develop_models_01_b_existing.md

< Models : Create the Server Side Model

Models : Working with an Existing Table

Sometimes you are having to connect to an existing system where the MySQL DB is already created for you. In this case, we will generate a Sails model and make sure Sails doesn't add any of it's default fields.

Note: for this example, I'm just going to run this command on the existing table that I created in step 1a. I'll name the new Model ENRecipient2, so you can see the difference in what is generated.

Assuming you want to generate a model from an existing table en_recipient for your EmailNotifications opsportal tool, run the following command:

# from your plugin directory
$ appdev table2model opstools/EmailNotifications en_recipient ENRecipient2

Note: this will use the default connection as defined in [sails]/config/models.js If you want to access a DB table from another connection setting, you can add connection:[name] to the command.

if you need more info about the table2model command, you can always run the $ appdev help table2model command

This command creates:

# from the [pluginRoot]
api/models/ENRecipient2.js                             // the SailsJS Model definition 
api/controllers/ENRecipient2Controller.js              // when SailsJS has a controller the same name as a Model, it creates a RESTful web interface for it
assets/[application]/models/ENRecipient2.js            // the CanJS client side Model definition
assets/[application]/models/base/ENRecipient2.js       // the CanJS client side Model definition with the connection info set

Now take a look at the sails model definition:

// in api/models/ENRecipient2.js
module.exports = {

  tableName:"en_recipient",
  autoCreatedAt:false,
  autoUpdatedAt:false,
  autoPK:false,
  migrate:'safe',  // don't update this table

  connection:"appdev_default",

  attributes: {

    title : {
        type : "string",
        size : 255
    }, 

    recipients : {
        type : "text"
    }, 

    id : {
        type : "integer",
        size : 10,
        primaryKey : true,
        autoIncrement : true
    }, 

    createdAt : {
        type : "datetime"
    }, 

    updatedAt : {
        type : "datetime"
    }

  }
};

Since we are asking Sails to access a table we are managing outside of Sails, we specify we don't want sails to auto create it's default fields: id, createdAt, updatedAt:

  autoCreatedAt:false,
  autoUpdatedAt:false,
  autoPK:false,

NOTE: this also means that another field in your table needs to be marked : primaryKey: true,

We also don't want Sails to manually mess with the table, no matter what the [sails]/config/models.js setting is set to:

  migrate:'safe',  // don't update this table

NOTE: because we originally created this table using sails in step 1a, it already has the id, createdAt, and updatedAt fields defined.

Finally, remember that these files are created in your plugin directory, but sails wont recognize them until you do:

# in your [pluginRoot]
$ node setup/setup.js

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