Bookshelf.js ORM Cheat Sheet

Bookshelf.js is a JavaScript ORM for Node.js built on top of the Knex SQL query builder, supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite3.

Model Definition

const knex = require('knex')(require('./knexfile'));
const bookshelf = require('bookshelf')(knex);

const Summary = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  tableName: 'summaries',
  hasTimestamps: true, // enables 'created_at' and 'updated_at'
  // Or specify custom column names:
  // hasTimestamps: ['created_on', 'updated_on']
});

---

Associations & Relations

const Book = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  tableName: 'books',
  summary() {
    return this.hasOne(Summary);
  },
  author() {
    return this.belongsTo(Author);
  },
  genres() {
    return this.belongsToMany(Genre);
  }
});

---

CRUD Operations

Create & Save

// Instantiation and persistence
const book = new Book({ title: 'Design Patterns', pages: 395 });
await book.save();

// Or create shortcut
await Book.forge({ title: 'Refactoring' }).save();

Fetch & Querying

// Fetch single record by primary key
const book = await new Book({ id: 1 }).fetch();

// Filtering with attributes
const redBooks = await Book.where({ favorite_color: 'red' }).fetchAll();

// Knex query builder integration
const recentBooks = await Book.query((qb) => {
  qb.where('pages', '>', 200).orderBy('created_at', 'desc');
}).fetchAll();