifier) will be cascade persisted automatically.
// use constructors in your entities for required parameters
const author = new Author('Jon Snow', 'snow@wall.st');
author.born = new Date();
const publisher = new Publisher('7K publisher');
const book1 = new Book('My Life on The Wall, part 1', author);
book1.publisher = publisher;
const book2 = new Book('My Life on The Wall, part 2', author);
book2.publisher = publisher;
const book3 = new Book('My Life on The Wall, part 3', author);
book3.publisher = publisher;
// just persist books, author and publisher will be automatically cascade persisted
await orm.em.persist([book1, book2, book3]);
// or one by one
await orm.em.persist(book1, false);
await orm.em.persist(book2, false);
await orm.em.persist(book3); // flush everything to database at once
EntityManagerTo fetch entities from database you can use find() and findOne() of EntityManager:
API:
EntityManager.getRepository<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string): EntityRepository<T>;
EntityManager.find<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, where?: FilterQuery<T>, populate?: string[], orderBy?: { [k: string]: 1 | -1; }, limit?: number, offset?: number): Promise<T[]>;
EntityManager.findOne<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, where: FilterQuery<T> | string, populate?: string[]): Promise<T>;
EntityManager.merge<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, data: any): T;
EntityManager.getReference<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, id: string): T;
EntityManager.remove(entityName: string, where: IEntity | any): Promise<number>;
EntityManager.removeEntity(entity: IEntity): Promise<number>;
EntityManager.count(entityName: string, where: any): Promise<number>;
EntityManager.persist(entity: IEntity | IEntity[], flush?: boolean): Promise<void>;
EntityManager.flush(): Promise<void>;
EntityManager.clear(): void;
EntityManager.canPopulate(entityName: string, property: string): boolean;
Example:
const author = orm.em.findOne(Author.name, '...id...');
const books = orm.em.find(Book.name, {});
for (const author of authors) {
console.log(author.name); // Jon Snow
for (const book of author.books) {
console.log(book.title); // initialized
console.log(book.author.isInitialized()); // true
console.log(book.author.id);
console.log(book.author.name); // Jon Snow
console.log(book.publisher); // just reference
console.log(book.publisher.isInitialized()); // false
console.log(book.publisher.id);
console.log(book.publisher.name); // undefined
}
}
EntityRepository instead of EntityManagerMore convenient way of fetching entities from database is by using EntityRepository, that
carries the entity name so you do not have to pass it to every find and findOne calls:
API:
EntityRepository.persist(entity: IEntity, flush?: boolean): Promise<void>;
EntityRepository.findOne(where: FilterQuery<IEntity> | string, populate?: string[]): Promise<IEntity>;
EntityRepository.find(where: FilterQuery<IEntity>, populate?: string[], orderBy?: { [k: string]: 1 | -1; }, limit?: number, offset?: number): Promise<IEntity[]>;
EntityRepository.findAll(populate?: string[], orderBy?: { [k: string]: 1 | -1; }, limit?: number, offset?: number): Promise<IEntity[]>;
EntityRepository.remove(where: IEntity | any): Promise<number>;
EntityRepository.flush(): Promise<void>;
EntityRepository.canPopulate(property: string): boolean;
EntityRepository.count(where?: any): Promise<number>;
Example:
const booksRepository = orm.em.getRepository<Book>(Book.name);
// with sorting, limit and offset parameters, populating author references
const books = await booksRepository.find({ author: '...' }, ['author'], { title: -1 }, 2, 1);
console.log(books); // Book[]
To use custom repository, just extend EntityRepository<T> class:
export class CustomAuthorRepository extends EntityRepository<Author> {
// your custom methods...
public findAndUpdate(...) {
// ...
}
}
And register your repository as @Entity decorator:
@Entity({ customRepository: () => CustomAuthorRepository })
export class Publisher {
// ...
}
Note that we need to pass that repository reference inside a callback so we will not run into circular dependency issues when using entity references inside that repository.
Now you can access your custom repository via EntityManager.getRepository() method.
MikroORM uses identity map in background so you will always get the same instance of
one entity.
const authorRepository = orm.em.getRepository<Author>(Author.name);
const jon = await authorRepository.findOne({ name: 'Jon Snow' }, ['books']);
const authors = await authorRepository.findAll(['books']);
// identity map in action
console.log(jon === authors[0]); // true
If you want to clear this identity map cache, you can do so via EntityManager.clear() method:
orm.em.clear();
You should always keep unique identity map per each request. This basically means that you need to clone entity manager and use the clone in request context. There are two ways to achieve this:
With fork() method you can simply get clean entity manager with its own context and identity map:
const em = orm.em.fork();
RequestContext helper for DI containersIf you use dependency injection container like inversify or the one in nestjs framework, it
can be hard to achieve this, because you usually want to access your repositories via DI container,
but it will always provide you with the same instance, rather than new one for each request.
