Nested Attributes

acceptsNestedAttributesFor lets you create or update associated records through the parent — Rails-style.

Setup

// schema.ts
export const users = pgTable('users', {
  id:    integer('id').primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity(),
  email: text('email').notNull(),
})

export const profiles = pgTable('profiles', {
  id:     integer('id').primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity(),
  userId: integer('user_id').notNull().references(() => users.id),
  bio:    text('bio'),
})

export const posts = pgTable('posts', {
  id:     integer('id').primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity(),
  title:  text('title').notNull(),
  userId: integer('user_id').notNull().references(() => users.id),
})

// models/User.model.ts
import { ApplicationRecord, model, acceptsNestedAttributesFor, hasOne, hasMany } from 'active-drizzle'

@model('users')
export class User extends ApplicationRecord {
  static profile = hasOne({ autosave: true })
  static posts   = hasMany({ autosave: true })

  static profileAttributes  = acceptsNestedAttributesFor('profile')
  static postsAttributes    = acceptsNestedAttributesFor('posts', { allowDestroy: true })
}

Creating with nested records

const user = await User.create({
  email: 'alice@example.com',
  profileAttributes: { bio: 'TypeScript enthusiast' },
  postsAttributes: [
    { title: 'First post' },
    { title: 'Second post' },
  ],
})

// user, user.profile, and both posts are all created in one operation

Updating nested records

Pass the nested record's id to update an existing one:

await user.update({
  profileAttributes: {
    id:  user.profile.id,
    bio: 'Updated bio',
  },
})

Destroying nested records

With allowDestroy: true, pass _destroy: true to delete a nested record:

await user.update({
  postsAttributes: [
    { id: 42, _destroy: true },   // deletes post with id 42
  ],
})

Options

Option	Default	Description
allowDestroy	false	Allow _destroy: true to delete nested records
rejectIf	—	Function (attrs) => boolean — reject the nested record if it returns true
limit	—	Maximum number of nested records to accept

rejectIf example

static postsAttributes = acceptsNestedAttributesFor('posts', {
  rejectIf: (attrs) => !attrs.title,  // skip records with no title
})

Without a model class

You can also accept nested attributes on associations that don't have an explicit acceptsNestedAttributesFor — just make sure autosave: true is set on the association and pass the attribute key ending in Attributes:

static comments = hasMany({ autosave: true })

await post.update({
  commentsAttributes: [{ body: 'Great post!' }],
})