How to add additional attributes to an entity without it being present in the schema definition of that entity

[fauwara]

I have an entity who can have multiple properties that the user wants to store.

{
  model: {
    entity: 'book',
    version: '1',
    service: 'bookstore'
  },
  attributes: {
    bookId: {
      type: 'string',
    },
    name: {
      type: 'string',
      required: true,
    },
  },
  indexes: {
    default: {
      pk: {
        field: 'pk',
        composite: ['bookId']
      },
    },
  }
}

the user if needed can add more attributes to the entity

this.entity.create({  
  bookId: req.body.bookId,
  name: req.body.name,
  extraAttribute: "hello"
}).go();

the entity is getting created but the additional attribute is not being added "extraAttribute", it is getting ignored

[tywalch]

Hi @fauwara 👋

This would be a great use case for the "CustomAttributesType" function. You can use it to allow for more precise (or in your case, imprecise, haha) typing on attributes. Here's a similar-ish thread that more details and examples that be relevant in your case too: #450

If type really doesn't matter you can always use the "any" type for your attribute 👍

[fauwara]

But I will have to have the attribute defined in the attributes section of the entity, I do not want to have it defined since I am working with NoSQL shouldn't I be allowed to dump anything?

If I do it the "any type" way I will have to create an attribute like "additionalParams" and then store the data within as a JSON. its not at direct level

DynamoDB allows me to do so but not through electro-db

[fauwara]

I think my question would be: does electrodb enforce a strict schema? like no SQL and ignores any other keys that aren't defined in the entity schema.

[fauwara]

So I was creating my entities when my application is initialized, but now I recreate the entity object every time I want to add it to the db.

so based on the users data I will add the attributes to the schema and then recreate them. this works nicely for me as it also helps validate it once before adding it.

please do let me know if this is a good way of doing it or if there is another way