Up and Running with Server Side Swift: Part 3 — postgrSQL and StORM

Ive wanted a basic, browser based todo list for a while. Something free of any distractions. Building this with Swift, and getting to know some of the libraries involved seemed like a great place to start.

This is a 4 part series outlining how to set up the project, getting started with routing, setting up the database and finally creating the model and controllers of our application. To see part 1 click here.

Introduction

Our application will use a postgrSQL database, and a library called StORM to access it. Below, we’ll set up the database and the user the application will use to access it.

Installing postgrSQL

first, update brew.

brew update

Then install libxml2 as its a dependency for Perfect.

brew install libxml2

Next, install postgres.

brew install postgres

Ok, so now we need to start postgresql server, so that you can create databases, users etc.

brew services start postgresql

If theres an issue you can replace start here with restart or stop.

Our application will need a user to access the database. So lets create one.

createuser -D -P todolist

Above we see the command to create a user. -D means that they cannot create databases. -P means that they requite a password. Finally, todolist is the name of the user. This can be anything you want. Once you hit enter on the above command, you’ll be asked to enter a password and password confirmation. This is the password for the user todolist_password

Next, lets create a database for the todolist users to access.

createdb -O todolist todolist_database

We have the command to create a database above, assigned the user todolist as the databases owner, -O and given the database a name, todolist_database.

Finally, lets access the database as the todolist user.

psql -d todolist_database -U todolist

If you want to quit, just type /q and hit enter.

StORM

Lets add StORM as a dependancy to access our DB. Update package.swift with the following dependancy.

.package(url: "https://github.com/SwiftORM/Postgres-StORM.git", from: "3.0.0")

and dont forget to add PostgresStORM as a target dependancy. Run swift package update and swift package generate-xcodeproj back in our terminal and we should be ready to add import PostgresStORM into our Main.swift.

Next up…

Now that we have the database setup, the next part will tackle some basic database actions and will set up routes to perform these actions via a webpage. We’ll also create a model for our database object that our application can interact with. Click this link to see more.