For persistence of data, PubSweet uses @pubsweet/base-model and its BaseModel class, which is a basic model based on Objection.js.

For a data model component, its defined exports are:

module.exports = {
  typeDefs: // GraphQL type definitions
  resolvers: // GraphQL resolvers
  modelName: 'Collection',
  model: require('./collection'),
}

Migrations (folder ./migrations) are automatically added if they exist. For example migrations, see e.g. the User model's migrations.

If you use @pubsweet/model-some-model in your app (by specifying it as a component in the configuration), typeDefs and resolvers are gathered in server's schema.js to compose the app's entire GraphQL schema from three parts: 1. pubsweet-server, 2. app's components and 3. app's config.

Using standalone data models

To use the above models, all you need to do is to add them to the pubsweet.components configuration, e.g.:

  pubsweet: {
    components: ['@pubsweet/model-some-model'],
  },

The data model's migrations will be added to the list of your app's migrations, and GraphQL queries and mutations will automatically be added to your API.

API documentation

There are a few methods in the BaseModel that add utility features.

save() - Saving a single model

const manuscript = await new Manuscript({ title: 'Test' }).save()

saveGraph() - Saving a graph

const manuscript = await new Manuscript({
  title: 'Test',
  teams: [{ role: 'reviewer' }],
}).saveGraph()

find() - Finding a single instance by id

Passes parameters onwards to Objection's findById and supports its options:

const manuscript = await Manuscript.find(
  'b70cd527-6b96-4612-b516-38a0e5ebfa65',
  { eager: 'teams' },
)

findByField() - Finding instances by field value

Passes parameters to Objection's where.

const manuscript = await Manuscript.findByField(
  'title',
  'Breakthrough research',
)

findOneByField() - Find a single instance by field value

Uses Objections's where().limit(1).

const manuscript = await Manuscript.findOneByField('content', 'Great success')

all() - Returns all records

const manuscript = await Manuscript.all()

Support for extended data models (models based on another model)

Shown in (https://gitlab.coko.foundation/pubsweet/pubsweet/blob/master/packages/base-model/test/extended-data-model-component/src/index.js) is an extended data model (extended-data-model-component) for testing purposes. It exports the following things:

module.exports = {
  typeDefs:
  resolvers:
  modelName: 'Model',
  model: require('./model'),
  extending: '@pubsweet/model-some-model',
}

Things are exactly the same as in the non-extended data model, but there is one big difference, the extending property. This is a string, the name of the model that this extended data model extends. In this case @pubsweet/model-extended-some-model extends @pubsweet/model-some-model and what this means, in practice, is that @pubsweet/model-some-model's GraphQL schema, resolvers and migration paths will be added to @pubsweet/model-extended-some-model's. This happens recursively, so for example if you had a @pubsweet/model-super-extended-some-model that extended @pubsweet/model-extended-some-model, it would also include @pubsweet/model-some-models's GraphQL schema, resolvers and migration paths. ∞

Examples in the wild

Take a look at the micropubs/wormbase application, for an example implementation of two models, Manuscript and Review using the BaseModel class, the supplied GraphQL connectors and Authsome.