N:N Relationship

10 min

many to many relationship introduction at the core of many backends, you will find the ability to store data using parse, you can store data objects establishing relations between them data relations standardize how each data object is related or associated with other ones that can give you extra power when building and running complex queries there are three main relation types one to many one to many , where one object can be related to many other objects; one to one one to one , establishing direct relations between two objects and only them; many to many many to many , which can create many complex relations between many objects in this guide, we will focus on many to many relations these relations are common in applications containing authored content, such as blogs and news feeds, because authors and category tags can be interchangeable and optimized for quick querying data storage backends usually will demand explicit declarations of these associations and even require that you create, on your own, relational tables for managing their joining parse makes it automatically for you, removing any possibility of errors while building your data relations and speeding up your application modeling process there are two ways to create a many to many relation in parse the first uses the parse object parse object relations, which is the fastest in creation and query time the second is using arrays which can lead to slow query times depending on their size because of this performance issue, we will use only relation examples from now on in this guide, you will implement a react native book registration application that contains the three main kinds of data associations you will learn how to create and query many to many data relations using your back4app and react native at any time, you can access this project via our github repositories to checkout the styles and complete code https //github com/templates back4app/react native js associations https //github com/templates back4app/react native ts associations prerequisites to complete this tutorial, you will need a react native app created and https //www back4app com/docs/react native/parse sdk/react native sdk if you want to test/use the screen layout provided by this guide, you should set up the react native paper react native paper https //github com/callstack/react native paper goal to perform and demonstrate many to many database relations in react native using parse in a realistic scenario 1 understanding the book class since in this guide we will be using a book registration application example, you need to first understand how the object relations are laid out in this database the main object class that you’ll be using is the book book class, which will store each book entry in the registration these are the other four object classes publisher publisher book publisher name, one to many relation with book book genre genre book genre, one to many relation with book book note that for this example we will consider that a book can only have one genre; author author book author, many to many relation with book book , since a book can have more than one author and an author can have more than one book as well; isdb isdb book isdb identifying number, one to one relation with book book , since this number is unique for each book here is a visual representation of these database tables for simplicity, we will assume that each object class has only a string type name name attribute ( title title for the book book ), apart from any additional relational attribute 2 creating one to many relations before going into this step we recommend you to clone and run the react native library app exmaple ( https //github com/templates back4app/react native js associations , https //github com/templates back4app/react native ts associations ) this application has two main screens one responsible for listing the registered books and the other for creating new books in the book registration form, there are direct links to the other related objects, so when a user picks a publisher or genre option, the form fields will hold the complete parse object parse object instance let’s take a look at the book creation method that is called when submitting this form javascript 1 const createbook = async function () { 2 try { 3 // these values come from state variables linked to 4 // the screen form fields, retrieving the user choices 5 // as a complete parse object, when applicable; 6 const booktitlevalue = booktitle; 7 const bookisbdvalue = bookisbd; 8 // for example, bookpublisher holds the value from 9 // radiobutton group field with its options being every 10 // publisher parse object instance saved on server, which is 11 // queried on screen load via useeffect 12 const bookpublisherobject = bookpublisher; 13 const bookgenreobject = bookgenre; 14 // bookauthors can be an array of parse objects, since the book 15 // may have more than one author 16 const bookauthorsobjects = bookauthors; 17	 18 // creates a new parse object instance 19 let book = new parse object('book'); 20	 21 // set data to parse object 22 // simple title field 23 book set('title', booktitlevalue); 24	 25 // 1 1 relation, need to check for uniqueness of value before creating a new isbd object 26 let isbdquery = new parse query('isbd'); 27 isbdquery equalto('name', bookisbdvalue); 28 let isbdqueryresult = await isbdquery first(); 29 if (isbdqueryresult !