Generating UUIDs as primary keys straight from NestJS/TypeORM, instead of...

Generating UUIDs as primary keys straight from NestJS/TypeORM, instead of relying on PostgreSQL's uuid-ossp extension

src/links/link.entity.ts

-import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column, ManyToOne, JoinColumn } from 'typeorm';
+import { Entity, PrimaryColumn, Column, ManyToOne, JoinColumn, BeforeInsert } from 'typeorm';
 import { IsString, IsOptional } from 'class-validator';
 import { Organization } from '../organizations/organization.entity';
 import { ApiModelProperty } from '@nestjs/swagger';
+import * as uuidv4 from 'uuid/v4';
 
 @Entity('link')
 export class LinkEntity {
 
-  @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
+  @PrimaryColumn('text')
+  @IsString()
   @ApiModelProperty()
-  id: number;
+  id: string;
 
   @IsString()
   @IsOptional()
@@ -31,6 +33,13 @@ export class LinkEntity {
   @ApiModelProperty()
   organization: Organization;
 
+  @BeforeInsert()
+  private beforeInsert() {
+    if (!this.id) {
+      this.id = uuidv4();
+    }
+  }
+
 }
 
 export interface LinksRO {

src/links/links.service.ts

@@ -80,7 +80,10 @@ export class LinksService {
     try {
       this.logger.log('Entering function', `${LinksService.name} - ${this.create.name}`);
 
-      return await this.linkRepository.save(link).catch((error) => {
+      // cf https://github.com/typeorm/typeorm/issues/2924#issuecomment-430265476
+      const linkEntity = Object.assign( new LinkEntity(), link );
+
+      return await this.linkRepository.save(linkEntity).catch((error) => {
         this.logger.error(`Error saving the link into the database.`, `${error}`, `${LinksService.name} - ${this.create.name}`);
         throw new InternalServerErrorException({ error, message: 'Error saving the link into the database.' });
       });

src/organizations/organization.entity.ts

-import { Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn, Column, OneToMany, Generated } from 'typeorm';
+import { Entity, PrimaryColumn, Column, OneToMany, Generated, BeforeInsert } from 'typeorm';
 import { LinkEntity } from '../links/link.entity';
 import { ApiModelProperty } from '@nestjs/swagger';
+import * as uuidv4 from 'uuid/v4';
 
 @Entity('organization')
 export class Organization {
 
-  @PrimaryGeneratedColumn('uuid')
+  @PrimaryColumn('text')
   @ApiModelProperty()
   id: string;
 
@@ -31,4 +32,22 @@ export class Organization {
   @Column('text', { nullable: true })
   @ApiModelProperty()
   logo: string;
+
+  @BeforeInsert()
+  private beforeInsert() {
+    if (!this.id) {
+      this.id = uuidv4();
+    }
+
+    // UUIDs are not automatically created for related entities
+    // cf. https://github.com/typeorm/typeorm/issues/4209
+    if (this.links) {
+      this.links.forEach((link) => {
+        if (!link.id) {
+          link.id = uuidv4();
+        }
+      })
+    }
+
+  }
 }

src/organizations/organizations.service.ts

@@ -93,14 +93,17 @@ export class OrganizationsService {
     }
   }
 
-  async create(organization) {
+  async create(organization: OrganizationDTO) {
     try {
       this.logger.log('Entering function', `${OrganizationsService.name} - ${this.create.name}`);
 
       // Only save the file name and not the full url of the logo
       // organization.logo = await this._fileManagementService.upload('local-actors-logo', logoImage);
 
-      const organizationCreated = await this.organizationRepository.save(organization).catch((error) => {
+      // cf https://github.com/typeorm/typeorm/issues/2924#issuecomment-430265476
+      const organizationEntity = Object.assign(new Organization(), organization);
+
+      const organizationCreated = await this.organizationRepository.save(organizationEntity).catch((error) => {
         this.logger.error(`Error saving the organization into the database.`, `${error}`, `${OrganizationsService.name} - ${this.create.name}`);
         throw new InternalServerErrorException({ error, message: 'Error saving the organization into the database.' });
       });
@@ -108,6 +111,7 @@ export class OrganizationsService {
       this.logger.log('Organization created:', `${OrganizationsService.name} - ${this.findAll.name}`);
       this.logger.log(organizationCreated, `${OrganizationsService.name} - ${this.findAll.name}`);
 
+      console.log(organizationCreated);
       return organizationCreated;
     } catch (error) {
       this.logger.error('Failed to create the organization.', `${error}`, `${OrganizationsService.name} - ${this.create.name}`);