To solve this, you can use RequestContext helper, that will use node's async hooks in the background
to isolate the request context. MikroORM will always use request specific (forked) entity manager
if available, so all you need to do is to create new request context preferably in middle:
app.use((req, res, next) => {
RequestContext.create(orm.em, next);
});
Every single entity relation is mapped to an entity reference. Reference is an entity that has only its identifier. This reference is stored in identity map so you will get the same object reference when fetching the same document from database.
You can call await entity.init() to initialize the entity. This will trigger database call
and populate itself, keeping the same reference in identity map.
const author = await orm.em.getReference('...id...');
console.log(author.id); // accessing the id will not trigger any db call
console.log(author.isInitialized()); // false
console.log(author.name); // undefined
await author.init(); // this will trigger db call
console.log(author.isInitialized()); // true
console.log(author.name); // defined
Internally, MikroORM never calls entity constructor, so you are free to use it as you wish.
The constructor will be called only when you instantiate the class yourself via new operator,
so it is a handy place to require your data when creating new entity.
For example following Book entity definition will always require to set title and author,
but publisher will be optional:
@Entity({ collection: 'books-table' })
export class Book {
@PrimaryKey()
_id: ObjectID;
@Property()
title: string;
@ManyToOne({ entity: () => Author })
author: Author;
@ManyToOne({ entity: () => Publisher })
publisher: Publisher;
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => BookTag, inversedBy: 'books' })
tags = new Collection<BookTag>(this);
constructor(title: string, author: Author) {
this.title = title;
this.author = author;
}
}
export interface Book extends IEntity { }
You can use lifecycle hooks to run some code when entity gets persisted. You can mark any of entity methods with them, you can also mark multiple methods with same hook.
@BeforeCreate() and @BeforeUpdate() is fired right before we persist the entity in database
@AfterCreate() and @AfterUpdate() is fired right after the entity is updated in database and
merged to identity map. Since this event entity will have reference to EntityManager and will be
enabled to call entity.init() method (including all entity references and collections).
@BeforeDelete() is fired right before we delete the record from database. It is fired only when
removing entity or entity reference, not when deleting records by query.
@AfterDelete() is fired right after the record gets deleted from database and it is unset from
the identity map.
ObjectID and string duality (MongoDriver)Every entity has both ObjectID and string id available, also all methods of EntityManager
and EntityRepository supports querying by both of them.
const author = await orm.em.getReference('...id...');
console.log(author.id); // returns '...id...'
console.log(author._id); // returns ObjectID('...id...')
// all of those will return the same results
const article = '...article id...'; // string id
const book = '...book id...'; // string id
const repo = orm.em.getRepository<Author>(Author.name);
const foo1 = await repo.find({ id: { $in: [article] }, favouriteBook: book });
const bar1 = await repo.find({ id: { $in: [new ObjectID(article)] }, favouriteBook: new ObjectID(book) });
const foo2 = await repo.find({ _id: { $in: [article] }, favouriteBook: book });
const bar2 = await repo.find({ _id: { $in: [new ObjectID(article)] }, favouriteBook: new ObjectID(book) });
OneToMany and ManyToMany collections are stored in a Collection wrapper. It implements
iterator so you can use for of loop to iterate through it.
const author = orm.em.findOne(Author.name, '...', ['books']); // populating books collection
// or we could lazy load books collection later via `init()` method
await author.books.init();
for (const book of author.books) {
console.log(book.title); // initialized
console.log(book.author.isInitialized()); // true
console.log(book.author.id);
console.log(book.author.name); // Jon Snow
console.log(book.publisher); // just reference
console.log(book.publisher.isInitialized()); // false
console.log(book.publisher.id);
console.log(book.publisher.name); // undefined
}
// collection needs to be initialized before you can work with it
author.books.add(book);
console.log(author.books.contains(book)); // true
author.books.remove(book);
console.log(author.books.contains(book)); // false
author.books.add(book);
console.log(author.books.count()); // 1
author.books.removeAll();
console.log(author.books.contains(book)); // false
console.log(author.books.count()); // 0
console.log(author.books.getItems()); // Book[]
console.log(author.books.getIdentifiers()); // array of string | number
console.log(author.books.getIdentifiers('_id')); // array of ObjectID
OneToMany collectionsOneToMany collections are inverse side of ManyToOne references, to which they need to point via fk attribute:
@Entity()
export class Book {
@PrimaryKey()
_id: ObjectID;
@ManyToOne({ entity: () => Author })
author: Author;
}
@Entity()
export class BookTag {
@PrimaryKey()
_id: ObjectID;
@OneToMany({ entity: () => Book, fk: 'author' })
books = new Collection<Book>(this);
}
ManyToMany collectionsAs opposed to SQL databases, with MongoDB we do not need to have join tables for ManyToMany relations.
