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Arek W edited this page May 3, 2016 · 10 revisions

After [connecting](Connecting to Database), you can use the connection object (db) to define your models. You need to specify the name of the model, a specification of the properties and options (optional). Here's a small example:

var Person = db.define('person', {
  id:      {type: 'serial', key: true}, // the auto-incrementing primary key
  name:    {type: 'text'},
  surname: {type: 'text'},
  age:     {type: 'number'}
}, {
  methods : {
    fullName: function() {
      return this.name + ' ' + this.surname;
    }
  }
});

The model is called person (which is usually the name of the table in the database), it has 3 properties (name and surname as text and age as number). A default id: { type: 'serial', key: true } property is added if you don't specify any keys yourself. In this example there is a model method called fullName. Here's an example of the usage of this model:

Person.get(73, function(err, person) {
  if (err) throw err;

  console.log('Hi, my name is ' + person.fullName());
});

This would get person with id=73 and print it's name and surname. There are other types of [properties available](Model Properties).

API

/**
 * @param {Object} props Property definitions
 * @param {Object} opts Options
 */
db.define(props, opts)

The first object accepted by db.define() is referred to as the properties object. It defines all the properties.
The second specifies extra options:

option name type description
collection String Lets you overwrite the table name in the database.
methods Object Extra methods to create on model instances. Called with this set to the instance.
hooks Object User defined hooks/callback.
validations Object User defined validations
id Array Deprecated in favour of setting key: true on properties.
identityCache Boolean Allows you to enable/disable identity cache.
autoSave Boolean Not recommended. Saves model automatically when a property is changed.
autoFetch Boolean ?
autoFetchLimit Number How many levels deep to autofetch
cascadeRemove Boolean ?
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