quick_orm 0.4.4

Python ORM framework, quick, easy, simple yet powerful, based on sqlalchemy.

• News: quick_orm is fully compatible with the newest SQLAlchemy 0.7.9.

• Notice: quick_orm is NOT YET compatible with SQLAlchemy 0.8.x.

Introduction

Python ORM framework which enables you to get started in less than a minute!

Super easy to setup and super easy to use, yet super powerful!

You would regret that you didn’t discorver it earlier!

Features

• quick: you could get and play with it in less than a minute. It couldn’t be more straightforward.

• easy: you don’t have to write any SQL statements, including those “create table xxx …” ones.

• simple: the core code counts only 217 lines including comments and pydocs, there is no room for bugs.

• free: released under BSD license, you are free to use it and distribute it.

• powerful: built upon SQLAlchemy and doesn’t compromise its power.

• support relationships by means of python decorators.

• support table inheritance in a most natural way.

• support multiple databases: you can map your models to many databases without difficulty.

• write less, do more: taking advantage of python metaclass reduces data modeling code dramatically.

• long-term maintained: Continous efforts are taken to improve and maintain it.

Quick Start

pip install quick_orm

Refer to the following examples to write your own database manipulation code.

Hello World example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://') # database urls: http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/core/engines.html#database-urls
    db.create_tables() # create tables, you don't have to write any SQL.

    user = User(name = 'Hello World')
    db.session.add_then_commit(user) # commit user to database.

    user = db.session.query(User).get(1)
    print 'My name is', user.name
    print 'created_at', user.created_at # created_at and updated_at timestamps are added automatically.
    print 'updated_at', user.updated_at

    user.name = 'Tyler Long'
    db.session.commit() # commit changes to database.
    print 'My name is', user.name
    print 'created_at', user.created_at
    print 'updated_at', user.updated_at

Many-to-one relationship example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Text

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class Question:
    title = Column(String(70))
    content = Column(Text)

@Database.many_to_one(Question)
class Answer:
    content = Column(Text)

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    question = Question(title = 'What is quick_orm?', content = 'What is quick_orm?')
    answer = Answer(question = question, content = 'quick_orm is a Python ORM framework which enables you to get started in less than a minute!')
    db.session.add_then_commit(answer)

    question = db.session.query(Question).get(1)
    print 'The question is:', question.title
    print 'The answer is:', question.answers.first().content

Many-to-one relationship options example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Text

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class Question:
    title = Column(String(70))
    content = Column(Text)

@Database.many_to_one(Question, ref_name = 'question', backref_name = 'answers')
class Answer:
    content = Column(Text)

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    question = Question(title = 'What is quick_orm?', content = 'What is quick_orm?')
    answer = Answer(question = question, content = 'quick_orm is a Python ORM framework which enables you to get started in less than a minute!')
    db.session.add_then_commit(answer)

    question = db.session.query(Question).get(1)
    print 'The question is:', question.title
    print 'The answer is:', question.answers.first().content

Many-to-one relationship with oneself example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

@Database.many_to_one('Node', ref_name = 'parent_node', backref_name = 'children_nodes')
class Node:
    name = Column(String(70))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    root_node = Node(name = 'root')
    node1 = Node(name = 'node1', parent_node = root_node)
    node2 = Node(name = 'node2', parent_node = root_node)
    db.session.add_then_commit(root_node)

    root_node = db.session.query(Node).filter_by(name = 'root').one()
    print 'Root node has {0} children nodes, they are {1}'\
        .format(root_node.children_nodes.count(), ', '.join(node.name for node in root_node.children_nodes))

Many-to-many relationship example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

@Database.many_to_many(User)
class Role:
    name = Column(String(30))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    user1 = User(name = 'Tyler Long')
    user2 = User(name = 'Peter Lau')
    role = Role(name = 'Administrator', users = [user1, user2])
    db.session.add_then_commit(role)

    admin_role = db.session.query(Role).filter_by(name = 'Administrator').one()
    print ', '.join([user.name for user in admin_role.users]), 'are administrators'

Many-to-many relationship options example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

@Database.many_to_many(User, ref_name = 'users', backref_name = 'roles', middle_table_name = 'user_role')
class Role:
    name = Column(String(30))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    user1 = User(name = 'Tyler Long')
    user2 = User(name = 'Peter Lau')
    role = Role(name = 'Administrator', users = [user1, user2])
    db.session.add_then_commit(role)

    admin_role = db.session.query(Role).filter_by(name = 'Administrator').one()
    print ', '.join([user.name for user in admin_role.users]), 'are administrators'

