REST API Example

This example shows how to implement a REST API using Express and Prisma Client. It uses a SQLite database file with some initial dummy data which you can find at ./prisma/dev.db.

How to use

1. Download example & install dependencies

Download this example:

curl https://codeload.github.com/prisma/prisma-examples/tar.gz/latest | tar -xz --strip=2 prisma-examples-latest/javascript/rest-express

Install npm dependencies:

cd rest-express
npm install

Note that this also generates Prisma Client JS into node_modules/@prisma/client via a postinstall hook of the @prisma/client package from your package.json.

Alternative: Clone the entire repo

Clone this repository:

git clone git@github.com:prisma/prisma-examples.git --depth=1

Install npm dependencies:

cd prisma-examples/javascript/rest-express
npm install

2. Start the REST API server

npm run dev

The server is now running on http://localhost:3000. You can send the API requests implemented in index.js, e.g. http://localhost:3000/feed.

Using the REST API

You can access the REST API of the server using the following endpoints:

`GET`

/post/:id: Fetch a single post by its id
/feed: Fetch all published posts
/filterPosts?searchString={searchString}: Filter posts by title or content

`POST`

/post: Create a new post
- Body:
  - title: String (required): The title of the post
  - content: String (optional): The content of the post
  - authorEmail: String (required): The email of the user that creates the post
/user: Create a new user
- Body:
  - email: String (required): The email address of the user
  - name: String (optional): The name of the user

`PUT`

/publish/:id: Publish a post by its id

`DELETE`

/post/:id: Delete a post by its id

Evolving the app

Evolving the application typically requires two steps:

Migrate your database using Prisma Migrate
Update your application code

For the following example scenario, assume you want to add a "profile" feature to the app where users can create a profile and write a short bio about themselves.

1. Migrate your database using Prisma Migrate

The first step is to add a new table, e.g. called Profile, to the database. You can do this by adding a new model to your Prisma schema file file and then running a migration afterwards:

// schema.prisma
model Post {
  id        Int     @default(autoincrement()) @id
  title     String
  content   String?
  published Boolean @default(false)
  author    User?   @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
  authorId  Int
}

model User {
  id      Int      @default(autoincrement()) @id 
  name    String? 
  email   String   @unique
  posts   Post[]
+ profile Profile?
}

+model Profile {
+  id     Int     @default(autoincrement()) @id
+  bio    String?
+  userId Int     @unique
+  user   User    @relation(fields: [userId], references: [id])
+}

Once you've updated your data model, you can execute the changes against your database with the following command:

npx prisma migrate dev --preview-feature

2. Update your application code

You can now use your PrismaClient instance to perform operations against the new Profile table. Here are some examples:

Create a new profile for an existing user

const profile = await prisma.profile.create({
  data: {
    bio: "Hello World",
    user: {
      connect: { email: "alice@prisma.io" },
    },
  },
});

Create a new user with a new profile

const user = await prisma.user.create({
  data: {
    email: "john@prisma.io",
    name: "John",
    profile: {
      create: {
        bio: "Hello World",
      },
    },
  },
});

Update the profile of an existing user

const userWithUpdatedProfile = await prisma.user.update({
  where: { email: "alice@prisma.io" },
  data: {
    profile: {
      update: {
        bio: "Hello Friends",
      },
    },
  },
});

Next steps

Check out the Prisma docs
Share your feedback in the prisma2 channel on the Prisma Slack
Create issues and ask questions on GitHub

shariarfaisal / prisma-project