First module fully documented is lib/ormish.js

admin/pages/DocsBrowser.svelte

@@ -29,6 +29,14 @@
     index = status === 200 ? data : {};
   }
 
+  const type_to_syntax = {
+    callexpression: "()",
+    objectexpression: "{}",
+    "function": "()",
+    "class": "{}",
+    "method": "()"
+  }
+
   onMount(async () => {
     await load_index();
   });
@@ -38,6 +46,7 @@
   $: if(params.wild && params.wild !== url) {
     load_docs(params.wild);
   }
+
 </script>
 
 <style>
@@ -76,7 +85,7 @@
   }
 
   export.class-def {
-    background-color: var(--value6);
+    background-color: var(--value7);
   }
 
   export > heading {
@@ -156,7 +165,7 @@
           {#each exp.methods as member}
             <export class="member">
               <heading>
-                <h4>{ member.name }</h4>
+                <h4>.{member.name}{ type_to_syntax[member.isa] || "" }</h4>
                 <meta-data>
                   {docs_data.source}:{ member.line_start }
                   <em>{ member.isa } of { exp.name }</em>
@@ -178,7 +187,7 @@
         {:else}
           <export>
             <heading>
-              <h4>{exp.name}</h4>
+              <h4>{exp.name}{ type_to_syntax[exp.isa] || "" }</h4>
               <meta-data>
                 {docs_data.source}:{ exp.line_start }
                 <em>{ exp.isa }</em>

lib/ormish.js

@@ -1,5 +1,20 @@
 /*
- The ORMish object-relational-mapping-ish library for knex. It's just enough ORM added to knex to be useful, and anything else you need can be done with knex.
+ The ORMish object-relational-mapping-ish library for knex. It's just enough
+ ORM added to knex to be useful, and anything else you need can be done with
+ knex.  If there's any situation where you can't do something in ORMish it's
+ expected that you will access the `knex` variable in thie module and simply use
+ knex directly.  Here's how you'd do that:
+
+ ```javascript
+ import { knex } from './lib/ormish.js';
+
+ // do your own update using a model's table name
+ knex(somemodel.table_name).where(where).update(what);
+ ```
+
+ This makes it easy to use ORMish, but still break out when you need to create
+ custom queries or speed things up.  The only advice here is to put any special
+ operations in a `class Model` subclass as a member function.
  */
 import config from '../knexfile.cjs';
 import knexConfig from 'knex';
@@ -192,12 +207,24 @@ export class Model {
     return Object.fromEntries(clean_entries);
   }
 
+  /*
+   Returns the name of this model's current table. Used mostly internally but
+   useful otherwise.  This is an attribute accessor (get) so you can just do:
+
+   ```javascript
+   const name = obj.table_name;
+   ```
+
+   Instead of calling it like a function.  The main reason to use this is in
+   tools like the admin table browser found in `admin/pages/Table.svelte` and
+   `api/admin/table.js` so check those files out to see what's going on.
+  */
   get table_name() {
     return this.constructor.table_name;
   }
 
   /*
-    Returns an object of basic rules meant for lib/api.js:validate
+    Returns an object of basic rules meant for `lib/api.js:validate`
     based on what's in the database.  It's meant to be an easy to
     pass in starter which you can augment.  It expects a set of rules
     with keys you want configured. Any key that's set to an empty string ""
@@ -205,7 +232,8 @@ export class Model {
 
     It's designed to be called once at the top of an api/ handler to get
     a basic set of rules.  You could also run it to print out the rules then
-    simply write the rules directly where you need them.
+    simply write the rules directly where you need them.  It actually just
+    calls the `validation` module function with `validation(this.table_name, rules)`.
 
     - `param rules {Object}` - rules specifier
    */
@@ -213,6 +241,18 @@ export class Model {
     return validation(this.table_name, rules);
   }
 
+  /*
+   Delete this object from the database.  It uses this object's `.id` to determine
+   which object to delete and uses this `knex` code:
+
+   ```javascript
+   await knex(this.table_name).where({id: this.id}).del();
+   ```
+
+   As with all of ORMish it doesn't handle any relations or references when it does
+   the delete so if you have constraints it will fail.  Use `knex` directly in that
+   case.
+   */
   async destroy() {
     assert(this.table_name !== undefined, "You must set class variable table_name.");
 
