TypeORM Development Guidelines
You are an expert in TypeORM, TypeScript, and database design with a focus on the Data Mapper pattern and enterprise application architecture.
Core Principles TypeORM supports both Active Record and Data Mapper patterns Uses TypeScript decorators for entity and column definitions Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQLite, MS SQL Server, Oracle, and more Works in Node.js, Browser, Ionic, Cordova, React Native, NativeScript, Expo, and Electron First-class support for database migrations TypeScript Configuration
Required settings in tsconfig.json:
{ "compilerOptions": { "experimentalDecorators": true, "emitDecoratorMetadata": true, "strict": true, "target": "ES2020", "module": "commonjs", "moduleResolution": "node" } }
Entity Definition Basic Entity import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column, CreateDateColumn, UpdateDateColumn, } from "typeorm";
@Entity("users") export class User { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column({ type: "varchar", length: 255, unique: true }) email: string;
@Column({ type: "varchar", length: 255, nullable: true }) name: string | null;
@Column({ type: "boolean", default: true }) isActive: boolean;
@CreateDateColumn() createdAt: Date;
@UpdateDateColumn() updatedAt: Date; }
Primary Key Options // Auto-increment @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
// UUID @PrimaryGeneratedColumn("uuid") id: string;
// Custom primary key @PrimaryColumn() id: string;
// Composite primary key @Entity() export class OrderItem { @PrimaryColumn() orderId: number;
@PrimaryColumn() productId: number; }
Column Decorators @Entity() export class Product { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
// String columns @Column({ type: "varchar", length: 255 }) name: string;
@Column({ type: "text", nullable: true }) description: string | null;
// Numeric columns @Column({ type: "decimal", precision: 10, scale: 2 }) price: number;
@Column({ type: "int", default: 0 }) stock: number;
// Boolean @Column({ type: "boolean", default: true }) isAvailable: boolean;
// JSON
@Column({ type: "jsonb", nullable: true })
metadata: Record
// Enum @Column({ type: "enum", enum: ["active", "inactive", "pending"], default: "pending", }) status: "active" | "inactive" | "pending";
// Timestamps @CreateDateColumn() createdAt: Date;
@UpdateDateColumn() updatedAt: Date;
@DeleteDateColumn() deletedAt: Date | null; // For soft deletes
// Version column for optimistic locking @VersionColumn() version: number; }
Relationships One-to-One @Entity() export class User { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@OneToOne(() => Profile, (profile) => profile.user, { cascade: true }) @JoinColumn() profile: Profile; }
@Entity() export class Profile { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column() bio: string;
@OneToOne(() => User, (user) => user.profile) user: User; }
One-to-Many / Many-to-One @Entity() export class User { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column() name: string;
@OneToMany(() => Post, (post) => post.author) posts: Post[]; }
@Entity() export class Post { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column() title: string;
@ManyToOne(() => User, (user) => user.posts, { onDelete: "CASCADE" }) @JoinColumn({ name: "author_id" }) author: User;
@Column() authorId: number; // Explicit foreign key column }
Many-to-Many @Entity() export class Post { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column() title: string;
@ManyToMany(() => Tag, (tag) => tag.posts) @JoinTable({ name: "post_tags", joinColumn: { name: "post_id" }, inverseJoinColumn: { name: "tag_id" }, }) tags: Tag[]; }
@Entity() export class Tag { @PrimaryGeneratedColumn() id: number;
@Column({ unique: true }) name: string;
@ManyToMany(() => Post, (post) => post.tags) posts: Post[]; }
Repository Pattern Basic Repository Usage import { AppDataSource } from "./data-source"; import { User } from "./entities/User";
const userRepository = AppDataSource.getRepository(User);
// Find all const users = await userRepository.find();
// Find with conditions const activeUsers = await userRepository.find({ where: { isActive: true }, });
// Find one const user = await userRepository.findOne({ where: { id: 1 }, });
// Find or fail const user = await userRepository.findOneOrFail({ where: { id: 1 }, });
// Save const newUser = userRepository.create({ email: "user@example.com", name: "John Doe", }); await userRepository.save(newUser);
// Update await userRepository.update({ id: 1 }, { name: "Jane Doe" });
// Delete await userRepository.delete({ id: 1 });
// Soft delete (requires @DeleteDateColumn) await userRepository.softDelete({ id: 1 });
Custom Repository import { Repository, DataSource } from "typeorm"; import { User } from "./entities/User";
export class UserRepository extends Repository
async findByEmail(email: string): Promise
async findActiveUsers(): Promise
async findWithPosts(userId: number): Promise
Query Builder const users = await userRepository .createQueryBuilder("user") .leftJoinAndSelect("user.posts", "post") .where("user.isActive = :isActive", { isActive: true }) .andWhere("post.publishedAt IS NOT NULL") .orderBy("user.createdAt", "DESC") .skip(0) .take(10) .getMany();
// With raw results const result = await userRepository .createQueryBuilder("user") .select("COUNT(*)", "count") .where("user.isActive = :isActive", { isActive: true }) .getRawOne();
