Prisma Integration

[clayrisser]

This issue is for sharing thoughts on using prisma with loopback 4.

I wrote a simple example using prisma with loopback 4 and below are my initial observations.

1. Prisma does not work well with repositories, datasources or modals. The main reason for this is because prisma modals are tightly coupled with prisma datasources. This creates real friction with repositories, since repositories depend on a modal and datasource. I found it made the most sense to just directly use prisma in my controllers. The downside to this is that you cannot create loopback repository relationships with prisma data. Honestly though, that responsibility probably should lie with prisma anyways if you choose to use it.

2. The prisma api gets generated from prisma modals, which I find a bit awkward, although I understand it makes it easier to deal with the types. This will create challenges with loopbacks type system because loopback will be unaware of prisma types. This might be able to be improved with some hackery.

You can look at my example below.

https://github.com/codejamninja/lb4-prisma/blob/master/example/src/controllers/user.controller.ts

[dhmlau]

@codejamninja, thanks for your info! @bajtos, @raymondfeng and I had some discussion around prisma integration, so this is helpful.

@bajtos @raymondfeng, what do you think about creating a spike on this and perhaps target it for Q1?

[bajtos]

Thank you @codejamninja for the write up.

I found it made the most sense to just directly use prisma in my controllers. The downside to this is that you cannot create loopback repository relationships with prisma data. Honestly though, that responsibility probably should lie with prisma anyways if you choose to use it.

I agree with your conclusion to use Prisma directly in the controllers and bypass LoopBack models/datasources/repositories and let Prisma handle relations.

We may want to find a way how to register Prisma artifacts for dependency injection though.

This will create challenges with loopbacks type system because loopback will be unaware of prisma types.

Doesn't Prisma offer code-generation of TypeScript interfaces or classes to describe data shape? If not, then perhaps we can write one as part of loopback-prisma integration.

I think we should also look into ways how to obtain JSON Schema for Prisma type/data definitions. For example, when writing a hypothetical ProductController, I would like to use ProductSchema generated from my prisma definition files, I don't want to write (and maintain) it myself.

@dhmlau

what do you think about creating a spike on this and perhaps target it for Q1?

Sure, sound good 👍

[clayrisser]

Yes, prisma generates the types, but they are different than loopback's types

[clayrisser]

I thinks some kind of type shim would need to be created to make it integrate better.

[clayrisser]

Photon might be the answer for easily shimming the prisma types with loopback 4.

https://photonjs.prisma.io

[jonathansolorzn]

Is it right to think on how to integrate prisma 2 with loopback or should we take prisma as a similar solution for the same problem loopback solves?, in other words, shall we consider choosing between them?

[clayrisser]

Prisma 2 does not really allow business logic. It's more or less an ORM over a rest/graphql api.

[stale]

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[VinayaSathyanarayana]

Any update on this. I would like to use lb4 using the model definitions as specified in Prisma schema.

You may question on why I cannot create lb4 models - the answer to it is that I do not create Prisma schema. Prisma schema is auto generated by another tool for me