Coming from <cfquery> or queryExecute?

You might be thinking, I don't need an ORM engine. I don't even know what ORM means! I know SQL backwards and forwards so there's nothing an ORM can offer me. Maybe you've had experience with other ORM engines, whether CFML-based or not, and the experience was less that ideal. Why should you consider Quick?

Quick's ORM philosophy comes down to three main points:

1. Give relevant names to important collections of SQL code. (scopes, relationships, etc.)

2. Make queries easy to compose at runtime to get the exact data you want in the most efficient way (subselects, eager loading, etc.)

3. Get out of your way when you need or want to write barebones SQL.

Coming from Hibernate?

Quick was built out of lessons learned and persistent challenges in developing complex RDBMS applications using built-in Hibernate ORM in CFML.

• Hibernate ORM error messages often obfuscate the actual cause of the error

  because they are provided directly by the Java classes.

• Complex CFML Hibernate ORM applications can consume significant memory and

  processing resources, making them cost-prohibitive and inefficient when used

  in microservices architecture.

• Hibernate ORM is tied to the engine releases. This means that updates come

  infrequently and may be costly for non-OSS engine users.

• Hibernate ORM is built in Java. This limits contributions from CFML

  developers who don't know Java or don't feel comfortable contributing to a

  Java project.

• Hibernate ORM doesn't take advantage of a lot of dynamic- and

  meta-programming available in CFML. (Tools like CBORM have helped to bridge

  this gap.)

We can do better.

Configure a default datasource in your CFML engine

You can do this any way you'd like: through the web admin, in Application.cfc, or using .

Make sure to set this.datasource in your Application.cfc so Quick knows which datasource to use.

Download Quick

The easiest way to download Quick is to use ForgeBox with CommandBox. Just run the following from the root of your application:

box install quick

Add a mapping for quick in your Application.cfc

For a default installation in a ColdBox template, the following line will do the trick.

this.mappings[ "/quick" ] = COLDBOX_APP_ROOT_PATH & "/modules/quick";

Configure your defaultGrammar in config/ColdBox.cfc

Quick will auto discover your grammar by default on startup. To avoid this check, set a BaseGrammar.

defaultGrammar is a module setting for Quick. Set it in your config/ColdBox.cfc like so:

isLoaded

Checks if the entity was loaded from the database.

A loaded entity has a tie to the database. It has either been loaded from the database or saved to the database. An unloaded entity is one created in code but not saved to the database yet.

var user = getInstance( "User" );
user.isLoaded(); // false
user.save();
user.isLoaded(); // true

A CFML ORM Engine

Why?

Quick was built out of lessons learned and persistent challenges in developing complex RDBMS applications using built-in Hibernate ORM in CFML.

• Hibernate ORM error messages often obfuscate the actual cause of the error

  because they are provided directly by the Java classes.

• Complex CFML Hibernate ORM applications can consume significant memory and

  processing resources, making them cost-prohibitive and inefficient when used

  in microservices architecture.

• Hibernate ORM is tied to the engine releases. This means that updates come

  infrequently and may be costly for non-OSS engine users.

• Hibernate ORM is built in Java. This limits contributions from CFML

  developers who don't know Java or don't feel comfortable contributing to a

  Java project.

• Hibernate ORM doesn't take advantage of a lot of dynamic- and

  meta-programming available in CFML. (Tools like CBORM have helped to bridge

  this gap.)

We can do better.

What?

Quick is an ORM (Object Relational Mapper) written in CFML for CFML. It provides an ActiveRecord implementation for working with your database. With it you can map database tables to components, create relationships between components, query and manipulate data, and persist all your changes to your database.

Prerequisites

You need the following configured before using Quick:

• Configure a default datasource in your CFML engine

• ColdBox 4.3+

• Add a mapping for quick in your Application.cfc

• Configure your BaseGrammar in config/ColdBox.cfc

See Getting Started for more details.

Supported Databases

Quick supports all databases supported by qb.

Example

Here's a "quick" example to whet your appetite.

We'll show the database structure using a migrations file. This isn't required to use quick, but it is highly recommended.