Many-to-many relationship with oneself example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

@Database.many_to_many('User', ref_name = 'users_i_follow', backref_name = 'users_follow_me')
class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    peter = User(name = 'Peter Lau')
    mark = User(name = 'Mark Wong', users_i_follow = [peter, ])
    tyler = User(name = 'Tyler Long', users_i_follow = [peter, ], users_follow_me = [mark, ])
    db.session.add_then_commit(tyler)

    tyler = db.session.query(User).filter_by(name = 'Tyler Long').one()
    print 'Tyler Long is following:', ', '.join(user.name for user in tyler.users_i_follow)
    print 'People who are following Tyler Long:', ', '.join(user.name for user in tyler.users_follow_me)
    mark = db.session.query(User).filter_by(name = 'Mark Wong').one()
    print 'Mark Wong is following:', ', '.join(user.name for user in mark.users_i_follow)

One-to-one relationship example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

@Database.one_to_one(User)
class Contact:
    email = Column(String(70))
    address = Column(String(70))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    contact = Contact(email = '[e-mail]', address = 'Shenzhen, China')
    user = User(name = 'Tyler Long', contact = contact)
    db.session.add_then_commit(user)

    user = db.session.query(User).get(1)
    print 'User:', user.name
    print 'Email:', user.contact.email
    print 'Address:', user.contact.address

Multiple many-to-one relationships example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Text

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

@Database.many_to_one(User, ref_name = 'author', backref_name = 'articles_authored')
@Database.many_to_one(User, ref_name = 'editor', backref_name = 'articles_edited')
class Article:
    title = Column(String(80))
    content = Column(Text)

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    author = User(name = 'Tyler Long')
    editor = User(name = 'Peter Lau')
    article = Article(author = author, editor = editor, title = 'quick_orm is super quick and easy',
        content = 'quick_orm is super quick and easy. Believe it or not.')
    db.session.add_then_commit(article)

    article = db.session.query(Article).get(1)
    print 'Article:', article.title
    print 'Author:', article.author.name
    print 'Editor:', article.editor.name

Performing raw sql query example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(70))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    count = db.engine.execute('select count(name) from user').scalar()
    print 'There are {0} users in total'.format(count)

Multiple databases example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(30))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db1 = Database('sqlite://')
    db1.create_tables()

    db2 = Database('sqlite://')
    db2.create_tables()

    user1 = User(name = 'user in db1')
    user2 = User(name = 'user in db2')
    db1.session.add_then_commit(user1)
    db2.session.add_then_commit(user2)

    print 'I am', db1.session.query(User).get(1).name
    print 'I am', db2.session.query(User).get(1).name

Table inheritance example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Text

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

class User:
    name = Column(String(70))

@Database.many_to_one(User)
class Post:
    content = Column(Text)

class Question(Post):
    title = Column(String(70))

@Database.many_to_one(Question)
class Answer(Post):
    pass

@Database.many_to_one(Post)
class Comment(Post):
    pass

@Database.many_to_many(Post)
class Tag:
    name = Column(String(70))

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    user1 = User(name = 'Tyler Long')
    user2 = User(name = 'Peter Lau')

    tag1 = Tag(name = 'quick_orm')
    tag2 = Tag(name = 'nice')

    question = Question(user = user1, title = 'What is quick_orm?', content = 'What is quick_orm?', tags = [tag1, ])
    question2 = Question(user = user1, title = 'Have you tried quick_orm?', content = 'Have you tried quick_orm?', tags = [tag1, ])

    answer = Answer(user = user1, question = question, tags = [tag1, ],
        content = 'quick_orm is a Python ORM framework which enables you to get started in less than a minute!')

    comment1 = Comment(user = user2, content = 'good question', post = question)
    comment2 = Comment(user = user2, content = 'nice answer', post = answer, tags = [tag2, ])

    db.session.add_all_then_commit([question, question2, answer, comment1, comment2, tag1, tag2, ])

    question = db.session.query(Question).get(1)
    print 'tags for question "{0}": "{1}"'.format(question.title, ', '.join(tag.name for tag in question.tags))
    print 'new comment for question:', question.comments.first().content
    print 'new comment for answer:', question.answers.first().comments.first().content

    user = db.session.query(User).filter_by(name = 'Peter Lau').one()
    print 'Peter Lau has posted {0} comments'.format(user.comments.count())

    tag = db.session.query(Tag).filter_by(name = 'quick_orm').first()
    print '{0} questions are tagged "quick_orm"'.format(tag.questions.count())

MetaBuilder to avoid duplicate code example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String

class DefaultModel:
    name = Column(String(70))

