Adding a new data model with Tailor Platform

It is very easy to change data schema with Tailor Platform. In Tailor Platform, the main database is called Tailor DB. With Tailor DB, you will be able to modify the data model of our templates, or add new Types (new data model. Equivalent to Table in a Relational Database) very easily.

This tutorial demonstrates how to use Tailor DB to add a new data schema to an existing template.

Tutorials – Create Schema

Complete Quickstart first If you haven't yet built the Inventory-tracker app from our template.
See Core concepts to get an overview of Workspace, Organization, Application and Service.

Tutorial steps

To create a Category resource in Tailor DB, you'll need to:

Create a new CUE file and define a Category schema within it
Add an entry for this schema in tailordb.cue manifest file
Apply the change using tailorctl
Verify schema change through GraphQL

1. Create a new CUE file and define a `Category` schema within it

To add the Category data schema, create a new file called category.cue in the tailordb/master directory and define the schema. In the cue file, design the details of the Category object type, such as fields and permission.

The following example defines name and description fields for the category, and grants editor access to the users for the resources. The field like id is generated without specifically defined in category.cue. This is a pre-defined field and the name of the field is reserved. Please refer to Auto-generated fields. Specifying the package name is required.

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">package</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> master</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">import</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> (</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">github.com/tailor-platform/tailorctl/schema/v2/tailordb</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">tailor.build/template/services/tailordb</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">:permissions</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">)</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">Category: tailordb.#Type </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&amp;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	Name:        </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">Category</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	Description: </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">Contains information about categories of products.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	Fields: {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		name: {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">			Type:        tailordb.#TypeString</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">			Description: </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">Name of the category.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		}</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		description: {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">			Type:        tailordb.#TypeString</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">			Description: </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">Description of the category.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		}</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		createdAt: tailordb.CreatedAtField</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">		updatedAt: tailordb.UpdatedAtField</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	}</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	TypePermission: permissions.editorAccess</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

2. Add an entry for this schema in `tailordb.cue` manifest file

Next, add the entry into the tailordb.cue manifest file in the services/tailordb directory.

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">package</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> tailordb</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">import</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> (</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">github.com/tailor-platform/tailorctl/schema/v2/tailordb</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">tailor.build/template/environment</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">tailor.build/template/services/tailordb/master</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	...</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">)</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">tailordb.#Spec </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&amp;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	Namespace: manifest.#app.namespace</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	Types: [</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    ...</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    {master.Category}</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">	]</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

3. Apply the change using `tailorctl`

Generate new workspace CUE file and apply the Tailor DB changes.

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">tailorctl</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">workspace</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">apply</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">-m</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">./workspace.cue</span></span>
<span></span>

4. Verify schema change through GraphQL

Now, you can use the following generated GraphQL APIs to access Category data.

Query: category and categories
Mutation: createCategory, updateCategory, deleteCategory and changeCategory

Try it out to see how easy it is to manage your data!

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)"># Open the GraphQL playground in the browser</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">tailorctl</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">workspace</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">app</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">open</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">-n</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">inventory-tracker</span></span>
<span></span>

Let's create a Category resource with a specified name string.

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)"># Create new Category data</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">mutation</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  createCategory(input: { </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string)">name</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">: </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">&quot;Gloves&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> }) {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    id</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">{</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;data&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;createCategory&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">      </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;id&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">&quot;07df6da0-be03-4e4a-bfee-00f4dfca80dc&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

You can view the Category resource values in the Tailor Console.

Tailor Console

You can run the following query in the GraphQL playground. This will show you the values. Replace category's ID with ID obtained from the previous query.

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)"># Get Category data</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">{</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  category(id: </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">&quot;07df6da0-be03-4e4a-bfee-00f4dfca80dc&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">) {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    id</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    name</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">{</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;data&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;category&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> {</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">      </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;id&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">&quot;07df6da0-be03-4e4a-bfee-00f4dfca80dc&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">      </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">&quot;name&quot;</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">:</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">&quot;Gloves&quot;</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">    }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">  }</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">}</span></span>
<span></span>

Further information

See Tailor DB page to learn more about schema design.
Visit CUE basics page if you're new to cue format.