@@ -221,15 +261,107 @@ export class Model {
       del();
   }
 
+  /*
+   Does very basic 1-to-1 (1:1) relation, for use inside a custom function that returns
+   additional records.  1:1 mappings don't show up too often, as I think most modern database
+   designs would rather combine them into one giant table, but it does happen when you need to
+   add to a database without changing a "sacred" table.
+
+   This is really just a call to `model.first(where, columns)` and mostly acts as a kind of
+   documentation.
+
+   + `model Model` - The other model to query.
+   + `where Object` - The knex style selection criteria passed to `Model.first`.
+   + `columns` - Passed to `Model.first` to restrict the columns returned.
+   */
   async has_one(model, where, columns) {
     assert(where.id !== undefined, `where must at least have id for has_one ${model.table_name} you have ${JSON.stringify(where)}`);
     return await model.first(where, columns);
   }
 
+  /*
+   Maps this model to another with a 1-to-many (1:M) relational mapping. It queries
+   the other `model` based on the given { where }, which is usually an `id` in the other
+   table.
+
+   For example, if I have a `user` table and a `payment` table, I can have a 1 `user` -> M `payment`
+   like this:
+
+   ```javascript
+    export class User extends Model.from_table('user') {
+      async payments() {
+        return await this.has_many(Payment, { user_id: this.id });
+      }
+    }
+    ```
+
+    In this situation my `User` model is querying the `Payment` model for any `payment`
+    records that have `user_id=this.id`.  That means if the `user.id` is 1, then it will
+    find any `payment` records with `user_id=1`.
+   */
   async has_many(model, where, columns) {
     return await model.all(where, columns);
   }
 
+  /*
+    Implements a simple many-to-many (M:M) using an intermediary table which
+    maps two table's IDs using two columns.  For example, if you have a `User`
+    and `Payment` model, and you decide that `Payment` can have multiple users
+    then you'd do this:
+
+    ```javascript
+    await paid1.many_to_many(User, "payment_user");
+    ```
+
+    This is translated into `knex` as:
+
+    ```javascript
+    await knex("user").where("id", "in",
+      knex("payment_user") // subquery in payment_user
+        .select(`user_id as id`)
+        .where(`payment_id`, "=", this.id)
+    );
+    ```
+
+    The inverse operation would be:
+
+    ```javascript
+    await user1.many_to_many(Payment, "payment_user");
+    ```
+
+    Which is translated into `knex` as:
+
+    ```javascript
+    await knex("payment").where("id", "in",
+      knex("payment_user") // subquery in payment_user
+        .select(`payment_id as id`)
+        .where(`user_id`, "=", this.id)
+    );
+    ```
+
+    ### Performance
+
+    This will fail if you have a massive many-to-many since it uses a subquery to get
+    a set of IDs, but in many cases it actually might outperform a more direct complicated
+    query.  You should use this, then resort to raw `knex` code to craft a better one as
+    needed.
+
+    ### Cleaning
+
+    Everything returned is first ran though `.clean()` to and turned into the
+    target model so you can use it directly.  This ensures that if a database
+    driver infects the returned data with garbage it will be cleaned and you
+    get pure models.  In the above example you'd get a `User` or `Payment`
+    with only what's in the schema.
+
+    ### Attributed Relations
+
+    If your relation table has extra attributes--a super useful trick--then this
+    will not pick them up.  In our example above, if you have another field
+    `payment_user.transaction_date` in addition to `user_id` and `payment_id` then
+    you won't get the `transaction_date`.  In that case--you guessed it--use `knex`
+    directly to query for those.
+   */
   async many_to_many(model, through_table) {
     // SECURITY: doing string interpolation which might allow injecting SQL
     let query = knex(model.table_name).where("id", "in",
@@ -246,6 +378,15 @@ export class Model {
     return results;
   }
 
+  /*
+    Counts the number of records matching the `where` specification.
+    It uses a direct SQL query using the `knex` operation `count`, but
+    `knex` returns a "database specific" result.  This will try to
+    extract the count result, but will warn you when it can't do that.
+
+    + `where Object` - knex where specification.
+    + `columns Array` - columns to return
+   */
   static async count(where, columns) {
     // the knex count api returns a DB specific result, so we need
     // to specify what we want, which is count:
@@ -260,6 +401,23 @@ export class Model {
     }
   }
 
