Saving model with relations

[luisbravoa]

Hi, is there a way to save a models data with related models? I have a model User and it has a Profile and a Role.

I'm using backbone on the client side and i'm making a put to edit user info:

var userData = {
    "email": "info@luisbravoa.com",
    "Profile": {
        "firstname": "luis",
        "lastname": "bravo"
    },
    "Role": {
          "user_id": "1",
          "role_id": "3"
      }
} ;

How can i specified in the save method to save also related models, something like this:

User.forge({id: id})
   .save(userData, { withRealated: true})
   .then(function(model){
       // weeee
   })
   .otherwise(function(error){
     // :(
});

thanks very much!

[tgriesser]

I don't have something for this yet, though I'm considering it... just need to think through the different cases a bit before trying to hack something together. In the meantime you can do something like this (assuming you've loaded/parsed the relations with the appropriate data, which you could do with a custom format method).

var _    = require('underscore');
var when = require('when');

User.forge({id: id})
   .save(userData)
   .then(function(model){
     return when.all(_.map(model.relations, function(relation) {
       return relation.save();
     }).yield(model);
   })
   .then(function(model) {
     // wee
   })
   .otherwise(function(error){
     // :(
   });

You might also want to wrap it in a transaction, to ensure that if one item fails to save for whatever reason, everything is rolled back:

var when = require('when');
bookshelf.transaction(function(t) {
  User.forge({id: id})
     .save(userData, {transacting: t})
     .then(function(model){
       return when.all(_.map(model.relations, function(relation) {
         return relation.save(null, {transacting: t}));
       }).then(t.commit, t.rollback).yield(model);
     });
}).then(function(model) {
  // wee
})
.otherwise(function(error){
  // :(
});

[bendrucker]

Assuming exampleRelation is a collection, you want invokeThen. invoke returns an array of promises and so calling then would throw. invokeThen is wrapping the returned array in a Promise.all which then actually resolves the promise array using then.

If exampleRelation is a single model — e.g. Model.relation: function() { return this.hasOne(ExampleRelation); } — then it would just be a standard save.

[FabricioFFC]

@tgriesser

In my case I have a object called Customer, that has many hasMany associations. These associations are stored in my model as arrays. Follows an example below:

name: 'Customer X',
email: 'customerx@gmail.com',
bankAccounts: [{
  agency: '0110',
  accountNumber: '01111'
  ...
}]

What is the best way to save my main object (Customer) and it's relations? I dig into the docs and the Ghost code, but I didn't found any simple way to save the object with all data associated.

[tgriesser]

@FabricioFFC there isn't yet, mainly because there isn't a unified way of loading relation data (when it's not coming from a database) without a custom parse method. I have this relatively high on the todo list though, I'll keep you posted

[FabricioFFC]

@tgriesser ok. Thank you!

[willrstern]

Eric Clemmons came up with https://github.com/ericclemmons/bookshelf-manager as a way of saving a deeply-nested model with relations.

[dvp0]

@tgriesser This functionality seems very vital for large data objects. Would be really helpful if we can get this built in bookshelf !

[tgriesser]

Yep we're going to make sure this happens and is done right. Keep an eye on #552

[shinzui]

Is this feature in development? It's hard to tell by looking at #552

[adnanoner]

Is this possible?

[vellotis]

It may be possible with bookshelf-manager.

[crunchtime-ali]

The project leadership of Bookshelf recently changed. In an effort to advance the project we close all issues older than one year.

If you think this issue needs to be re-evaluated please post a comment on why this is still important and we will re-open it.

We also started an open discussion about the future of Bookshelf.js here #1600. Feel free to drop by and give us your opinion.
Let's make Bookshelf great again

[mrsimb]

Bulk saving nested data is crucial when you create tests that fill your database. I would like to do something like this:

await new Users([
  {
    login: 'user1',
    articles: [
      { title: 'Article 1' },
      { title: 'Article 2' }
    ]
  },
  // ...
]).save()

[ricardograca]

I agree. I would also like to have this functionality.

[fl0w]

If you want to accomplish this without restructuring the core it is possible, as previously discussed (for reference) in #1979 (comment)

[ricardograca]

Great solution. Seems very elegant! We can probably add that to Bookshelf if anyone is willing to submit a PR.