Getters & Setters

Table of Contents

Getters
Setters
Computed properties

As the name suggests, getters and setters help you transform data before saving or after fetching it from the database.

In this guide, we learn about getters, setters and computed properties, with the uses case of where and when to use them.

Getters

Defining getters can be helpful if you want to format the data for display only. For example: Converting the post title to title case.

'use strict'

const Model = use('Model')

class Post extends Model {
  getTitle (title) {
    return title.replace(/^(.)|\s(.)/g, ($1) => {
      return $1.toUpperCase()
    })
  }
}

const post = await Post.find(postId)

// getters are called automatically
return post.toJSON()

Assuming the post title is saved as title field inside the database. AdonisJs executes the getTitle method and uses the return value.

Getters always start with the get keyword followed by the camel case version of the field name.
Getters are synchronous, which means you cannot run asynchronous code inside them. You must use hooks for that.
The return value is used instead of the actual value.
Getters are evaluated when you call toJSON on the model instance or the serializer instance.

Setters

Setters are called when you set a value to a model instance. It can be helpful in normalizing data before saving it to the database.

'use strict'

const Model = use('Model')

class User extends Model {
  setAccess (access) {
    return access === 'admin' ? 1 : 0
  }
}

const user = new User()
user.access = 'admin'

console.log(user.access) // will return 1
await user.save()

Setters always starts with the set keyword followed by the camel case version of the field name.
Setters are synchronous, which means you cannot run asynchronous code inside them. You must use hooks for that.
Setters receives the current value of a given field.
They are executed when you set/update value of a given field on the model instance.

Computed properties

Computed properties are virtual properties which don’t exist in your database but instead set in the JSON representation.

For example: Creating a full name property from the user first and the last name.

'use strict'

const Model = use('Model')

class User extends Model {
  static get computed () {
    return ['fullname']
  }

  getFullname ({ firstname, lastname }) {
    return `${firstname} ${lastname}`
  }
}

Now whenever you call toJSON on the user instance, a fullname property gets added to the return value.

const user = await User.find(1)

const json = user.toJSON()
console.log(json.fullname) // firstname + lastname

Computed properties must be returned as an array from the computed getter.
Computed methods are defined same as the getters.
They receive the existing attributes as an object.