All references are stored as an array of ObjectIDs on owning entity.
Unidirectional ManyToMany relations are defined only on one side, and marked explicitly as owner:
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => Book, owner: true })
books = new Collection<Book>(this);
Bidirectional ManyToMany relations are defined on both sides, while one is owning side (where references are store),
marked by inversedBy attribute pointing to the inverse side:
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => BookTag, inversedBy: 'books' })
tags = new Collection<BookTag>(this);
And on the inversed side we define it with mappedBy attribute poining back to the owner:
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => Book, mappedBy: 'tags' })
books = new Collection<Book>(this);
IEntity.assign()When you want to update entity based on user input, you will usually have just plain
string ids of entity relations as user input. Normally you would need to use
EntityManager.getReference() to create references from each id first, and then
use those references to update entity relations:
const jon = new Author('Jon Snow', 'snow@wall.st');
const book = new Book('Book', jon);
book.author = orm.em.getReference<Author>(Author.name, '...id...');
Same result can be easily achieved with IEntity.assign():
book.assign({
title: 'Better Book 1',
author: '...id...',
});
console.log(book.title); // 'Better Book 1'
console.log(book.author); // instance of Author with id: '...id...'
console.log(book.author.id); // '...id...'
To use mikro-orm with MySQL database, do not forget to install mysql2 driver and provide
MySqlDriver class when initializing ORM.
Then call MikroORM.init as part of bootstrapping your app:
const orm = await MikroORM.init({
entitiesDirs: ['entities'], // relative to `baseDir`
dbName: 'my-db-name',
driver: MySqlDriver,
});
Currently you will need to maintain the database schema yourself.
ManyToMany collections with pivot tablesAs opposed to MongoDriver, in MySQL we use pivot tables to handle ManyToMany relations:
CREATE TABLE `publisher_to_test` (
`id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`publisher_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`test_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
You can adjust the name of pivot table via pivotTable option in @ManyToMany decorator
defined on owning side:
// for unidirectional
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => Test.name, owner: true, pivotTable: 'publisher2test' })
tests = new Collection<Test>(this);
// for bidirectional
@ManyToMany({ entity: () => BookTag, inversedBy: 'books', pivotTable: 'book2tag' })
tags = new Collection<BookTag>(this);
QueryBuilder to execute native SQL queriesWhen you need to execute some SQL query without all the ORM stuff involved, you can either
compose the query yourself, or use the QueryBuilder helper to construct the query for you:
const qb = orm.em.createQueryBuilder(Author.name);
qb.update({ name: 'test 123', type: PublisherType.GLOBAL }).where({ id: 123, type: PublisherType.LOCAL });
console.log(qb.getQuery());
// 'UPDATE `publisher2` SET `name` = ?, `type` = ? WHERE `id` = ? AND `type` = ?'
console.log(qb.getParams());
// ['test 123', PublisherType.GLOBAL, 123, PublisherType.LOCAL]
// run the query
const driver = orm.em.getDriver<MySqlDriver>();
const res1 = await driver.execute(qb);
// or run query without using QueryBuilder
const res2 = await driver.execute('SELECT ? + ?', [1, 2]);
QueryBuilder provides fluent interface with these methods:
QueryBuilder.select(fields: string | string[]): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.insert(data: any): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.update(data: any): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.delete(cond: any): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.count(fields: string | string[]): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.where(cond: any): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.populate(populate: string[]): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.limit(limit: number, offset?: number): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.offset(offset: number): QueryBuilder;
QueryBuilder.getQuery(): string;
QueryBuilder.getParams(): any;
For more examples of how to work with QueryBuilder, take a look at QueryBuilder tests in
tests/QueryBuilder.test.ts.
MySQL driver provides basic support for transactions via begin/commit/rollback methods on both
MySqlDriver and their shortcuts on EntityManager as well.
You can also use EntityManager.transactional(cb) helper to run callback in transaction. It will
provide forked EntityManager as a parameter with clear clear isolated identity map - please use that
to make changes.
