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overview

Dream, which can be found at https://github.com/rvohealth/dream, is a custom ORM that provides the heartbeat of our framework. Psychic was built around and alongside this ORM, with the intention of providing powerful web bindings to couple with the ORM and make developing backend or fullstack applications absolutely seamless.

Since most web applications will require a database, Dream is the tool for abstracting the interaction with the database. Using conventional active record patterns, Dream leverages models to hold the individual values stored within the database, creating a powerful bridge between the types held in the database and the properties designated to the model.

export async function up(db: Kysely<any>): Promise<void> {
  await db.schema
    .createTable('users')
    .addColumn('id', 'bigserial', (col) => col.primaryKey())
    .addColumn('email', 'varchar(64)')
    .addColumn('created_at', 'timestamp', (col) => col.notNull())
    .addColumn('updated_at', 'timestamp', (col) => col.notNull())
    .execute()
}

class User extends ApplicationModel {
  public id: DreamColumn<User, 'id'> // string
  public email: DreamColumn<User, 'email'> // string | null
  public createdAt: DreamColumn<User, 'createdAt'> // DateTime
  public updatedAt: DreamColumn<User, 'updatedAt'> // DateTime
}

With migrations run, and the above model in place, you can begin leveraging some of the powerful methods built into Dream to simplify your interactions with the database.

const user = await User.create({ email: 'how@yadoin' })
user.email // 'how@yadoin'

await User.all()
// [User{ email: 'how@yadoin' }]
tip

Dream provides a rich set of features for interacting with your database. We have only begun to get into it here, so we encourage you to explore the model guides to learn more.

Basic model interactions​

Advanced concepts​

  • To learn how to leverage postgres transactions, see our transactions guide
  • To learn how to leverage STI (single table inheritence), see our STI guide
  • To learn how to leverage model hooks, see our hooks guide
  • To learn how to leverage model scopes, see our scopes guide
  • To learn about the concept of dirty records, and how they apply to Dream models, see our dirty guide
  • To learn how to leverage the Sortable decorator, see our sortable guide