With TypeORM, `SQLITE_CONSTRAINT: FOREIGN KEY constraint failed` when adding a column to an entity

Question

I'm using TypeORM as a TypeScript ORM library, with a SQLite database.

I've got a TypeORM entity, called Photo with a @OneToOne relationship with another entity, called PhotoMetadata.

Photo.ts:

import {
  Entity,
  Column,
  PrimaryGeneratedColumn,
  OneToOne,
  BaseEntity,
} from 'typeorm';

import PhotoMetadata from './PhotoMetadata';

@Entity()
export default class Photo extends BaseEntity {
  @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
  public id: number;

  @Column({ length: 100 })
  public name: string;

  @OneToOne(
    () => PhotoMetadata,
    (photoMetadata) => photoMetadata.photo,
    { cascade: true },
  )
  metadata: PhotoMetadata;
}

And here is PhotoMetadata.ts:

import {
  Entity,
  Column,
  PrimaryGeneratedColumn,
  OneToOne,
  JoinColumn,
} from 'typeorm';

import Photo from './Photo';

@Entity()
export default class PhotoMetadata {
  @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
  id: number;

  @Column()
  comment: string;

  @OneToOne(
    () => Photo,
    (photo) => photo.metadata,
  )
  @JoinColumn()
  photo: Photo;
}

When I add a column to Photo, like:

  @Column({ nullable: true })
  test: string;

Then run the app, with logging enabled, I get:

query: BEGIN TRANSACTION
query: SELECT * FROM "sqlite_master" WHERE "type" = 'table' AND "name" IN ('photo_metadata', 'photo', 'user')
query: SELECT * FROM "sqlite_master" WHERE "type" = 'index' AND "tbl_name" IN ('photo_metadata', 'photo', 'user')
query: PRAGMA table_info("user")
query: PRAGMA index_list("user")
query: PRAGMA foreign_key_list("user")
query: PRAGMA table_info("photo")
query: PRAGMA index_list("photo")
query: PRAGMA foreign_key_list("photo")
query: PRAGMA table_info("photo_metadata")
query: PRAGMA index_list("photo_metadata")
query: PRAGMA foreign_key_list("photo_metadata")
query: PRAGMA index_info("sqlite_autoindex_photo_metadata_1")
query: SELECT * FROM "sqlite_master" WHERE "type" = 'table' AND "name" = 'typeorm_metadata'
query: CREATE TABLE "temporary_photo_metadata" ("id" integer PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL, "comment" varchar NOT NULL, "photoId" integer, CONSTRAINT "UQ_99f01ed52303cc16139d69f7464" UNIQUE ("photoId"), CONSTRAINT "FK_99f01ed52303cc16139d69f7464" FOREIGN KEY ("photoId") REFERENCES "photo" ("id") ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE NO ACTION)
query: INSERT INTO "temporary_photo_metadata"("id", "comment", "photoId") SELECT "id", "comment", "photoId" FROM "photo_metadata"
query: DROP TABLE "photo_metadata"
query: ALTER TABLE "temporary_photo_metadata" RENAME TO "photo_metadata"
query: CREATE TABLE "temporary_photo" ("id" integer PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL, "name" varchar(100) NOT NULL)
query: INSERT INTO "temporary_photo"("id", "name") SELECT "id", "name" FROM "photo"
query: DROP TABLE "photo"
query failed: DROP TABLE "photo"
error: [Error: SQLITE_CONSTRAINT: FOREIGN KEY constraint failed] {
  errno: 19,
  code: 'SQLITE_CONSTRAINT'
}
query: ROLLBACK

How can I fix this issue? It seems to fail dropping the Photo table that I modified, because of the foreign key.

Answer 1

I tried using TypeORM migrations to do this, but I encountered the same problem.

I then learned the following from this comment:

const connection = await createConnection();

await connection.query('PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF');
await connection.synchronize();
await connection.query('PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON');

Or if you want to use migrations instead, then from this comment:

await connection.query("PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;");
await connection.runMigrations();
await connection.query("PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON;");

In either case, you need to set synchronize: false in your ormconfig.json.