# Ribbit - [Ribbit](#ribbit) - [Status](#status) - [Current Features](#current-features) - [Basic @Select .. From ..](#basic-select--from-) - [Cross product](#cross-product) - [Conditionals](#conditionals) - [Limited `CREATE TABLE` support.](#limited-create-table-support) - [`INSERT INTO` support.](#insert-into-support) - [`DELETE FROM` support.](#delete-from-support) - [Roadmap](#roadmap) - [UPDATE support](#update-support) - [Flesh out Haskell to PostgreSQL type mapping.](#flesh-out-haskell-to-postgresql-type-mapping) - [How it compares with other libraries.](#how-it-compares-with-other-libraries) - [The name: Ribbit](#the-name-ribbit) Ribbit is yet another type safe relational database library for Haskell, heavily inspired by the amazing [Servant](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/servant) library. The goal is to create a type-level language for defining table schemas "as a type", queries that operate on those schemas, and, tangentially, "backends" that can do something useful with those types like talk to an actual database. Using Ribbit, you might expect to see something like this: ```haskell type PeopleTable = Field "id" Int :> Field "name" Text :> Field "age" Int type MyQuery = Select '["id", "name"] `From` PeopleTable `Where` "age" `Equals` (?) matchingPeople <- query dbConn (Proxy :: Proxy MyQuery) (Only 21) -- argument that fills in the (?) placeholder :: IO [Only Int :> Only Text] ``` ## Status The status of Ribbit "Very Incomplete". My goal is to take a "depth first" approach, where every feature added is production ready before moving on to the next feature. Featured back-ends include [postgresql-simple](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/postgresql-simple) at this time. ### Current Features These are the features that are currently implemented. #### Basic @Select .. From .. We support queries of the form: ```haskell type MyQuery = Select '["field1", "field2"] `From` MyTable ``` #### Cross product We support queries of the form: ```haskell type MyQuery = Select '["t1.field1", "t2.field2"] `From` '[MyTable1 `As` "t1", MyTable2 `As` "t2"] ``` #### Conditionals We support queries of the form: ```haskell type MyQuery = Select '["field1", "field2"] `From` MyTable `Where` ``` Where `````` can include: - ```a `And` b```: Basic intersection. - ```a `Or` b```: Basic union. - ```"field" `Equals` (?)```: Test for equality. This introduces a query parameter that must be supplied at runtime. - ```"field1" `Equals` "field2"```: Test the equality of two fields (that both must exist in the schema) - ```a `Lt` b```: Less than operator. - ```a `Lte` b```: Less than or equal to operator. - ```a `Gt` b```: Greater than operator. - ```a `Gte` b```: Greater than or equal to operator. - ```Not a```: Not operator. - ```"field" `NotEquals` (?)```: Test for inequality against a query parameter. - ```"field1" `NotEquals` "field2"```: Test for inequality between two fields. #### Limited `CREATE TABLE` support. The postgresql-simple backend supports creating tables in the database. This support is "limited" because it misses the following features: - PostgreSQL column types are know for only a small number of Haskell types. This is extensible by the user (by implementing a type class), but it would be nice to have a more comprehensive set of mappings out of the box. - Foreign key constraints are not yet supported. - Arbitrary non-primary-key indexes are not yet supported. What *IS* supported already is: - Determining whether a field is nullable, based on whether the corresponding Haskell type is wrapped in a `Maybe`. - Compound primary keys. I.e. primary keys consisting of more than one component. #### `INSERT INTO` support. Basic inserts are supported: ```haskell type MyInsert = InsertInto PeopleTable '["id", "name", "age"] execute conn (Proxy :: Proxy MyInsert) (Only 1 :> Only "Bob Marley" :> Only 36) ``` #### `DELETE FROM` support. Basic deletes are supported: ```haskell type MyDeleteEveryone = DeleteFrom PeopleTable type MyDeleteById = DeleteFrom PeopleTable `Where` id `Equals` (?) execute conn (Proxy :: Proxy MyDeleteEveryone) () execute conn (Proxy :: Proxy MyDeleteById) (Only 1) ``` ## Roadmap This is what I plan to work on next: ### UPDATE support Support update operations. ### Flesh out Haskell to PostgreSQL type mapping. As mentioned above, only a small number of Haskell types are mapped to PostgreSQL types out of the box. We would like to make this a more comprehensive mapping out of the box. ## How it compares with other libraries. The short answer is there are a lot of other libraries and I'm not sure. Persistent and esquelleto are ones I've used, but if you search "relational" or "sql" in Hackage there seems to be a lot of other options. Part of the goals for this library are to flesh out this approach myself, so I can have a better context for understanding everything else available. In other words, it is part research project. With that in mind, there are at least a couple of specific goals I have in mind: - Avoid template Haskell. Persistent is amazing, but the use of Template Haskell makes certain things difficult, like documenting (or for large projects even understanding) everything that is produced by the Template Haskell. - Make the language easy to understand. If you have some basic SQL knowledge, it should be immediately obvious what is going on even if you are a beginner Haskeller. - Try to make as much stuff happen at the type level as possible. The ability to write your own type classes or type families over Servant API types is, I feel, part of what makes Servant so amazing. I want to replicate that success here. So, for instance, if someone somewhere defines a schema type that looks like this: ```haskell type MySchema = Field "id" Int :> Field "name" Text :> Field "address" (Maybe Text) ``` Then you would be free to deconstruct this type (using type families), transform it into another schema, generate customized `CREATE TABLE` statements if the ones provided aren't good enough for your back-end or use case... that sort of thing. As a somewhat contrived example: maybe, for who knows what reason, you never want to allow null values in your database. You can write a type family that can inspect every field in an arbitrary schema, replacing all the `Maybe a` with just `a`, like: ```haskell -- With -XPolyKinds type family NoNulls schema where NoNulls (Field name (Maybe typ)) = Field name typ NoNulls (a :> b) = NoNulls a :> NoNulls b NoNulls a = a NoNulls MySchema -- Same as: -- Field "id" Int -- :> Field "name" Text -- :> Field "address" Text <--- note the lack of Maybe ``` ## The name: Ribbit The name means nothing except I kindof like the sound of it. There are so many "sql", "relational", "query", etc. package names already that I didn't want to: 1) get lost in the mix. 2) step on anyone's toes by choosing too similar a name. 3) create confusion by seeming to be associated with some other package with which I am not.