== null && isbdqueryresult !== undefined) { 30 // if first returns a valid object instance, it means that there 31 // is at least one instance of isbd with the informed value 32 alert alert( 33 'error!', 34 'there is already an isbd instance with this value!', 35 ); 36 return false; 37 } else { 38 // create a new isbd object instance to create a one to one relation on saving 39 let isbd = new parse object('isbd'); 40 isbd set('name', bookisbdvalue); 41 isbd = await isbd save(); 42 // set the new object to the new book object isbd field 43 book set('isbd', isbd); 44 } 45	 46 // one to many relations can be set in two ways 47 // add direct object to field (parse will convert to pointer on save) 48 book set('publisher', bookpublisherobject); 49 // or add pointer to field 50 book set('genre', bookgenreobject topointer()); 51	 52 // many to many relation 53 // create a new relation so data can be added 54 let authorsrelation = book relation('authors'); 55 // bookauthorsobjects is an array of parse objects, 56 // you can add to relation by adding the whole array or object by object 57 authorsrelation add(bookauthorsobjects); 58	 59 // after setting the values, save it on the server 60 try { 61 await book save(); 62 // success 63 alert alert('success!'); 64 navigation goback(); 65 return true; 66 } catch (error) { 67 // error can be caused by lack of internet connection 68 alert alert('error!', error message); 69 return false; 70 } 71 } catch (error) { 72 // error can be caused by lack of value selection 73 alert alert( 74 'error!', 75 'make sure to select valid choices in publisher, genre and author fields!', 76 ); 77 return false; 78 } 79 }; todolist tsx 1 const createbook = async function () promise\<boolean> { 2 try { 3 // these values come from state variables linked to 4 // the screen form fields, retrieving the user choices 5 // as a complete parse object, when applicable; 6 const booktitlevalue string = booktitle; 7 const bookisbdvalue string = bookisbd; 8 // for example, bookpublisher holds the value from 9 // radiobutton group field with its options being every 10 // publisher parse object instance saved on server, which is 11 // queried on screen load via useeffect 12 const bookpublisherobject parse object = bookpublisher; 13 const bookgenreobject parse object = bookgenre; 14 // bookauthors can be an array of parse objects, since the book 15 // may have more than one author 16 const bookauthorsobjects \[parse object] = bookauthors; 17	 18 // creates a new parse object instance 19 let book parse object = new parse object('book'); 20	 21 // set data to parse object 22 // simple title field 23 book set('title', booktitlevalue); 24	 25 // 1 1 relation, need to check for uniqueness of value before creating a new isbd object 26 let isbdquery parse query = new parse query('isbd'); 27 isbdquery equalto('name', bookisbdvalue); 28 let isbdqueryresult parse object = await isbdquery first(); 29 if (isbdqueryresult !== null && isbdqueryresult !== undefined) { 30 // if first returns a valid object instance, it means that there 31 // is at least one instance of isbd with the informed value 32 alert alert( 33 'error!', 34 'there is already an isbd instance with this value!', 35 ); 36 return false; 37 } else { 38 // create a new isbd object instance to create a one to one relation on saving 39 let isbd parse object = new parse object('isbd'); 40 isbd set('name', bookisbdvalue); 41 isbd = await isbd save(); 42 // set the new object to the new book object isbd field 43 book set('isbd', isbd); 44 } 45	 46 // one to many relations can be set in two ways 47 // add direct object to field (parse will convert to pointer on save) 48 book set('publisher', bookpublisherobject); 49 // or add pointer to field 50 book set('genre', bookgenreobject topointer()); 51	 52 // many to many relation 53 // create a new relation so data can be added 54 let authorsrelation = book relation('authors'); 55 // bookauthorsobjects is an array of parse objects, 56 // you can add to relation by adding the whole array or object by object 57 authorsrelation add(bookauthorsobjects); 58	 59 // after setting the values, save it on the server 60 try { 61 await book save(); 62 // success 63 alert alert('success!'); 64 navigation goback(); 65 return true; 66 } catch (error) { 67 // error can be caused by lack of internet connection 68 alert alert('error!', error message); 69 return false; 70 } 71 } catch (error) { 72 // error can be caused by lack of value selection 73 alert alert( 74 'error!', 75 'make sure to select valid choices in publisher, genre and author fields!', 76 ); 77 return false; 78 } 79 }; look how the bookauthorsobjects bookauthorsobjects are set to the new book parse object parse object instance to create a many to many relation, you first need to create a new parse object relation parse object relation and then add the related objects to it either one by one or by passing an array of parse object parse object using the parse object relation add parse object relation add