DEV Community

miku86
miku86

Posted on

NodeJS & PostgreSQL: ORM Overview

Intro

In the last two parts, we learned how to connect a database to a server:

ORM (Object-Relational-Mapper)

What does an ORM do?

In short, an ORM is a layer between the server and the database.
The server talks with the ORM and the ORM talks to the database.
The ORM creates objects, that map to the relational data.
It handles your queries, so you don't have to write native SQL, you can query the database with your application language.

List of ORMs:

  • sequelize: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server
  • TypeORM: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, sql.js, CockroachDB
  • objection: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Amazon Redshift

Comparison on npmtrends

If you use MongoDB, you can use an ODM, e.g. mongoose.

Pros

  • you don't have to learn/know/write SQL, because the ORM handles it
  • it will be easier to change your database dialect
  • your application is less vulnerable to SQL injections

Cons

  • you have to learn the ORM
  • one additional layer of abstraction decreases the speed (theoretically)

Further Reading

Wiki: ORM
sequelize
TypeORM
objection

Questions

  • Do you use an ORM/ODM (e.g. Mongoose)? Which one? Why?

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
bradtaniguchi profile image
Brad

I currently am using mongoose for a side project I've been working on for the following reasons:

  1. Its been a few years since I even looked at SQL, been working on NoSQL lately, so I stuck with it.
  2. Its a side project, I'd rather build it faster with NoSQL+ORM
  3. Its still pretty relational, and could 100% of been done with an SQL solution, but again NoSQL gives me more flexibility out of the box to change/update stuff as I need
  4. mlab provides a generous free tier which is great 😄

I don't believe the hype of NoSQL being the future. SQL is here to stay, but this doesn't mean NoSQL doesn't have its place :)

Collapse
 
hazriqpedia profile image
Hazriq Ishak

I have the same case and yes, I don't think I'm that into NoSQL.

At start, Mongo seems easier. I dont have to create the schema and my data can be anything. After a while, when the data is a lot more than before, and I need to generate a report, it will start to get messy.