Option to disable foreign keys creation

[alfaproject]

Issue type:

[x] question
[ ] bug report
[x] feature request
[ ] documentation issue

Database system/driver:

[ ] cordova
[ ] mongodb
[ ] mssql
[x] mysql / mariadb
[ ] oracle
[ ] postgres
[ ] sqlite
[ ] sqljs
[ ] react-native
[ ] expo

TypeORM version:

[x] latest
[ ] @next
[ ] 0.x.x (or put your version here)

Steps to reproduce or a small repository showing the problem:

Is there a way to disable foreign keys creation? I searched a bit and couldn't find it.

If not, is there a chance such option can be implemented? Maybe I can give it a try if you point me in the right direction. (:

[Kononnable]

Adding @pleerock
I'm not a fan of having relational database without foreign keys, but I'm concerned if introducing such change could break some of the functionalities like onUpdate, onDelete on relations.

[pleerock]

Yeah it can bring some issues. I would like to know what is the point of this feature request.

[alfaproject]

Our DBA told us to remove all foreign keys for performance reasons and to ease sharding, clustering and online migrations. It's actually the second company I work for where this was requested, but it's my first time using TypeORM, so I had to fork and get rid of the line that creates the foreign keys.

I actually don't see the point of enforcing them. It seems to me like it's up to the application to maintain consistency its own way or to use foreign keys where appropriate if desired, right? (The option is there if anyone wants to use them.)

[pleerock]

Think we can try to do it, but I'm not sure about all consequences

[alfaproject]

That would be awesome. Maybe I can help if I find some free time. A bit over-worked right now ):

[Diluka]

Oh, this is what we discussed in the beginning #1031

[vlapo]

As @rudism requested in #3382. It would be nice to have option to disable FK creation only for specific relation too.

[exeleon]

This feature would let to have "soft" relations across databases in different hosts. That is really my requirement now.

[ITJesse]

Maybe we should give user an option to choose whether to use a foreign key or not.

[david-eos]

Any news on this? Is it possible to disable it?

[eddieajau]

I have had a similar problem. The issue I had is with my unit testing where I use synchronise. My production code would be fine, but TypeORM wants to put the FK on the wrong table. In the example below I put the relation on the stats table, not the channel table.

In case it helps anyone else, I've just used leftJoinAndMapOne to work around this problem.

@Entity('channel')
export class Channel {
  @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
  public id: number;

  // ...
  public stats?: ChannelStats;
}

@Entity('channel_stats')
export class ChannelStats {
  @PrimaryColumn()
  public channel_id: number;

  @Column({ unsigned, default: 0 })
  public members: number;
}

// Then something like
const users = await connection
    .getRepository(Channel)
    .createQueryBuilder("c")
    .leftJoinAndMapOne('c.stats', 'channel_stats', 's', 's.channel_id = c.id')
    .getMany();

[frankra]

@alfaproject can you please share the changes you did? I am having some super weird issues atm and I think they might be related to the auto-creation of FKs. Thanks!

[alfaproject]

Basically created a patch to comment out the method that creates the relations.

I've stopped using the library, so can't remember the exact file, so you have to search for it.

[jituanlin]

config with synchronize: false will global disable auto synchronize.

[insanehong]

Our DBA told us to remove all foreign keys for performance reasons too.
I need option can be disable FK creation

[v1d3rm3]

It could be useful in tests cases too.

[imnotjames]

Or let's hope we get some new developments on this topic :) I would be willing to submit PR to allow the user to disable FK validation, but I tried once to submit a PR and I didn't get a response...

The PR is still up? Happy to review it.

[cantremember]

we are sort of "constrained" in our schema as well by the enforcement of foreign key constraints. here's another (recent) Issue asking for a way to tell TypeORM not to auto-generate one

#5977

[alpharder]

I've added the #7112 PR but I don't have enough time to write the tests ATM, can someone assist me in that?

[vahidvdn]

Any update on this? I must use an old db which I need to disable the foreign key constraint.

[aacotroneo]

as a closing comment #7277 was merged to master (check releases for the needed version): you can now do this to disable the FK by

 @ManyToOne(type => Person, {
        createForeignKeyConstraints: false
    })

[mrtoorich]

https://typeorm.io/#/relations-faq/avoid-foreign-key-constraint-creation: the doc, avoid foreign key constraint creation.

[mrtoorich]

Is there a way, that setting createForeignKeyConstraints: false globally? Thanks! 🤔

[ofirgellerSM]

How can I do this when using EntitySchemas?

Adding createForeignKeyConstraints:false to the relation definition does not seem to work (and the type does not have this property)

[bryan-gc]

Is there a way, that setting createForeignKeyConstraints: false globally? Thanks! 🤔

Did someone found a way to do this?