Tables - Flaarum Tutorials

A table is a store of similar information. In flaarum a table structure (or definition) is enforced. This helps checks for typing errors and reduces bugs in a setup.

Supported Data Types

The following datatypes are supported in flaarum:

• int - maps to the int64 golang type
• string - an indexed string - not more than 220 characters
• text - an unindexed string - infinite size

Table Defintion Statements

The syntax is very different from SQL. The syntax also does not support comments.

Sample One

table: users
fields:
  firstname string required
  surname string required
  email string unique required
  year_of_birth int
  biography text
::

Note that:

1. The primary key is automatically created. It is of type `int` and is named `id`. Also it is autoincremented and it is unique.
2. Each section is ended with '::' and is compulsory even if only the fields section is present.

Sample Two

table: grades
fields:
  userid int required
  grade int required
  remarkid int required
  creation_year int required
  creation_month int required
::
foreign_keys:
  userid users on_delete_delete
  remarkid remarks on_delete_delete
::

Note that:

1. Foreign keys in Flaarum only supports linking against the `id` of a table.
2. A foreign_key part takes either an on_delete_delete or an on_delete_restrict

Sample Three

table: comments
fields:
  userid int required
  comment1 string required
  comment2 string nindex
  comment3 string nindex
::
foreign_keys:
  userid users on_delete_delete
::
		

Note that: A field ending in nindex means indexes would not be created for that field. And thus you cannot search by that field.

Actual Table Creation (Golang)

You can use the cli to create a table or use the following functions:

func (cl *Client) CreateTable(stmt string) error
func (cl *Client) CreateOrUpdateTable(stmt string) error

About Table Updates

Updating a table's definitions doesn't make all the existing rows to adapt to the change. But it becomes enforced in the insert-row and update-row function calls that happens after the change.

After any change to a tables' definitions; the new rows or recent updated rows would be given a different version number.