ORM

The gist: build a library that makes it easy to read and create data in a database from objects in your code.

ORM stands for Object-Relational Mapping, and it's usually the glue between your application code and the database. So instead of writing SQL directly, SELECT * FROM users WHERE email='foo@example.com' LIMIT 1, and instantiating an object with that data, you'd use the ORM to do that. It might look something like User.find_by(email: "foo@example.com"), which would return an instance of the User class.

ORMs are great for a variety of reasons:

  • Generally a friendlier API than the database underneath
  • Can help protect your application from running harmful queries
  • You can craft queries in the language you're working in
  • Easier to mock and stub when testing

What database you use is up to. SQLite is a small, portable SQL database that is great for developing against.

Specs

  • Ability to find a record by ID or a given table column
  • Create an object or struct in the language that you can then work with
  • Ability to update a database record
  • Ability to delete a database record

Concepts

  • API design
  • Databases

Extra Credit

  • Support additional queries
  • Support advanced queries like multiple WHERE clauses
  • Try to make your ORM usable with a different flavor of SQL and see if it works

Examples