// 2017_11_10_122835_create_users_table.cfc
component {

    function up() {
        schema.create( "users", function( table ) {
            table.increments( "id" );
            table.string( "username" ).unique();
            table.string( "email" ).unique();
            table.string( "password" );
            table.timestamp( "createdDate" );
            table.timestamp( "updatedDate" );
        } );
    }

}

// User
component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" {

    // the name of the table is the pluralized version of the model
    // all fields in a table are mapped by default
    // both of these points can be configured on a per-entity basis

}

// handlers/Users.cfc
component {

    // /users/:id
    function show( event, rc, prc ) {
        // this finds the User with an id of 1 and retrieves it
        prc.user = getInstance( "User" ).findOrFail( rc.id );
        event.setView( "users/show" );
    }

}

<!-- views/users/show.cfm -->
<cfoutput>
    <h1>Hi, #prc.user.getUsername()#!</h1>
</cfoutput>

Now that you've seen an example, dig in to what you can do with Quick!

Prior Art, Acknowledgements, and Thanks

Quick is backed by qb. Without qb, there is no Quick.

Quick is inspired heavily by Eloquent in Laravel. Thank you Taylor Otwell and the Laravel community for a great library.

Development of Quick is sponsored by Ortus Solutions. Thank you Ortus Solutions for investing in the future of CFML.

save

Updates are handled identically to inserts when using the save method. The only difference is that instead of starting with a new entity, we start with an existing entity.

update

You can update multiple fields at once using the update method. This is similar to the create method for creating new entities.

There is no need to call save when using the update method.

By default, if you have a key in the struct that doesn't match a property in the entity the update method will fail. If you add the optional argument ignoreNonExistentAttributes set to true, those missing keys are ignored. Now you can pass the rc scope from your submitted form directly into the update method and not worry about any other keys in the rc like event that would cause the method to fail.

updateOrCreate

Updates an existing record or creates a new record with the given attributes.

updateAll

fresh

Retrieves a new entity from the database with the same key value as the current entity. Useful for seeing any changes made to the record in the database. This function executes a query.

refresh

Refreshes the attributes data for the entity with data from the database. This differs from fresh in that it operates on the current entity instead of returning a new one. This function executes a query.

To get started with Quick, you need an entity. You start by extending quick.models.BaseEntity.

That's all that is needed to get started with Quick. There are a few defaults of Quick worth mentioning here.

Tables

We don't need to tell Quick what table name to use for our entity. By default, Quick uses the pluralized name of the component for the table name. That means for our User entity Quick will assume the table name is users. You can override this by specifying a table metadata attribute on the component.

Primary Key

By default, Quick assumes a primary key of id. The name of this key can be configured by setting variables._key in your component.

Quick also assumes a key type that is auto-incrementing. If you would like a different key type, override thekeyType function and return the desired key type from that function.

Quick ships with the following key types:

• AutoIncrementingKeyType

• NullKeyType

• ReturningKeyType

• UUIDKeyType

keyType can be any component that adheres to the keyType interface, so feel free to create your own and distribute them via ForgeBox.

Attributes

You specify what attributes are retrieved by adding properties to your component.

Now, only the id, username, and email attributes will be retrieved.

Persistent

To prevent Quick from mapping a property to a database column add the persistent="false" attribute to the property. This is needed mostly when using dependency injection.

Column

If the column name in your table is not the column name you wish to use in Quick, you can specify the column name using the column metadata attribute. The attribute will be available using the name of the attribute.

Null Values

To work around CFML's lack of null, you can use the nullValue and convertToNull attributes.

nullValue defines the value that is considered null for a attribute. By default it is an empty string. ("")

convertToNull is a flag that, when false, will not try to insert null in to the database. By default this flag is true.

Read Only

The readOnly attribute will prevent setters, updates, and inserts to a attribute when set to true.

SQL Type

In some cases you will need to specify an exact SQL type for your attribute. Any value set for the sqltype attribute will be used when inserting or updating the attribute in the database. It will also be used when you use the attribute in a where constraint.

Casts

The casts attribute allows you to use a value in your CFML code as a certain type while being a different type in the database. A common example of this is a boolean which is usually represented as a BIT in the database.

Two casters ship with Quick: BooleanCast@quick and JsonCast@quick. You can add them using those mappings to any applicable columns.

