Define users, profiles, and products¶

The first version of the store has three model concepts:

• User is a stored entity with an identity;
• Profile is embedded data inside a user;
• Product is a stored catalog entity with a decimal price.

Keep all three declarations in lib/models.dart. The next page will generate the concrete Dart types and repositories from this file.

Add the decimal value type¶

The product model uses Decimal for its price. Add the package before writing the import:

dart pub add decimal

Create the annotated source file¶

Create lib/models.dart with the imports and generated parts:

import 'package:decimal/decimal.dart';
import 'package:dorm_annotations/dorm_annotations.dart';
import 'package:dorm_framework/dorm_framework.dart';

part 'models.dorm.dart';
part 'models.g.dart';

The part declarations attach the dORM and JSON output to this source library. Keep them beside the declarations so the generated types can be used from the rest of the application.

Define the embedded profile¶

Use @Data for a value that belongs to another model instead of having its own repository:

@Data()
abstract class _Profile {
  @Field(name: 'name')
  String get name;

  @Field(name: 'birth-date')
  DateTime get birthDate;

  @Field(name: 'bio')
  String? get bio;
}

Profile has a fixed shape and is stored as part of User. Its nullable bio field remains nullable in the generated JSON mapping.

Define the user model¶

Use @Model for an entity that has its own identity and repository. Use @ModelField to embed the profile:

@Model(name: 'Users', as: #users)
abstract class _User {
  @Field(name: 'username')
  String get username;

  @Field(name: 'email')
  String get email;

  @ModelField(name: 'profile', referTo: _Profile)
  get profile;
}

The name value is the stored table, collection, or resource name when the selected engine uses one. The as: #users value produces the generated dorm.users accessor.

Define the product model¶

Add the catalog entity to the same source file:

@Model(name: 'Products', as: #products)
abstract class _Product {
  @Field(name: 'name')
  String get name;

  @Field(name: 'description')
  String get description;

  @Field(name: 'price')
  Decimal get price;
}

name and description are ordinary stored fields. price uses the Decimal value type and is handled by the JSON serialization integration.

Keep this domain as the example grows¶

The rest of the quickstart extends these declarations instead of starting a new example:

Those models add relationships and polymorphic data after the first user and product read work.

Learn the annotation details when needed¶

This page uses the smallest set of annotations needed to build the store. See the Annotations reference for identity specifications, relationship fields, derived fields, and polymorphic fields.

Continue with Generate the store API.