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Using relationships

What are relations in Cozy-Client?

CouchDB is a document store. It does not materialize relations between documents. We do, however, have a standardized way of describing relations between cozy documents. This allows Cozy-Client to give us some automation.

In CouchDB

To materialize relations, we use a special key inside the document named relationships. Please see the cozy-doctypes documentation for the exact syntax.

{
  "_id": "mobydick",
  "relationships": {
    "authors": {
      "data": [{ "_id": "hermanmelville", "_type": "io.cozy.contacts" }]
    }
  }
}

In the Cozy-Client schema

Cozy-client knows about these relations with the schema you provide at initialization:

const schema = {
  todos: {
    doctype: 'io.cozy.books',
    attributes: {},
    relationships: {
      items: {
        doctype: 'io.cozy.contact',
        type: 'has-many'
      }
    }
  }
}

const client = new CozyClient({
  uri: 'http://cozy.tools:8080',
  token: '...',
  schema
})

With the help of the schema, Cozy-Client will be able to manage the relationships attribute of your documents for you.

Relation types

Cozy-Client predefines four basic relation types:

• 'has-one'
• 'has-many'
• 'has-one-in-place'
• 'has-many-in-place'

For new doctypes you should use 'has-one' or 'has-many'. They use your relationships attribute and link either a single document or an array of documents.

const schema = {
  todos: {
    doctype: 'io.cozy.books',
    attributes: {},
    relationships: {
      authors: {
        doctype: 'io.cozy.contact',
        type: 'has-many'
      }
    }
  }
}

const document = {
  "_id": "mobydick",
  "relationships": {
    "authors": {
      "data": [
        { "_id": "hermanmelville", "_type": "io.cozy.contacts" }
      ]
    }
  }
}
// there should be an io.cozy.contact document 
// for which the _id is "hermanmelville"

'has-one-in-place' or 'has-many-in-place' are here for backward compatibility. Instead of using the relationships attribute, you reference directly the ids of linked documents at the root of your data:

const schema = {
  todos: {
    doctype: 'io.cozy.books',
    attributes: {},
    relationships: {
      authors: {
        doctype: 'io.cozy.contact',
        type: 'has-many-in-place'
      }
    }
  }
}

const document = {
  "_id": "mobydick",
  "authors": [ "hermanmelville" ]
}
// there should be an io.cozy.contact document 
// for which the _id is "hermanmelville" 

You may also see a special type named 'io.cozy.files:has-many'. It’s used for backward compatibility with the ‘io.cozy.files’ doctype. Banks doctypes also have their own special relationship objects like HasManyBills or HasManyReimbursements. You are free to create your own if you need a special behaviour.

Usage

Include relations in your query

Relations are not loaded eagerly by default. If you want your query to load your relations for you by default, you will have to name them in a include() request.

const query = client.find('io.cozy.books')
  .include(['authors'])
  .limitBy(20)

You will then find your relations under the data attribute:

const response = await client.query(query)
const docs = response.data
const firstDoc = docs[0]
const firstAuthors = firstDoc.authors.data

Add a relation to an existing document

When the relationship is a has-many type, you can call the addById(documentId) to create the relationship:

const otherAuthorId = 'abc123'
const response = await client.query(query)
const docs = response.data
const firstDoc = docs[0]
firstDoc.authors.addById(otherAuthorId)

addById also accepts an array of document ids:

firstDoc.authors.addById([mainAuthorId, coAuthorId])

When the relationship is a has-one type, use set(document) instead:

const printer = {
  _id: 'abc123',
  _type: 'io.cozy.company',
  name: 'Harper & Brothers'
}
const response = await client.query(query)
const docs = response.data
const firstDoc = docs[0]
firstDoc.printingCompany.set(printer)

Remove a relation to an existing document

For has-many relationships, use the removeById method:

const otherAuthorId = 'abc123'
const response = await client.query(query)
const docs = response.data
const firstDoc = docs[0]
firstDoc.authors.removeById(otherAuthorId)

Just like addById, removeById accepts an array of ids as parameter.

For has-one relationships, use the unset() method:

const response = await client.query(query)
const docs = response.data
const firstDoc = docs[0]
firstDoc.printingCompany.unset()

Create a new document with existing relations

Simply pass your relations as a third parameter to create():

const mobydick = { _id: "mobydick" }
const hermanmelville = { _id: "hermanmelville" }
const relationships = { authors: [ hermanmelville ] }
await client.create('io.cozy.books', mobydick, relationships)