Custom Casts

The casts attribute must point to a WireBox mapping that resolves to a component that implements the quick.models.Casts.CastsAttribute interface. (The implements keyword is optional.) This component defines how to get a value from the database in to the casted value and how to set a casted value back to the database. Below is an example of the built-in BooleanCast, which comes bundled with Quick.

Casted values are lazily loaded and cached for the lifecycle of the component. Only cast values that have been loaded will have set called on them when persisting to the database.

Casts can be composed of multiple fields as well. Take this Address value object, for example:

This component is not a Quick entity. Instead it represents a combination of fields stored on our User entity:

Noticed that the casted address is neither persistent nor does it have a getter or setter created for it.

The last piece of the puzzle is our AddressCast component that handles casting the value to and from the native database values:

You can see that returning a struct of values from the set function assigns multiple attributes from a single cast.

Insert & Update

You can prevent inserting and updating a property by setting the insert or update attribute to false.

Formula, Computed, or Subselect properties

Multiple datasource support

Comparing Entities

You can compare entities using the isSameAs and isNotSameAs methods. Each method takes another entity and returns true if the two objects represent the same entity.

4.0.0

Scopes, whereHas, and whereDoesntHave are now automatically grouped when using an OR combinator

This isn't a breaking change that will affect most people. In fact, it will most likely improve your code.

Previously, when using , , or , you were fully responsible for the wrapping of your where statements. For example, the following query:

with the following scopes defined:

would generate the following SQL:

The problem with this statement is that the OR can short circuit the active check.

The fix is to wrap the LIKE statements in parenthesis. This is done in qb using a function callback to where. Adding this nesting inside our scope will fix this problem.

But this was easy to miss this. This is because you are in a completely different file than the built query. It also breaks the mental model of a scope as an encapsulated piece of SQL code.

In Quick 4.0.0, scopes, whereHas, and whereDoesntHave will automatically group added where clauses when needed. That means our original example now produces the SQL we probably expected.

Grouping is not needed if there is no OR combinator. In these cases no grouping is added.

If you had already wrapped your expression in a group inside the scope, whereHas, or whereDoesntHave call, nothing changes. Your code works as before. The OR combinator check only works on the top most level of added where clauses. Additionally, if you do not add any where clauses inside your scope, nothing changes.

The breaking change part is if you were relying on these statements residing at the same level without grouping. If so, you will need to group your changes into a single scope where you control the grouping or do the querying at the builder level outside of scopes.

3.0.0

Adobe ColdFusion 11 and Lucee 4.5 are no longer supported

Please migrate to a supported engine.

Virtual Inheritance support removed

Virtual Inheritance allowed you to use a quick annotation on your entity instead of extending quick.models.BaseEntity. This was hardly used and didn't offer any benefit to extending using traditional inheritance. Additionally, removing the support allows us to clean up the code base by removing duplicate code paths.

If any of your entities are using the quick annotation, instead have them extends="quick.models.BaseEntity".

`accessors="true"` required for all entities

From the early days of Quick, developers have wanted to have accessors="true" on their entities. Because of this, Quick supported defining entities both with and without accessors. However, just as with virtual inheritance, it created two code paths that could hide bugs and make it hard to follow the code. In Quick 3.0.0, accessors="true" is required on all entities. If it is omitted, a helpful error message is thrown to remind you. This will help immensely in simplifying the code base. (In fact, just introducing this requirement helped find two bugs that were only present when using accessors.)

Ensure all entities have accessors="true" in their component metadata.

AssignedKey removed

Use NullKeyType instead.

Boolean casts updates to hook in to new Cast system

Previously, the only valid cast type was casts="boolean". In introducing the new Casts system, the boolean cast was refactored to use the same system. For this reason, any casts="boolean" needs to be changed to casts="BooleanCast@quick"

defaultGrammar updated to be the full WireBox mapping

In previous versions, the value passed to defaultGrammar was used to look up a mapping in the @qb namespace. This made it difficult to add or use grammars that weren't part of qb. (You could get around this be registering your custom grammar in the @qb namespace, but doing so seemed strange.)

To migrate this code, change your defaultGrammar to be the full WireBox mapping in your moduleSettings:

It no longer accepts any entities or columns. Rather, it accepts an array of relationships to walk "through" to end up at the desired entity.

