Getting Started with Goofer ORM

Goofer ORM is a powerful, type-safe ORM for Go that provides an amazing developer experience with relationships, migrations, and zero drama. This guide will help you get started quickly.

Installation

First, install Goofer ORM using Go modules:


go get github.com/gooferOrm/goofer

Basic Setup

To use Goofer ORM, you’ll need to define your entities, register them, and create a repository to interact with your database.

1. Define Your Entities

Create Go structs with ORM tags to represent your database tables:


// User entity
type User struct {
    ID    uint   `orm:"primaryKey;autoIncrement"`
    Name  string `orm:"type:varchar(255);notnull"`
    Email string `orm:"unique;type:varchar(255);notnull"`
}
 
// TableName returns the table name for the User entity
func (User) TableName() string {
    return "users"
}

2. Connect to Database

Open a connection to your database:


// Open SQLite database
db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", "./db.db")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to open database: %v", err)
}
defer db.Close()

3. Create Dialect

Goofer supports multiple database dialects. Choose the one that matches your database:


// Create dialect for SQLite
sqliteDialect := dialect.NewSQLiteDialect()
 
// For MySQL
// mysqlDialect := dialect.NewMySQLDialect()
 
// For PostgreSQL
// postgresDialect := dialect.NewPostgresDialect()

4. Register Entity


if err := schema.Registry.RegisterEntity(User{}); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to register User entity: %v", err)
}

5. Create Table

Generate and execute the SQL to create your table:


userMeta, _ := schema.Registry.GetEntityMetadata(schema.GetEntityType(User{}))
userSQL := sqliteDialect.CreateTableSQL(userMeta)
_, err = db.Exec(userSQL)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to create users table: %v", err)
}

6. Create Repository

Create a typed repository to interact with your entity:


userRepo := repository.NewRepository[User](db, sqliteDialect)

Basic CRUD Operations

Create


user := &User{
    Name:  "John Doe",
    Email: "john@example.com",
}
 
if err := userRepo.Save(user); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to save user: %v", err)
}
 
fmt.Printf("Created user with ID: %d\n", user.ID)

Read


// Find by ID
foundUser, err := userRepo.FindByID(user.ID)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to find user: %v", err)
}
 
// Query with conditions
users, err := userRepo.Find().
    Where("name LIKE ?", "%John%").
    OrderBy("name ASC").
    Limit(10).
    All()
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to query users: %v", err)
}

Update


user.Name = "Jane Doe"
if err := userRepo.Save(user); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to update user: %v", err)
}

Delete


if err := userRepo.Delete(user); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("Failed to delete user: %v", err)
}

Next Steps

See the quickstart page for a more detailed walkthrough
Learn about entity relationships
Explore migrations for schema evolution
Dive into the CLI for automation

Goofer ORM is designed to make working with databases in Go a pleasant experience. Enjoy building with type-safe, relationship-aware database access!