What's new in Prisma? (Q1/21)

Overview

• Releases & new features
  • Prisma Migrate is generally available 🚀
  • Use native database types in the Prisma schema
  • Seed your database with the Prisma CLI (Preview)
  • New features for the Prisma Client API
    • Order by relations (Preview)
    • Count on relations (Preview)
    • Efficient bulk creates with createMany
    • Directly set foreign keys
    • Group by
    • Reducing overhead between Node.js and Rust with N-API (Preview)
    • New features for Prisma Client Go
• Tools & ecosystem
  • Blitz
  • KeystoneJS
  • Wasp
  • Amplication
  • prisma-appsync generator
  • Bedrock SaaS Template by Max Stoiber
• Community
  • Meetups
  • Prisma Enterprise Event
  • Stickers
• Videos, livestreams & more
  • What's new in Prisma
  • Videos
  • Prisma appearances
• New Prismates
• What's next?

Releases & new features

Our engineers have been hard at work issuing new releases with many improvements and new features every two weeks. Here is an overview of the most exciting features that we have launched in the last three months.

You can stay up-to-date about all upcoming features on our roadmap.

Prisma Migrate is generally available 🚀

The biggest news in this quarter certainly was the launch of Prisma Migrate for General Availability. This means, you can now use Prisma Migrate without the --preview-feature option:

Before v2.19.0

Now

You can learn more about this in the release notes, the announcement article and the video demo by Daniel and Tom.

Use native database types in the Prisma schema

In this quarter, we made it possible to use a much broader range of native database types in the Prisma schema.

For example, you can now define VARCHAR types of a specific length or use other database-specific types like (in this case for PostgreSQL) MONEY, variations of date/time types like TIME, TIMETZ or TIMESTAMPTZ and a lot more.

Here's an example:

For a full overview of available types, check out the type mapping sections in the docs:

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• SQLite
• SQL Server (Preview)

Seed your database with the Prisma CLI (Preview)

The new prisma db seed command enables you to automatically invoke a seed script to feed your database with some initial data.

The command expects a file called seed with the respective file extension inside your main prisma directory:

• JavaScript: prisma/seed.js
• TypeScript: prisma/seed.ts
• Shell: prisma/seed.sh

Alternatively you can pass the --schema option to the CLI command in order to point to the location of the seed script or define a default schema location in your package.json which will be picked up every time you run the command.

New features for the Prisma Client API

We regularly add new features to the Prisma Client API to enable more powerful database queries that were previously only possible via plain SQL and the $queryRaw escape hatch .

Order by relations (Preview)

Since 2.16.0, you can order the results of findMany queries by properties of related models. For example, you can order a list of posts alphabetically by the names of their authors:

Additionaly, the 2.19.0 release makes it possible to order by the aggregates (e.g. count) of relations as well. Here's is an example that orders a list of users by the number of the posts they created:

Count on relations (Preview)

This highly requested feature is now Preview since 2.20.0. You can now count the number of related records by passing _count to the select or include options and then specifying which relation counts should be included in the resulting objects via another select.

For example, counting the number of posts that an user has written:

Efficient bulk creates with createMany

The new createMany operation (introduced in 2.16.0) enables you to insert data a whole lot faster:

Directly set foreign keys

Since 2.15.0, it is possible to dirctly set foreign keys instead of wiring up relations via the connect API:

Group by

Since 2.14.0, Prisma Client supports group by queries:

Additionally, you can further filter the result by using the having option:

You can learn more about these queries in the docs.

Reducing overhead between Node.js and Rust with N-API (Preview)

N-API is a new technique for binding Prisma's Rust-based query engine directly to Prisma Client that was introduced in 2.20.0. This reduces the communication overhead between the Node.js and Rust layers when resolving Prisma Client's database queries.

Enabling the N-API will not affect your workflows in any way, the experience of using Prisma will remain exactly the same.

The N-API has different runtime characteristics than the current communication layer between Node.js and Rust. There may be some rough edges during the Preview period.

New features for Prisma Client Go

In case you're not aware, Prisma Client also is available for Golang in an Early Access version.

You can learn more about Prisma Client Go in the documentation. Also note that we are actively looking for feedback for Prisma Client Go!

You can help us accelerate the release process by creating issues and sharing your feedback in the #prisma-client-go channel on the Prisma Slack.

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Tools & ecosystem

Blitz

We are excited for the Blitz community to see them launch an official beta version of their framework, including a new website and documentation:

Blitz is a batteries-included framework that's inspired by Ruby on Rails, is built on Next.js, and features a "Zero-API" data layer abstraction that eliminates the need for REST/GraphQL. It uses Prisma as its default ORM layer.