Here's how the old syntax would be used to define the relationship between Country and Post.

This same relationship now needs to be defined in terms of other relationships, like so.

This approach does require a relationship defined for each level, but it works up and down any number of relationships to get to your desired entity.

To update the foreign key of a belongsTo relationship you use the associate method. In the past, it was possible to associate a new, unsaved child entity to its parent using this method.

In an attempt to provide more helpful error messages, this behavior is no longer possible. You can achieve the same effect in one of two ways.

The first is to manually assign the foreign keys:

While this works, it breaks the encapsulation provided by the relationship.

The second approach is to use the hasOne or hasMany side of the relationship to create the new child entity:

If you have all the data handy in a struct, you can use the create method for a more concise syntax.

This is the recommended way of creating these components.

assignAttributesData argument renamed to `attributes`

This brings the API in line with the other methods referencing attributes.

Method changes due to compound key support

Compound key support required some method and parameter name changes. Although the list seems extensive, you will likely not need to change anything in your code unless you have extended built-in Quick components. (You will see many relationship parameter name changes. Note that the function you call to define a relationship is a function on the BaseEntity and has not changed its signature.)

BaseEntity.cfc:

• retrieveQualifiedKeyName : String -> retrieveQualifiedKeyNames : [String]

• keyName : String -> keyNames : [String]

• keyColumn : String -> keyColumns : [String]

• keyValue : String -> keyValues : [String]

AutoIncrementingKeyType.cfc

• This cannot be used with composite primary keys

BaseRelationship.cfc

• getKeys now takes an array of keys as the second argument

• getQualifiedLocalKey : String -> getQualifiedLocalKeys : [String]

• getExistenceCompareKey : String -> getExistenceCompareKeys : [String]

BelongsTo.cfc

• init arguments have changed

  • foreignKey : String -> foreignKeys : [String]

  • localKey : String -> localKeys : [String]

• getQualifiedLocalKey : String -> getQualifiedLocalKeys : [String]

• getExistenceCompareKey : String -> getExistenceCompareKeys : [String]

BelongsToMany.cfc

• init arguments have changed

  • foreignPivotKey : String -> foreignPivotKeys : [String]

  • relatedPivotKey : String -> relatedPivotKeys : [String]

  • parentKey : String -> parentKeys : [String]

  • relatedKey : String -> relatedKeys : [String]

• getQualifiedRelatedPivotKeyName : String -> getQualifiedRelatedPivotKeyNames : [String]

• getQualifiedForeignPivotKeyName : String -> getQualifiedForeignPivotKeyNames : [String]

• getQualifiedForeignKeyName : String -> getQualifiedForeignKeyNames : [String]`

HasManyThrough.cfc

• This component now extends quick.models.Relationships.HasOneOrManyThrough

• init arguments are now as follows:

  • related: The related entity instance.

  • relationName: The WireBox mapping for the related entity.

  • relationMethodName: The method name called to retrieve this relationship.

  • parent: The parent entity instance for the relationship.

  • relationships: An array of relationships between the parent entity and the related entity.

  • relationshipsMap: A dictionary of relationship name to relationship component.

• The following methods no longer exist:

  • getQualifiedFarKeyName

  • getQualifiedForeignKeyName

  • getQualifiedFirstKeyName

  • getQualifiedParentKeyName

HasOneOrMany.cfc

• init arguments have changed

  • foreignKey : String -> foreignKeys : [String]

  • localKey : String -> localKeys : [String]

• getParentKey : any -> getParentKeys : [any]

• getQualifiedLocalKey : String -> getQualifiedLocalKeys : [String]

• getQualifiedForeignKeyName : String -> getQualifiedForeignKeyNames : [String]

PolymorphicBelongsTo.cfc

• init arguments have changed

  • foreignKey : String -> foreignKeys : [String]

  • localKey : String -> localKeys : [String]

PolymorphicHasOneOrMany.cfc

• init arguments have changed

  • id : String -> ids : [String]

  • localKey : String -> localKeys : [String]

2.0.0

Quick 2.0 brings with it a lot of changes to make things more flexible and more performant. This shouldn't take too long — maybe 2-5 minutes per entity.