// Insert with query builder await userRepository .createQueryBuilder() .insert() .into(User) .values([ { email: "user1@example.com", name: "User 1" }, { email: "user2@example.com", name: "User 2" }, ]) .execute();
Data Source Configuration // data-source.ts import { DataSource } from "typeorm"; import { User } from "./entities/User"; import { Post } from "./entities/Post";
export const AppDataSource = new DataSource({ type: "postgres", host: process.env.DB_HOST || "localhost", port: parseInt(process.env.DB_PORT || "5432"), username: process.env.DB_USERNAME, password: process.env.DB_PASSWORD, database: process.env.DB_NAME,
// Entity configuration entities: [User, Post], // Or use glob pattern: entities: ["src/entities/*/.ts"]
// Migrations migrations: ["src/migrations/*/.ts"],
// Synchronize - NEVER use in production synchronize: false,
// Logging logging: process.env.NODE_ENV === "development",
// Connection pool poolSize: 10,
// SSL (for production) ssl: process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? { rejectUnauthorized: false } : false, });
// Initialize connection AppDataSource.initialize() .then(() => console.log("Data Source initialized")) .catch((error) => console.error("Error initializing Data Source:", error));
Migrations Creating Migrations
Generate migration from entity changes
npx typeorm migration:generate src/migrations/CreateUsers -d src/data-source.ts
Create empty migration
npx typeorm migration:create src/migrations/SeedUsers
Run migrations
npx typeorm migration:run -d src/data-source.ts
Revert last migration
npx typeorm migration:revert -d src/data-source.ts
Migration File Structure import { MigrationInterface, QueryRunner, Table, TableIndex } from "typeorm";
export class CreateUsers1234567890 implements MigrationInterface {
public async up(queryRunner: QueryRunner): Promise
await queryRunner.createIndex(
"users",
new TableIndex({
name: "IDX_USERS_EMAIL",
columnNames: ["email"],
})
);
}
public async down(queryRunner: QueryRunner): Promise
Transactions // Using QueryRunner const queryRunner = AppDataSource.createQueryRunner(); await queryRunner.connect(); await queryRunner.startTransaction();
try { const user = queryRunner.manager.create(User, { email: "user@example.com", name: "User", }); await queryRunner.manager.save(user);
const post = queryRunner.manager.create(Post, { title: "First Post", author: user, }); await queryRunner.manager.save(post);
await queryRunner.commitTransaction(); } catch (error) { await queryRunner.rollbackTransaction(); throw error; } finally { await queryRunner.release(); }
// Using transaction method await AppDataSource.transaction(async (manager) => { const user = manager.create(User, { email: "user@example.com", name: "User", }); await manager.save(user);
const post = manager.create(Post, { title: "First Post", author: user, }); await manager.save(post); });
NestJS Integration // app.module.ts import { Module } from "@nestjs/common"; import { TypeOrmModule } from "@nestjs/typeorm"; import { User } from "./entities/user.entity"; import { UsersModule } from "./users/users.module";
@Module({ imports: [ TypeOrmModule.forRoot({ type: "postgres", host: "localhost", port: 5432, username: "user", password: "password", database: "db", entities: [User], synchronize: false, }), UsersModule, ], }) export class AppModule {}
// users/users.module.ts @Module({ imports: [TypeOrmModule.forFeature([User])], providers: [UsersService], controllers: [UsersController], }) export class UsersModule {}
// users/users.service.ts
@Injectable()
export class UsersService {
constructor(
@InjectRepository(User)
private usersRepository: Repository
findAll(): Promise
findOne(id: number): Promise
Best Practices Use Migrations in Production
Never use synchronize: true in production. Always use migrations:
// Development: Use migrations, not sync synchronize: false,
Eager vs Lazy Loading // Eager loading - loads relations automatically @OneToMany(() => Post, (post) => post.author, { eager: true }) posts: Post[];
// Lazy loading - loads relations on access
@OneToMany(() => Post, (post) => post.author)
posts: Promise
// Explicit loading (recommended) const user = await userRepository.findOne({ where: { id: 1 }, relations: ["posts"], });
Avoid N+1 Queries // Bad: N+1 queries const users = await userRepository.find(); for (const user of users) { console.log(user.posts); // Separate query for each user }
// Good: Eager load relations const users = await userRepository.find({ relations: ["posts"], });
Use Indexes @Entity() @Index(["email"]) @Index(["firstName", "lastName"]) export class User { @Column() @Index() email: string;
@Column() firstName: string;
@Column() lastName: string; }
Cascade Operations @OneToMany(() => Post, (post) => post.author, { cascade: true, // Saves/removes related posts onDelete: "CASCADE", // Database-level cascade }) posts: Post[];
Naming Strategies
For consistent naming between TypeScript and database:
import { DefaultNamingStrategy, NamingStrategyInterface } from "typeorm"; import { snakeCase } from "typeorm/util/StringUtils";
export class SnakeNamingStrategy extends DefaultNamingStrategy implements NamingStrategyInterface { tableName(targetName: string, userSpecifiedName: string | undefined): string { return userSpecifiedName ? userSpecifiedName : snakeCase(targetName); }
columnName(propertyName: string, customName: string, embeddedPrefixes: string[]): string { return snakeCase(embeddedPrefixes.join("_")) + (customName ? customName : snakeCase(propertyName)); } }
// Use in data source config namingStrategy: new SnakeNamingStrategy(),