kanel VS slonik

I'll just quickly plug Kanel (https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel) which I use to generate Typescript types from a Postgres database. I agree with the author to think migrations-first, though I prefer to write them in SQL to ensure I can utilize all the powerful features that Postgres has to offer.

With it, I only get types for the tables and views etc., so any join will be untyped if done client-side. This is still a big win in my opinion, and I much prefer it to normal ORM's.

I made a tool that generates Typescript types out of a live Postgres database. I've had a request for Kysely support (https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel/issues/273), but I more or less forgot about it. I would love to hear if that would be helpful.

There are tools that will generate typescript types from a database. I made one for Postgres. But it also works at "compile time", i.e. it doesn't look at a live database. I am not sure if that is what you are asking?

That's interesting. I use Knex a lot and I agree that it's very easy to end up just writing what is basically an ORM on the spot. I haven't quite decided if I think it's a real problem though.

I created and use Kanel (https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel) to generate Typescript types from my Postgres database which helps a lot. Knex itself has some attempt at type safety but it gets confused quite quickly, so that's where it's tempting to override things.

Interesting. Someone asked me if I supported it in Kanel. At the time it was hard to extend Kanel and then I just forgot but perhaps I should take another look at it. I am not exactly overwhelmed with the types that Knex offers even though it does make an honest attempt.

I have so far found: - kanel https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel - and pg-to-ts https://github.com/danvk/pg-to-ts

I’ve written before about the way I let the Postgres schema act as the source of truth by generating types with Kanel (assisted by Schemalint). In addition to this, I mention a homemade framework that sort of resembles a server-side Redux. This gives me typesafe database queries that are automatically reflected all the way to the frontend. I am frequently asked to make it open source and that is still the plan. I just need to untangle it from the Submotion source code which just never seems to be high enough priority. I promise I will get around to it :-)

We are using Kanel[1] for this right now — is there an advantage to using this instead?

[1]: https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel

Sure. I've been using this lib https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel to get types from my pg database and it makes it a breeze to use raw sql + ts.

And sometimes invest instead in learning a technology rather than hide it: for example slonik encourages you to write normal SQL queries by making SQL templating easier and safer. In turn, your IDE would be able to understand those queries and give you support based on the database schemas you actually have.

I'd push you to consider using postgres, slonik or similar for database queries. With these libraries, you just write SQL, but they perform input sanitization for you. So you can safely write:

You can already use postgres with Slonik.

https://github.com/gajus/slonik#user-content-slonik-how-are-...

It is not going to be the default because it is way slower.

https://github.com/gajus/slonik/actions/runs/6616647651

Test node_version:18 test_only:postgres-integration is taking 3 minutes.

Test node_version:18 test_only:pg-integration is taking 38 seconds.

For those uninitiated, Slonik is a battle-tested SQL query building and execution library for Node.js. Its primary goal is to allow you to write and compose SQL queries in a safe and convenient way. Now, let's see how it pairs with Express.js.

I am the maintainer of Slonik and I am trying to understand what portion of this sub-users are using Slonik vs other libraries, and if they are using anything else – what are their reasons for it.

It's nice that they implemented string templates essentially exactly the same way Javascript template literals and tag functions work. They even give an example of using it to create a prepared statement (e.g. DB."SELECT * FROM foo WHERE bar = \{inputParam}") which is exactly what many NodeJS libraries due, e.g. Slonik https://github.com/gajus/slonik, like sql`SELECT * FROM foo WHERE bar = ${inputParam}`;

I've found libraries like Zod useful when interacting with external data sources like a database. Slonik[1] uses Zod to define the types expected from a SQL query and then performs runtime validation on the data to ensure that the query is yielding the expected type.

I don't think it's necessary to use Zod/runtime validation everywhere, but it's a nice tool to have on hand.

[1]https://github.com/gajus/slonik

Demonstrate how easily and accidentally one can make an SQL injection with these:

https://github.com/porsager/postgres

https://github.com/gajus/slonik

Have you tried Slonik (https://github.com/gajus/slonik)? It won't generate types from queries automatically, but it encourages writing SQL vs. a query builder and allows type annotations of queries with Zod. Query results are validated at runtime to ensure the queries are typed correctly.