Internal properties renamed

There were some common name clashes between internal Quick properties and custom attributes of your entities (the most common being fullName). All Quick internals have been obfuscated to avoid this situation. If you relied on these properties, please consult the following table below for the new property names.

Additionally, some method names have also changed to avoid clashing with automatically generated getters and setters. Please consult the table below for method changes.

Lastly, the following properties and methods have been removed:

Key Types

Defining Key Types

Key Types are the way to define setting and retrieving a primary key in Quick. In Quick 1.0 these were injected in to the component. This made reusability hard for simple things like sequence names. In order to allow for more flexible key types, key types are no longer injected. Instead, they should be returned from a keyType method.

The keyType is lazily created and cached on the component, so this is both a more flexible approach as well as being more performant. If you are injecting custom key types in your entities you will need to move them to the method syntax.

Changed Key Types

A few key types have been renamed and will need to be updated in your codebase:

New Key Types

In additional to the changes to defining key types, there is a few new key types introduced in Quick 2.0.

ReturningKeyType

Used with grammars that return their primary key in the query response when inserting to the database. An example of this is NEWSEQUENTIALID in Microsoft SQL Server.

Scopes

The way arguments are passed to scopes have been updated to allow for default arguments. query is still the first argument. Other arguments will be passed in order after that. The args struct is no longer passed.

Relationships

Additionally, the alternative syntax for defining relationships on a relationships struct has been removed. It created an unnecessary code path that had it's own share of bugs. All relationships should be defined as methods on the entity.

Removing CFCollection

CFCollection was included in Quick 1.0 as both a way to lazily eager load a relationship and as a compatibility layer for older CF versions. The compatibility that CFCollection provides, however, comes with a performance cost. Additionally, the majority of users wanted to use plain arrays as the return format. For those reasons, arrays are now the default return format for collections. CFCollections can still be used by specifying a different return format in the module settings.

Converting to Null

Null is a tricky thing in CFML. The same goes for interacting with nulls in a database. By default, we will support the CFML convention of using an empty string to represent null. When interacting with the database empty strings will be converted to nulls. You can adjust this behavior on the property level with two new annotations:

• convertToNull - Determines if the property will be automatically checked to convert to null at all. Defaults to true.

• nullValue - This is the value that is equivalent to null for this property. Defaults to an empty string.

Returning Null instead of Unloaded Entities

In an effort to avoid dealing with CFML's version of null, Quick originally returned unloaded entities. You could check if an entity was loaded using the isLoaded method. This doesn't make as much sense as null however and even made it more difficult to interact with other libraries. Now Quick will return null when it encounters an empty query result either from a retrieval or from a belongsTo or hasOne relationship. Any instances that you were checking isLoaded should be updated. isLoaded will continue to exist for when you are creating a new entity not from the database.

AutoDiscover Grammar

The default grammar for Quick is now AutoDiscover. This provides a better first run experience. The grammar can still be set in the moduleSettings.

BaseService

As a new way to interact with Quick, you can use Quick Services to interact with your entities in a service-oriented fashion. These are equivalent to VirtualEntityServices in cborm.

The easiest way to use a Quick Service is to use the quickService: injection dsl.

All methods available on the Quick entity are available on the service.

Eager Loading

Column Aliases in Queries

Column aliases can now be used in queries. They will be transformed to columns before executing the query.

Quick entities in Setters

If you pass a Quick entity to a setter method the entity's keyValue value will be passed.

Update and Insert Guards

Columns can be prevented from being inserted or updated using property attributes — insert="false" and update="false".

cbvalidation removed as a default dependency

Quick no longer automatically validates entities before saving them. Having cbvalidation baked in made it hard to extend it. If desired, validation can be added back in using Quick's lifecycle hooks.

instanceReady Lifecycle Method

Quick now announces an instanceReady event after the entity has gone through dependency injected and had its metadata inspected. This can be used to hook in other libraries, like cbvalidation and mementifier.

Automatic Attribute Casting

You can automatically cast a property to a boolean value while retrieving it from the database and back to a bit value when serializing to the database by setting casts="boolean" on the property.

delete

You can delete an entity by calling the delete method on it.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).find( 1 );
user.delete();

deleteAll

Just like updateAll, you can delete many records from the database by specifying a query with constraints and then calling the deleteAll method.

