Populate a parent-child relationship after initial query

[AndrewBoryk]

Please summarize your feature request

Being able to populate a parent-child relationship on a record that was already previously queried

Describe the functionality you're seeking in more detail

I want to avoid populating all the fields on a record every single time that I am fetching it.
In addition, sometimes I'd like to be able to just use the User that I get from require during authentication.

The issue is, that if I have a parent-child (or sibling) relationship to that record, it isn't loaded up when I use that require.

So the alternative I have is getting the id from that User, and then querying for that user again to get it populated.

Is there a functionality for this already? If not, it would be nice to populate as needed on a record via query after it's initiatial query

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

[gwynne]

All relation properties (@Parent, @Children, etc.) have a .get() method which loads that relation from the database. Example:

final class User: Model, @unchecked Sendable {
    static let schema = "users"

    @ID
    var id: UUID?

    @Parent(key: "something_id")
    var something: Something
    
    init() {}
}

func someRoute(_ req: Request) async throws -> String {
    let user = try req.auth.require(User.self)
    
    // For convenience, the `get()` method returns the value of the loaded relation;
    // it can also be accessed via the `user.something` property.
    try await user.$something.get(on: req.db)
}

[AndrewBoryk]

@gwynne Gotcha, that returns the value of the loaded relation, if it is already loaded. But if we want to populate that value, that would work? Or do I need to include the reload parameter? I will test it out, thanks for sharing tho

[gwynne]

It will always load and populate the relation if it is not already loaded.

If reload is set to true, it will load and populate the relation even if it has been loaded already.

[duncangroenewald]

    // For convenience, the `get()` method returns the value of the loaded relation;
    // it can also be accessed via the `user.something` property.
    try await user.$something.get(on: req.db)

When can the value be accessed via the property ? Presumably only after a call to get() has been made ?

[gwynne]

Assuming the property had not previously been loaded, yes, that is correct.