KeystoneJS

While it's already possible to use KeystoneJS with Prisma as the ORM, the upcoming version of KeystoneJS will use Prisma as its default database adapter.

KeystoneJS founder Jed Watson recently was a guest on the What's new in Prisma livestream where he gave a demo of KeystoneJS with Prisma.

Wasp

Backed by YCombinator, the twin brothers Martin and Matija Šošić are building Wasp, a DSL for building fullstack web applications. They recently launched Wasp on Hacker News.

To learn more about Wasp, be sure to check out Matija's talk at our recent Prisma Meetup:

Amplication

Amplication is another exciting tool that promises to make web developers more productive, is built on Prisma and recently launched on Hacker News.

It allows to instantly generate fully-fledged REST and GraphQL APIs. The projects are configured via a web UI but can be fully customized as the underlying NestJS app can be downloaded and edited by the developer.

prisma-appsync generator

Sylvain Simao recentely released a first version of prisma-appsync, a custom generator for the Prisma schema that enables developer to generate a full-blown GraphQL CRUD API via AWS AppSync and deployable with single command of the AWS CDK.

To learn more, check out the documentation and watch our recent What's new in Prisma episode.

Bedrock SaaS Template by Max Stoiber

Max Stoiber is well-known in the JavaScript community for his popular open source work, like styled-components and react-boilerplate.

He recently announced Bedrock, a modern full-stack boilerplate with user authentication, subscription payments, teams, invitations, emails and everything else you need to build a SaaS product. We are excited that Max chooses Prisma as his ORM for this project!

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Community

We wouldn't be where we are today without our amazing community of developers. Our Slack has more than 40k members and is a great place to ask questions, share feedback and initiate discussions all around Prisma.

Join Slack

Meetups

Prisma Enterprise Event

The Prisma Enterprise Event 2021 has been a huge success and we want to thank everyone who attended and helped making it a great experience!

We've been excited to see fantastic speakers like Pete Hunt (Twitter), Natalie Vais (Amplify Partners), James Governor (Redmonk) and DeVaris Brown (Meroxa).

The event covered a broad range of topics about the challenges large companies and enterprises face with the management of application data, such as:

• Learn how top companies are addressing the challenges of data at scale
• Discover how companies use Prisma to make their developers more productive
• Get a better understanding of the future of data in the enterprise

You can get access to all the talk recordings here.

Watch Talks

Stickers

We love seeing laptops that are decorated with Prisma stickers, so we're shipping sticker packs for free to our community members! In this quarter, we've sent out over 300 sticker packs to developers that are excited about Prisma!

Order Stickers

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Videos, livestreams & more

What's new in Prisma

Every other Thursday, Nikolas Burk and Ryan Chenkie discuss the latest Prisma release and other news from the Prisma ecosystem and community. If you want to travel back in time and learn about a past release, you can find all the shows from this quarter here:

• 2.19.0
• 2.18.0
• 2.17.0
• 2.16.0
• 2.15.0
• 2.14.0

Videos

Prisma Chats - All About Transactions with Matt Mueller, Product Manager at Prisma

Prisma in Production: How to Load Test Your API with k6 (Daniel Norman)

Deploying a Prisma app to Vercel and setting up connection pooling with PgBouncer (Daniel Norman)

Prisma appearances

This quarter, several Prisma folks have appeared on external channels and livestreams. Here's the overview of all of them:

• Ryan Chenkie @ WarsawJS Meetup #79 Online

• Nikolas Burk @ Apollo livestream with Kurt Kemple

• Mahmoud Abdelwahab @ ColbyFayock

• Jason Kuhrt @ SFNode

• Nikolas Burk @ Logrocket Podcast

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New Prismates

Here's an overview of the awesome new Prismates we have hired this quarter:

Also, we are hiring for various roles! If you're interested in joining us and becoming a Prismate, check out our jobs page.

Explore Jobs

What's next?

The best places to stay up-to-date about what we are currently working on are GitHub issues and our public roadmap.

We are currently working on a connector for MongoDB and are hoping to have an Early Access version of it ready in the next three months.

Another major area we are focusing on is the development of a cloud product that will make it easier for teams and larger organizations to collaborate on Prisma projects. To get an initial impression of what we are planning, you can watch the talks from the Prisma Enterprise Event. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for more articles on this blog in the next few weeks 👀