Deletes matching entities according to the configured query.

getInstance( "User" )
    .whereActive( false )
    .deleteAll();

Additionally, you can pass in an array of ids to deleteAll to delete only those ids. Note that any previously configured constraints will still apply.

getInstance( "User" ).deleteAll( [ 4, 10, 22 ] );

save

New Quick entities can be created and persisted to the database by creating a new entity instance, setting the attributes on the entity, and then calling the save method.

var user = getInstance( "User" );
user.setUsername( "JaneDoe" );
user.setEmail( "jane@example.com" );
user.setPassword( "mypass1234" );
user.save();

When we call save, the record is persisted from the database and the primary key is set to the auto-generated value (if any).

We can shortcut the setters above using a fill method.

fill

Finds the first matching record or creates a new entity.

Sets attributes data from a struct of key / value pairs. This method does the following, in order:

1. Guard against read-only attributes.

2. Attempt to call a relationship setter.

3. Calls custom attribute setters for attributes that exist.

4. Throws an error if an attribute does not exist (if ignoreNonExistentAttributes is false which is the default).

var user = getInstance( "User" );
user.fill( {
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "jane@example.com",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );
user.save();

populate

Populate is simply an alias for fill. Use whichever one suits you best.

create

Creates a new entity with the given attributes and then saves the entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).create( {
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "jane@example.com",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );

There is no need to call save when using the create method.

firstOrNew

Finds the first matching record or returns an unloaded new entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" )
    .firstOrNew( { "username": rc.username } );

firstOrCreate

Finds the first matching record or creates a new entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" )
    .firstOrNew( { "username": rc.username } );

findOrNew

Returns the entity with the id value as the primary key. If no record is found, it returns a new unloaded entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).findOrNew(
    9999,
	  {
			  "firstName" : "doesnt",
			  "lastName"  : "exist"
	  }
);

findOrCreate

Returns the entity with the id value as the primary key. If no record is found, it returns a newly created entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).findOrCreate(
    9999,
	  {
        "username"  : "doesntexist",
			  "firstName" : "doesnt",
			  "lastName"  : "exist",
			  "password"  : "secret"
	  }
);

updateOrCreate

Updates an existing record or creates a new record with the given attributes.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).updateOrCreate( {
    "username": "newuser"
} );

Hydration Methods

Hydration is a term to describe filling an entity with a struct of data and then marking it as loaded, without doing any database queries. For example, this might be useful when hydrating a user from session data instead of doing a query every request.

hydrate

Hyrdates an entity from a struct of data. Hydrating an entity fills the entity and then marks it as loaded.

If the entity's keys are not included in the struct of data, a MissingHydrationKey is thrown.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).hydrate( {
    "id": 4,
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "jane@example.com",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );

user.isLoaded(); // true

hydrateAll

Hydrates a new collection of entities from an array of structs.

var users = getInstance( "User" ).hydrateAll( [
    {
        "id": 3,
        "username": "JohnDoe",
        "email": "john@example.com",
        "password": "mypass4321"
    },
    {
        "id": 4,
        "username": "JaneDoe",
        "email": "jane@example.com",
        "password": "mypass1234"
    }
] );

Usage

A hasOne relationship is a "one-to-one" relationship. For instance, a User entity might have an UserProfile entity attached to it.

// User.cfc
component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" accessors="true" {

    function profile() {
       return hasOne( "UserProfile" );
    }

}

The first value passed to hasOne is a WireBox mapping to the related entity.

Quick determines the foreign key of the relationship based on the entity name and key values. In this case, the UserProfile entity is assumed to have a userId foreign key. You can override this by passing a foreign key in as the second argument:

return hasOne( "UserProfile", "FK_userID" );

If your parent entity does not use id as its primary key, or you wish to join the child entity to a different column, you may pass a third argument to the hasOne method specifying your parent table's custom key.

return hasOne( "UserProfile", "FK_userID", "profile_id" );

The inverse of hasOne is belongsTo. It is important to choose the right relationship for your database structure. hasOne assumes that the related model has the foreign key for the relationship.

// UserProfile.cfc
component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" accessors="true" {

    function user() {
        return belongsTo( "User" );
    }

}

withDefault

HasOne relationships can be configured to return a default entity if no entity is found. This is done by calling withDefault on the relationship object.