__metaclass__ = Database.MetaBuilder(DefaultModel)

class User:
    pass

class Group:
    pass

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()
    user = User(name = 'tylerlong')
    db.session.add(user)
    group = Group(name = 'python')
    db.session.add_then_commit(group)

    print user.name
    print group.name

Model for stackoverflow.com example

from quick_orm.core import Database
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Text

__metaclass__ = Database.DefaultMeta

@Database.many_to_many('User', ref_name = 'followed_users', backref_name = 'followers')
class User:
    email = Column(String(200))
    name = Column(String(100))

@Database.many_to_one(User)
class Post:
    content = Column(Text)

@Database.many_to_one(Post)
class Comment(Post):
    pass

class Question(Post):
    title = Column(String(200))

@Database.many_to_one(Question)
class Answer(Post):
    pass

@Database.many_to_many(Post)
class Tag:
    name = Column(String(50))

@Database.many_to_one(User, ref_name = 'sender', backref_name = 'messages_sent')
@Database.many_to_one(User, ref_name = 'receiver', backref_name = 'messages_received')
class Message:
    content = Column(Text)

@Database.many_to_one(User)
@Database.many_to_one(Post)
class Vote:
    type = Column(String(20)) #"vote_up" or "vote_down"

Database.register()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    db = Database('sqlite://')
    db.create_tables()

    user1 = User(email = '[e-mail]', name = 'Tyler Long')
    user2 = User(email = '[e-mail]', name = 'Peter Lau')

    tag1 = Tag(name = 'Python')
    tag2 = Tag(name = 'quick_orm')

    question1 = Question(user = user1, title = 'Can you program in Python?', content = 'RT')
    question2 = Question(user = user1, title = 'Do you know quick_orm?', content = 'RT')

    answer1 = Answer(user = user2, question = question1, content = 'Yes I can')
    answer2 = Answer(user = user2, question = question2, content = 'No I don\'t')

    comment1 = Comment(user = user1, content = 'You rock')
    comment2 = Comment(user = user1, content = 'You suck')

    answer1.comments = [comment1,]
    answer2.comments = [comment2,]

    user1.followers = [user2,]
    question1.tags = [tag1,]
    answer2.tags = [tag2,]

    vote1 = Vote(user = user1, type = 'vote_up', post = question1)
    vote2 = Vote(user = user2, type = 'vote_up', post = question1)
    vote2 = Vote(user = user2, type = 'vote_down', post = question2)

    db.session.add_all_then_commit([user1, user2,])

    print user2.name, 'is following', ', '.join(user.name for user in user2.followed_users)
    print user1.name, 'questions:', ', '.join(question.title for question in user1.questions)
    print 'question1 tags:', ', '.join(tag.name for tag in question1.tags)
    print 'answer2 comments:', ', '.join(comment.content for comment in answer2.comments)
    print 'answer "', answer1.content, '" is for question: "', answer1.question.title, '"'
    print 'there are {0} vote_ups for question "{1}"'.format(question1.votes.filter_by(type = 'vote_up').count(), question1.title)

Examples from real life

• Everblog is a personal blogging platform taking advantage of evernote, it chooses quick_orm as its ORM framework. Refer to everblog’s database model file for more detail.

If you know any other successful stories about quick_orm, do tell me and I will list them above.

Where to learn more about quick_orm?

As said above, quick_orm is built upon SQLAlchemy. quick_orm never tries to hide SQLAlchemy’s flexibility and power. Everything availiable in SQLAlchemy is still available in quick_orm.

So please read the documents of SQLAlchemy, you would learn much more there than you could here.

Read quick_orm’s source code, try to improve it.

You wanna involve?

quick_orm is released under BSD lisence.

The source code is hosted on github: https://github.com/tylerlong/quick_orm

Acknowledgements

quick_orm is built upon SQLAlchemy - the famous Python SQL Toolkit and Object Relational Mapper. All of the glory belongs to the SQLAlchemy development team and the SQLAlchemy community! My contribution to quick_orm becomes trivial compared with theirs( to SQLAlchemy).

Feedback

Comments, suggestions, questions, free beer, t-shirts, kindles, ipads … are all welcome!

Email: [e-mail]

todo list

1. full text search. (class decorator for model?)

2. orm for nosql? such as this one: http://qslack.com/projects/rhino-a-ruby-hbase-orm/

3. ref_grandchildren can’t access some attributes of grandchildren. for example: everblog project: tag.blog_entrys.lang report an error.

4. generate visual charts according to model. It is good for analyzing and demonstrating.

5. multiple many_to_many between two models

6. make table name customizable