// if an error occurs inside the callback, all db queries from inside the callback will be rolled back
await orm.em.transactional(async (em: EntityManager) => {
const god = new Author('God', 'hello@heaven.god');
await em.persist(god);
});
EntityManager.begin(): Promise<void>;
EntityManager.commit(): Promise<void>;
EntityManager.rollback(): Promise<void>;
EntityManager.transactional(cb: (em: EntityManager) => Promise<any>): Promise<any>;
Keep in mind transactions are supported only in MySQL driver currently.
MySqlDriver defaults to UnderscoreNamingStrategy, which means your all your database tables and
columns will be lower-cased and words divided by underscored:
CREATE TABLE `author` (
`id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`created_at` datetime(3) DEFAULT NULL,
`updated_at` datetime(3) DEFAULT NULL,
`terms_accepted` tinyint(1) DEFAULT NULL,
`name` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`email` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`born` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
`favourite_book_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
You can also provide your own naming strategy, just implement NamingStrategy interface and provide
your implementation when bootstrapping ORM:
class YourCustomNamingStrategy implements NamingStrategy {
...
}
const orm = await MikroORM.init({
...
namingStrategy: YourCustomNamingStrategy,
...
});
Sometimes you need to perform some bulk operation, or you just want to populate your
database with initial fixtures. Using ORM for such operations can bring unnecessary
boilerplate code. In this case, you can use one of nativeInsert/nativeUpdate/nativeDelete
methods:
EntityManager.nativeInsert<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, data: any): Promise<IPrimaryKey>;
EntityManager.nativeUpdate<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, where: FilterQuery<T>, data: any): Promise<number>;
EntityManager.nativeDelete<T extends IEntity>(entityName: string, where: FilterQuery<T> | any): Promise<number>;
Those methods execute native driver methods like Mongo's insertOne/updateMany/deleteMany collection methods respectively.
This is common interface for all drivers, so for MySQL driver, it will fire native SQL queries.
Keep in mind that they do not hydrate results to entities, and they do not trigger lifecycle hooks.
They are also available as EntityRepository shortcuts:
EntityRepository.nativeInsert(data: any): Promise<IPrimaryKey>;
EntityRepository.nativeUpdate(where: FilterQuery<T>, data: any): Promise<number>;
EntityRepository.nativeDelete(where: FilterQuery<T> | any): Promise<number>;
There is also shortcut for calling aggregate method (available in MongoDriver only):
EntityManager.aggregate(entityName: string, pipeline: any[]): Promise<any[]>;
EntityRepository.aggregate(pipeline: any[]): Promise<any[]>;
MirkoORM will validate your properties before actual persisting happens. It will try to fix wrong
data types for you automatically. If automatic conversion fails, it will throw an error. You can
enable strict mode to disable this feature and let ORM throw errors instead. Validation is triggered
when persisting the entity.
// number instead of string will throw
const author = new Author('test', 'test');
author.assign({ name: 111, email: 222 });
await orm.em.persist(author); // throws "Validation error: trying to set Author.name of type 'string' to '111' of type 'number'"
// string date with unknown format will throw
author.assign(author, { name: '333', email: '444', born: 'asd' });
await orm.em.persist(author); // throws "Validation error: trying to set Author.born of type 'date' to 'asd' of type 'string'"
// string date with correct format will be auto-corrected
author.assign({ name: '333', email: '444', born: '2018-01-01' });
await orm.em.persist(author);
console.log(author.born).toBe(true); // instance of Date
// Date object will be ok
author.assign({ born: new Date() });
await orm.em.persist(author);
console.log(author.born).toBe(true); // instance of Date
// null will be ok
author.assign({ born: null });
await orm.em.persist(author);
console.log(author.born); // null
// string number with correct format will be auto-corrected
author.assign({ age: '21' });
await orm.em.persist(author);
console.log(author.age); // number 21
// string instead of number with will throw
author.assign({ age: 'asd' });
await orm.em.persist(author); // throws "Validation error: trying to set Author.age of type 'number' to 'asd' of type 'string'"
author.assign({ age: new Date() });
await orm.em.persist(author); // throws "Validation error: trying to set Author.age of type 'number' to '2019-01-17T21:14:23.875Z' of type 'date'"
author.assign({ age: false });
await orm.em.persist(author); // throws "Validation error: trying to set Author.age of type 'number' to 'false' of type 'boolean'"
FAQs
TypeScript ORM for Node.js based on Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns. Supports MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite databases as well as usage with vanilla JavaScript.
We found that mikro-orm demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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