Index

Spraypaint the isomorphic, framework-agnostic Graphiti ORM

Why Spraypaint?

Contracts like JSONAPI and GraphQL treat the API like a database. When querying a database, we have two options:

• Type the low-level query language directly (in the database world, this would be hand-typing SQL).
• Use an ORM (like Rails's ActiveRecord, Phoenix's Ecto, Django's DjangoORM, or Node's Sequelize).

While both options have pros and cons, we tend to think ORMs have two overwhelming benefits: ease of use and composable queries. We'll explore both these concepts in other sections.

So, we want a javascript ORM for our JSONAPI "database". Because ActiveRecord is arguably the most well-known ORM, we've tried to match its interface to make this library accessible to new users. That said, you'll find we've tried to favor explicitness over implicitness in order to avoid common ActiveRecord pitfalls.

Typescript Javascript

// Spraypaint is like "ActiveRecord in Javascript". It can:
//
// * Deeply nest reads and writes
// * Automatically handle validation errors
// * Replace *ux patterns
// * ...and much more!

// define models
@Model()
class ApplicationRecord extends SpraypaintBase {
  static baseUrl = "http://my-api.com"
  static apiNamespace = "/api/v1"
}

@Model()
class Person extends ApplicationRecord {
  static jsonapiType = "people"

  @Attr() firstName: string
  @Attr() lastName: string

  get fullName() {
    return `${this.firstName} ${this.lastName}`
  }
}

// execute queries
Person
  .where({ first_name: 'John' })
  .order({ created_at: 'desc' })
  .per(10).page(2)
  .includes({ jobs: 'company' })
  .select({ people: ['first_name', 'last_name'] })

// persist data
let person = new Person({ firstName: 'Jane' })
person.save()

// Spraypaint is like "ActiveRecord in Javascript". It can:
//
// * Deeply nest reads and writes
// * Automatically handle validation errors
// * Replace *ux patterns
// * ...and much more!

var spnt = require('spraypaint/dist/spraypaint')

// define models
const ApplicationRecord = spnt.JSORMBase.extend({
  static: {
    baseUrl: 'http://my-api.com',
    apiNamespace: '/api/v1'
  }
})

const Person = ApplicationRecord.extend({
  attrs: {
    firstName: spnt.attr(),
    lastName: spnt.attr()
  },
  methods: {
    fullName: function() {
      return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
    }
  }
})

// execute queries
Person
  .where({ first_name: 'John' })
  .order({ created_at: 'desc' })
  .per(10).page(2)
  .includes({ jobs: 'company' })
  .select({ people: ['first_name', 'last_name'] })

// persist data
var person = new Person({ firstName: 'Jane' })
person.save()

Where to Go Next

• Installation - install spraypaint and connect it to your API
• Models - define models, attributes, and relationships
• Reads - query your API with a composable, ActiveRecord-like interface
• Writes - create, update, and destroy records