Update your database

To add new tables or columns to your database we use Prisma. Prisma is a TypeScript ORM, and it helps you apply changes to your database, and interact with it in a type-safe way., and without using SQL.

Add a new table

To add a new table, open the file prisma/schema.prisma and add a new model.

For instance, to add a new table called Orders, add this

prisma/schema.prisma

model Order {
  id                  Int       @id @default(autoincrement())
  email               String
  orderId             String
  createdAt           DateTime  @default(now())
  updatedAt           DateTime  @updatedAt
}

Add column

To add a column to a table, simply add a new property to a model.

To add a new column, called validUntil to the previous Orders table, simply add line 5:

prisma/schema.prisma

model Order {
  id                  Int       @id @default(autoincrement())
  email               String
  orderId             String
  validUntil          DateTime?
  createdAt           DateTime  @default(now())
  updatedAt           DateTime  @updatedAt
}

It's a good idea to add a new column to existing tables, with a nullable value. You do it by appending a question mark (?)at the end of the column type.

It means that, as soon as the new column is created, it's value will be NULL.

Alternatively, assign a default value, using the @default() decorator.

Apply the schema to your database

To do that, run this command:

Terminal

npx prisma db push

With this command, prisma will apply the schema defined into prisma/schema.prisma to the database defined in the .env file, using the connection string defined in the environment variable DATABASE_URL.

For more details about Prisma, check the official documentation of Prisma.