Loopback discoverAndBuildModels not generating models

Question

I'm trying to get Loopback to discover and build my first table. I've used the simple example on their page at the bottom here:

http://docs.strongloop.com/display/LB/Database+discovery+API#DatabasediscoveryAPI-Exampleofbuildingmodelsviadiscovery

and I see the output of the table I'm discovering, but the API Explorer doesn't show the table or any newly generated endpoints. Also, the model-config.js file is not updated with the new table object. Here is the basic section of the code done on server start:

var loopback = require('loopback');
var boot = require('loopback-boot');
var DataSource = require('loopback-datasource-juggler').DataSource;
var mysqlSource = require('./datasources.json');
var dataSource = new DataSource('mssql', mysqlSource.mysqlserver);

var app = module.exports = loopback();

// Set up the /favicon.ico
app.use(loopback.favicon());

// request pre-processing middleware
app.use(loopback.compress());

// -- Add your pre-processing middleware here --

dataSource.discoverAndBuildModels('CATS', {owner: 'mamacat'}, function (err, models) {
    models.Cat.find(function (err, cat) {
        if (err) {
            console.error(err);
        } else {
            console.log(cat);
        }
        dataSource.disconnect();
    });
});

// boot scripts mount components like REST API
boot(app, __dirname);

To summarize, this runs, no errors. But no new models show on http://localhost:3000/explorer

Answer 1

Seems that discovery scripts only shows the output and doesn't create the model files. I found some instructions on loopback docs:

http://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Discovering+models+from+relational+databases

In section Basic Procedure, the second step:

2. Use fs.writeFile() to save the output in common/models/model-name.json.

So you can try the following approach:

1. Setup your mysql data in yourloopbackproject/server/datasources.json file:

{
  "db": {
    "name": "db",
    "connector": "memory"
  },
  "accountDs": {
    "host": "mysqlServerName",
    "port": 3306,
    "database": "databaseName",
    "username": "username",
    "password": "password!",
    "name": "accountDs",
    "connector": "mysql"
  }
}

2. Create the models folder if doesn't exist: yourloopbackproject/common/models.

3. Create discovery-and-build.js script on yourloopbackproject/server/bin folder:

var path = require('path');
var fs = require('fs');
var app = require(path.resolve(__dirname, '../server'));
var outputPath = path.resolve(__dirname, '../../common/models');

var dataSource = app.dataSources.accountDs;

function schemaCB(err, schema) {
  if(schema) {
    console.log("Auto discovery success: " + schema.name);
    var outputName = outputPath + '/' +schema.name + '.json';
    fs.writeFile(outputName, JSON.stringify(schema, null, 2), function(err) {
      if(err) {
        console.log(err);
      } else {
        console.log("JSON saved to " + outputName);
      }
    });
  }
  if(err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  return;
};

dataSource.discoverSchema('tableName',{schema:'schemaName'},schemaCB);

This script is based on: http://www.reddit.com/r/strongloop/comments/2upy76/autodiscoveryjs_recipe/

4. After the script execution you will find a .json file on models folder. Go to step 3 on Basic Procedure section: http://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Discovering+models+from+relational+databases

5. Follow these steps to expose your model over REST: http://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Exposing+models+over+REST

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Use Arc for this. Run slc arc from the project folder and it will show up the gui tool called arc in default browser. If you've not already registered, sign up and log in. You will be directed to GUI tool of StrongLoop, the Arc. Select your model from list on the left pane. You'll be able to see save and migrate button. Just click the migrate button and your table will be created into model.(within millisecs!)

Cheers!

Answer 3

discovery api is used to only discover the schema not to create models for now. please use the following project to create models with one to one and one to many relationships and all the models.

https://github.com/savsharma2/loopback-sql-create-model-with-relation/