Objection.js: Model properties: null vs undefined

[johncmunson]

Let's say I have the following Person model, where only name is required. age and address are optional.

class Person extends Base {

  static get tableName() {
    return 'person'
  }

  static get jsonSchema () {
    return {
      type: 'object',
      required: [ 'name' ],
      properties: {
        name: { type: 'string' },
        age: { type: 'integer' },
        address: { type: 'string' }
      }
    }
  }

}

Now, let's instantiate a Person with only a name. The optional age and address properties are omitted.

const bob = Person.fromJson({ name: 'Bob' })

If we inspect our new friend bob, we see that age and address do not exist, i.e. they are undefined.

console.log(bob)  // =>  { name: 'Bob' }

So here is my question... __does Objection.js provide a built-in way to instantiate new model instances to where missing but optional properties (as defined in the jsonSchema) exist on the new model and are set to null, rather than undefined?__

For example, I'm wanting a simple way to achieve this...

const bob = Person.fromJson({ name: 'Bob' })
console.log(bob)  // =>  { name: 'Bob', age: null, address: null }

[koskimas]

You can use default: null in jsonSchema

[johncmunson]

Excellent, thanks! For anyone else who stumbles upon this issue, you would also need to add null as an allowable type to your optional properties, like so...

  static get jsonSchema () {
    return {
      type: 'object',
      required: [ 'name' ],
      properties: {
        name: { type: 'string' },
        age: { type: ['integer', 'null'], default: null },
        address: { type: ['string', 'null'], default: null }
      }
    }
  }