method parse will create a relation type column and also a relational table on your database parse will also create a link for easy access to this new table in the field column in the dashboard be aware that you can also manage objects and add new ones to your relation through the dashboard once it is created, so remember this shortcut when developing your application 3 querying many to many relations retrieving results from many to many related objects queries need some additional steps comparing to regular ones take a look at the query function in the book registers list screen javascript 1 const querybooks = async function () { 2 // these values come from state variables linked to 3 // the screen query radiobutton group fields, with its options being every 4 // parse object instance saved on server from the referred class, which is 5 // queried on screen load via useeffect; these variables retrievie the user choices 6 // as a complete parse object; 7 const querypublishervalue = querypublisher; 8 const querygenrevalue = querygenre; 9 const queryauthorvalue = queryauthor; 10 const queryisbdvalue = queryisbd; 11	 12 // reading parse objects is done by using parse query 13 const parsequery = new parse query('book'); 14	 15 // one to many queries 16 if (querypublishervalue !== '') { 17 parsequery equalto('publisher', querypublishervalue); 18 } 19 if (querygenrevalue !== '') { 20 parsequery equalto('genre', querygenrevalue); 21 } 22	 23 // one to one query 24 if (queryisbdvalue !== '') { 25 parsequery equalto('isbd', queryisbdvalue); 26 } 27	 28 // many to many query 29 // in this case, we need to retrieve books related to the chosen author 30 if (queryauthorvalue !== '') { 31 parsequery equalto('authors', queryauthorvalue); 32 } 33	 34 try { 35 let books = await parsequery find(); 36 // many to many objects retrieval 37 // in this example we need to get every related author parse object 38 // and add it to our query result objects 39 for (let book of books) { 40 // this query is done by creating a relation and querying it 41 let bookauthorsrelation = book relation('authors'); 42 book authorsobjects = await bookauthorsrelation query() find(); 43 } 44 setqueriedbooks(books); 45 return true; 46 } catch (error) { 47 // error can be caused by lack of internet connection 48 alert alert('error!', error message); 49 return false; 50 } 51 }; todolist tsx 1 const querybooks = async function () promise\<boolean> { 2 // these values come from state variables linked to 3 // the screen query radiobutton group fields, with its options being every 4 // parse object instance saved on server from the referred class, which is 5 // queried on screen load via useeffect; these variables retrievie the user choices 6 // as a complete parse object; 7 const querypublishervalue parse object = querypublisher; 8 const querygenrevalue parse object = querygenre; 9 const queryauthorvalue parse object = queryauthor; 10 const queryisbdvalue parse object = queryisbd; 11	 12 // reading parse objects is done by using parse query 13 const parsequery parse query = new parse query('book'); 14	 15 // one to many queries 16 if (querypublishervalue !== '') { 17 parsequery equalto('publisher', querypublishervalue); 18 } 19 if (querygenrevalue !== '') { 20 parsequery equalto('genre', querygenrevalue); 21 } 22	 23 // one to one query 24 if (queryisbdvalue !== '') { 25 parsequery equalto('isbd', queryisbdvalue); 26 } 27	 28 // many to many query 29 // in this case, we need to retrieve books related to the chosen author 30 if (queryauthorvalue !== '') { 31 parsequery equalto('authors', queryauthorvalue); 32 } 33	 34 try { 35 let books \[parse object] = await parsequery find(); 36 // many to many objects retrieval 37 // in this example we need to get every related author parse object 38 // and add it to our query result objects 39 for (let book of books) { 40 // this query is done by creating a relation and querying it 41 let bookauthorsrelation = book relation('authors'); 42 book authorsobjects = await bookauthorsrelation query() find(); 43 } 44 setqueriedbooks(books); 45 return true; 46 } catch (error) { 47 // error can be caused by lack of internet connection 48 alert alert('error!', error message); 49 return false; 50 } 51 }; in this case, to query any books related to a specific author, you need to perform a parse query equalto parse query equalto method passing the parse object parse object instance as the parameter after querying, parse will not store parse object parse object instances from many to many relational fields, only a reference to the related class name, such as {" type" "relation", "classname" "author"} {" type" "relation", "classname" "author"} to retrieve and show data from these object instances, you need to create a relation and query it again, storing the results in an object array of your own after that, you may iterate over the object array and use the parse object get parse object get method to retrieve the author’s name here is how the list screen looks like by using these procedures conclusion at the end of this guide, you learned how to create and query many to many relations in parse on react native in the next guide, we will show you how to do one to one queries and relations