// User.cfc
component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" accessors="true" {

    function profile() {
       return hasOne( "UserProfile" ).withDefault();
    }

}

Called this way will return a new unloaded entity with no data. You can also specify any default attributes data by passing in a struct of data to withDefault.

// User.cfc
component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" accessors="true" {

    function profile() {
       return hasOne( "UserProfile" ).withDefault( {
           "showHints": true
       } );
    }

}

Signature

Returns a HasOne relationship between this entity and the entity defined by relationName.

Visualizer

Usage

A belongsTo relationship is a many-to-one relationship. For instance, a Post may belong to a User.

The first value passed to belongsTo is a WireBox mapping to the related entity.

Quick determines the foreign key of the relationship based on the entity name and key values. In this case, the Post entity is assumed to have a userId foreign key. You can override this by passing a foreign key in as the second argument:

If your parent entity does not use id as its primary key, or you wish to join the child entity to a different column, you may pass a third argument to the belongsTo method specifying your parent table's custom key.

The inverse of belongsTo is or .

Updating

To update a belongsTo relationship, use the associate method. associate takes the entity to associate as the only argument.

Removing

To remove a belongsTo relationship, use the dissociate method.

Relationship Setter

You can also influence the associated entities by calling "set" & relationshipName and passing in an entity or key value.

After executing this code, the post would be updated in the database to be associated with the user with an id of 1.

withDefault

BelongsTo relationships can be configured to return a default entity if no entity is found. This is done by calling withDefault on the relationship object.

Called this way will return a new unloaded entity with no data. You can also specify any default attributes data by passing in a struct of data to withDefault.

Signature

Returns a BelongsTo relationship between this entity and the entity defined by relationName.

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Usage

A belongsToThrough relationship is the one side of a many-to-one relationship with an intermediate entity. It is used when you want to access a related, owning entity through one or more intermediate entities. For instance, a Post may belong to a Team via a User.

The only value needed for belongsToThrough is an array of relationship function names to walk through to get to the related entity. The first relationship function name in the array must exist on the current entity. Each subsequent function name must exist on the related entity of the previous relationship result. For our previous example, author must be a relationship function on Post. team must then be a relationship function on the related entity resulting from calling Post.author(). This returns a belongsTo relationship where the related entity is User. So, User must have a team relationship function. That is the end of the relationship function names array, so the related entity resulting from calling User.team() is our final entity which is Team.

This approach can scale to as many related entities as you need. For instance, let's expand the previous example to include an Office that houses many Teams.

withDefault

HasOneThrough relationships can be configured to return a default entity if no entity is found. This is done by calling withDefault on the relationship object.

Called this way will return a new unloaded entity with no data. You can also specify any default attributes data by passing in a struct of data to withDefault.

Signature

Usage

A hasManyThrough relationship is either a one-to-many or a many-to-many relationship. It is used when you want to access related entities through one or more intermediate entities. The most common example for this is through a pivot table. For instance, a User may have multiple Permissions via a UserPermission entity. This allows you to store additional data on the UserPermission entity, like a createdDate .

The only value needed for hasManyThrough is an array of relationship function names to walk through to get to the related entity. The first relationship function name in the array must exist on the current entity. Each subsequent function name must exist on the related entity of the previous relationship result. For our previous example, userPermissions must be a relationship function on User. permission must then be a relationship function on the related entity resulting from calling User.userPermissions(). This returns a hasMany relationship where the related entity is UserPermission. So, UserPermission must have a permission relationship function. That is the end of the relationship function names array, so the related entity resulting from calling UserPermission.permission() is our final entity which is Permission.

Let's take a look at another example. HasManyThrough relationships can go up and down the relationship chain. Here's an example of finding a User's teammates

The inverse of hasManyThrough is either a belongsToThrough or a hasManyThrough relationship.

This approach can scale to as many related entities as you need. For instance, let's expand the previous example to include an Office that houses many Teams.

This next example can get a little gnarly - you can include other hasManyThrough relationships in a hasManyThrough relationship function names array. You can rewrite the officemates relationship like so:

As you can see, this is a very powerful relationship type that can save you many unnecessary queries to get the data you need.

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