Creating model with nested objects and arrays in Loopback version LB4

Question

I've just started with Loopback for the first time and I've started with LB4, their newest release. I'm looking to create a model with nested objects and arrays as per my JSON schema to which I followed the documentation which allowed me to create the base values of my schema, but I need to create the fields inside the objects and arrays, but I can't find the documentation or articles to help me understand this...

This is my JSON schema I'm trying to create a LB4 model with:

"socialProfiles": {
    "facebook": {
        "linked": 1,
        "pullData": 1,
        "linkID": 4434343,
        "profile": "https://www.facebook.com/FBURL",
        "registered": {
            "date": "2018-05-04T12:41:27.838Z",
            "verified": "2018-05-04T12:41:27.838Z",
            "by": {
                "id": 1,
                "user": "USER"
            }
        }
    },
}

Using the LB4 documentation, I can create my main field socialProfiles but I can't find where I go to create my fields inside this object... Here's my LB4 model code

import {Entity, model, property} from '@loopback/repository';

@model()
export class Users extends Entity {

 @property({
    type: 'object',
 })
 socialProfiles?: object;

 constructor(data?: Partial<Users>) {
    super(data)
 }
}

How to do this?

hanego · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-28 18:20:49Z

1

If you want to store the object in the model itself (not with a relation), you can create an interface with something like:

export interface ISocialProfile {
    "linked": number,
    "pullData": number,
    "linkID": number,
    "profile": string,
    "registered": {
        "date": Timestamp,
        "verified": Timestamp,
        "by": {
            "id": number,
            "user": string
        }
    }
}

and then in your model, you can just add the type:

socialProfiles?: {[name: string]: ISocialProfile};

answered Oct 28, 2018 at 18:20

hanego

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3 Comments

Timothy Lavelle Over a year ago

Thanks @angelwally, looking at the relation doco, it has the hasMany and belongsTo, while I understand the concept, does relations need to be defined for all/any type of objects/arrays within a model? Reason I'm asking is I've designed around 40 endpoints in Swagger and re-use quite a few models and components, but there are still some that are single use objects within an endpoint and I want to make sure I approach this work in the best method to allow easy updating of my models.. Can I create multiple models and reference them inside the above?

hanego Over a year ago

Well, there's 2 things you need to take into account when deciding. First the @property -> type: object will mean that the model will be saved as an object (probably text field in the database depending on your connector). Then it's totally fine to do that. What I wrote above is just a typing to enforce that your code is correct across your code, so it has no effect to the model in DB. the other thing are relations. They are good if you need in some cases (see docs) but in your case it seems unnecessary (you don't want to filter or search with this attribute right?)

Timothy Lavelle Over a year ago

Perfect, this was exactly the explanation and code I was looking for, thanks @angelwally!

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