+  /*
+    Your generic insert for this model's table.  The `attr` is checked against the
+    database schema by `knex`, so you have to remove anything that doesn't belong.
+    Use the `Model.clean` function to do that easily.  Otherwise it works exactly
+    like in knex with:
+
+    ```javascript
+    await knex(this.table_name).insert(attr);
+    ```
+
+    This function expects a return value that has one result with the `id` of
+    the inserted row, which might be database specific. These days if a database
+    doesn't support this it's a trash database that shouldn't be used.
+
+    + `attr Object` - The attributes to store.
+    + `return Number` - returns the id of the inserted object
+  */
   static async insert(attr) {
     assert(this.table_name !== undefined, "You must set class variable table_name.");
     assert(attr, `You must give some attr to insert into ${this.table_name}`);
@@ -295,11 +453,37 @@ export class Model {
     return result !== undefined ? result[0] : undefined;
   }
 
+  /*
+   Performs an UPDATE operation on the object `what` found by `where`.  This
+   translates into the following `knex.js` code:
+
+   ```javascript
+   return knex(this.table_name).where(where).update(what);
+   ```
+
+   So it's mostly just syntactic sugar over `knex.js` (like everything in ORMish). If you
+   need a more complex `update` then just use `knex()` directly.
+   */
   static async update(where, what) {
     assert(where, "You must give a where options.");
     return knex(this.table_name).where(where).update(what);
   }
 
+  /*
+    Returns one record from the table based on the `knex` where specification,
+    and can limit the columns (attributes) that are returned. This is a `static`
+    method so you use it like this:
+
+    ```javascript
+    const person = User.first({id: 1});
+    ```
+
+    The `where` can be anything that `knex` understands as query as well.
+
+    + `where Object` -- The `knex` where specification.
+    + `columns Array` -- List of columns to include in the returned object.
+    + `return Object`
+   */
   static async first(where, columns) {
     assert(where, "You must give a where options.");
     let attr = undefined;
@@ -313,11 +497,37 @@ export class Model {
     return attr !== undefined ? new this(attr) : attr;
   }
 
+  /*
+     Delete a given record--or batch of records--based on the `where` specification.
+     It really just calls this `knex` operation:
+
+     ```javascript
+     return knex(this.table_name).where(where).del();
+     ```
+
+     + `where Object` -- The where specification, doesn't have to be an Object.
+   */
   static async delete(where) {
     assert(where, "You must give a where options.");
     return knex(this.table_name).where(where).del();
   }
 
+  /*
+    Returns all records matching the `where` specification, and also
+    reduces the returned columns based on the `columns` list. This is
+    the most common operation in `knex`, and when you do both `columns`
+    and `where` it's just doing this:
+
+    ```javascript
+      results = await knex(this.table_name).column(columns).where(where).select();
+    ```
+
+    As usual, if this isn't efficient or complex enough for you then you can
+    just do it directly in `knex`.
+
+    + `where Object` -- The usual `knex` where specification, and can be anything `knex` likes.
+    + `columns Array` -- The list of columns to return.
+   */
   static async all(where, columns) {
     assert(where, "You must give a where options.");
     let results = [];
@@ -332,6 +542,29 @@ export class Model {
     return final;
   }
 
+  /*
+    This is how you create your own models based on `Model`.  It's a neat
+    trick as well, which allows you to specify a table to use to populate
+    a new class.  First, you use it like this:
+
+    ```javascript
+    class User extends Model.from_table('user') {
+    }
+    ```
+
+    How this works:
+
+    + `from_table` crafts an empty class with `let m = class extends Model {}`.
+    + Since JavaScript is a scripting language you can modify this class, and return it.
+    + `from_table` then adds a `table_name` and the `schema` to this class.
+    + After that it returns the new empy class, which you then extend and now you have a class pre-configured with the schema and table_name already set.
+
+    Obviously this only works with ES6 style classes.  After this setup you just add your own
+    methods, use `super` like normal, and everything else.  The functions in `Model` will all
+    work because `schema` and `table_name` are set.
+
+    + `table_name` -- the name of the base table in the database to use. Must be in `SCHEMA`.
+   */
   static from_table(table_name) {
     let m = class extends Model { };
     m.table_name = table_name;
@@ -343,6 +576,19 @@ export class Model {
     return m;
   }
 
+  /*
+    Determines if at least one record exists for the `where` specification.
+    This is doing a select for only an `id` column with a limit of 1, and if
+    it gets a result then it returns true.  Probably not the most efficient
+    but it is portable. Here's what `knex` it's doing:
+
+    ```javascript
+    let res = await knex(this.table_name).select('id').where(where).limit(1).first();
+    ```
+
+    + `where Object` -- the query specification for `knex`.
+    + `return boolean` -- Whether it exists or not.
+   */
   static async exists(where) {
     let res = await knex(this.table_name).select('id').where(where).limit(1).first();
     return res ? res.id : false;