This document describes how to set up your development environment and run TypeORM test cases.
See the contribution guidelines if you'd like to contribute to TypeORM.
Before you can build and test TypeORM, you must install and configure the following products on your development machine:
- Git and/or the GitHub app (for Mac or Windows); GitHub's Guide to Installing Git is a good source of information.
- Node.js can be installed using a Node.js version manager like fnm or nvm.
- Mysql is required to run tests on this platform (or docker)
- MariaDB is required to run tests on this platform (or docker)
- Postgres is required to run tests on this platform (or docker)
- Oracle is required to run tests on this platform
- Microsoft SQL Server is required to run tests on this platform
For convenience, you can also use the Docker images provided in docker-compose.yml to run databases locally:
docker compose up postgres-17Fork and clone the repository:
- Login to your GitHub account or create one by following the instructions given here.
- Fork the main TypeORM repository.
- Clone your fork of the TypeORM repository and define an
upstreamremote pointing back to the TypeORM repository that you forked in the first place.
# Clone your GitHub repository:
git clone [email protected]:<github username>/typeorm.git
# Go to the TypeORM directory:
cd typeorm
# Add the main TypeORM repository as an upstream remote to your repository:
git remote add upstream https://github.com/typeorm/typeorm.gitInstall all TypeORM dependencies by running this command:
pnpm installTo create an initial ormconfig.json file, run the following command:
cp ormconfig.sample.json ormconfig.jsonTo build a distribution package of TypeORM run:
pnpm run packageThis command will generate a distribution package in the build/package directory.
You can link (or simply copy/paste) this directory into your project and test TypeORM there
(but make sure to keep all node_modules required by TypeORM).
To build the distribution package of TypeORM packed into a .tgz, run:
cd build/package && pnpm packThis command will generate a distribution package tar in the build directory (build/typeorm-x.x.x.tgz).
You can copy this tar into your project and run npm install ./typeorm-x.x.x.tgz to bundle your build of TypeORM in your project.
It is greatly appreciated if PRs that change code come with appropriate tests.
To create a new test, check the relevant functional tests. Depending on the test, you may need to create a new .test.ts file or modify an existing one.
If the test is for a specific regression or issue opened on GitHub, add a comment to the tests mentioning the issue number.
Most tests will benefit from using this template as a starting point:
import { expect } from "chai"
import {
closeTestingConnections,
createTestingConnections,
reloadTestingDatabases,
} from "../../../utils/test-utils"
import { DataSource } from "../../../../src/data-source/DataSource"
describe("description of the functionality you're testing", () => {
let dataSources: DataSource[]
before(
async () =>
(dataSources = await createTestingConnections({
entities: [__dirname + "/entity/*{.js,.ts}"],
schemaCreate: true,
dropSchema: true,
})),
)
beforeEach(() => reloadTestingDatabases(dataSources))
after(() => closeTestingConnections(dataSources))
// optional: test fix for issue https://github.com/typeorm/typeorm/issues/<issue-number>
it("should <put a detailed description of what it should do here>", () =>
Promise.all(
dataSources.map(async (dataSource) => {
// tests go here:
expect(result).to.equal(expected)
}),
))
// you can add additional tests if needed
})If you place entities in ./entity/<entity-name>.ts relative to your test file,
they will automatically be loaded.
To run the tests, setup your environment configuration by copying ormconfig.sample.json into ormconfig.json and replacing parameters with your own. The tests will be run for each database that is defined in that file. If you're working on something that's not database specific and you want to speed things up, you can pick which objects in the file make sense for you to keep.
Run the tests as follows:
pnpm run testYou should make sure the test suites pass before submitting a PR to GitHub. Tests are run on PRs via GitHub Actions after approval, but your fork repository should be able to run CI as well. All tests need to pass before a PR will be merged.
Executing only some tests: When you are creating tests to some specific code, you may want to only execute the tests that you're creating.
To do this, you can temporarily modify your test definitions by adding .only mocha commands to describe and it. For example:
describe.only('your describe test', ....)
Alternatively, you can use the --grep flag to pass a regex to mocha. Only the tests that have describe/it statements that match the regex will be run. For example:
pnpm run test -- --grep "your test name"The pnpm run test script works by deleting built TypeScript code, rebuilding the codebase, and then running tests. This can take a long time.
Instead, for a quicker feedback cycle, you can run pnpm run compile -- --watch to make a fresh build and instruct TypeScript to watch for changes and only compile what code you've changed.
Once TypeScript finishes compiling your changes, you can run pnpm run test:fast (instead of test), to trigger a test without causing a full recompile, which allows you to edit and check your changes much faster.
To run your tests you need the Database Management Systems (DBMS) installed on your machine. Alternatively, you can use docker with the DBMS running in containers. To have docker run all the DBMS for you simply run docker compose up in the root of the project. Once all images are fetched and are running, you can run the tests.
- The docker image of mssql-server needs at least 3.25GB of RAM.
- Make sure to assign enough memory to the Docker VM if you're running on Docker for Mac or Windows
TypeORM maintains two active branches:
| Branch | npm dist-tag (release) | npm dist-tag (nightly) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
master |
latest or next |
dev |
v1.0 development |
v0.3 |
latest or legacy |
nightly |
Current stable release (0.3.x) |
Publishing is handled by the publish-package.yml workflow using npm trusted publishing (OIDC). No npm tokens are needed.
- Create a branch from the target branch (e.g.
release-0.3.29fromv0.3, orrelease-1.0.0frommaster). - Update the version in
package.jsonand runpnpm installto update the lock file. - Run
pnpm run changelogto generate the changelog. - Commit the changes and create a pull request targeting the release branch.
- Once merged, create a GitHub Release with a matching tag (e.g.
0.3.29or1.0.0). - The workflow triggers on the
release: publishedevent and publishes to npm. The dist-tag is determined automatically:latestif the version is greater than the current latest on npm, otherwiselegacy.
- Create a branch from
master(e.g.release-1.0.0-alpha.2). - Update the version in
package.json(use a prerelease identifier, e.g.1.0.0-alpha.2) and runpnpm installto update the lock file. - Run
pnpm run changelogto generate the changelog. - Commit the changes and create a pull request targeting
master. - Once merged, create a GitHub Release from
masterwith a matching tag and mark it as a pre-release. - The workflow publishes to npm with the
nextdist-tag (any version containing a prerelease identifier like-alphaor-betais automatically taggednext).
Nightly versions are published automatically at 02:00 UTC for both master and v0.3 when there have been commits since the last published nightly. They can also be triggered manually via workflow dispatch. Nightlies are tagged dev (master) and nightly (v0.3) on npm.