Hoe to use Typeorm generic Repository as a provider in other modules

Question

I have Typeorm Generic repository like this

import { Injectable } from '@nestjs/common'
import { IGenericRepository } from '../abstracts/generic-repository'
import {  Repository } from 'typeorm'
@Injectable()
export class GenericRepository<T> implements IGenericRepository<T> {
    private _repository: Repository<T>;

    constructor(repository: Repository<T>) {
        this._repository = repository;
    }

    getAll(): Promise<T[]> {
        return this._repository.find()
    }

    findById(id: any): Promise<T> {
        return this._repository.findOneBy(id)
    }

    create(item: T): Promise<T> {
        return this._repository.save(item)
    }

    update(id: string, item: T) {
        return this._repository
    }
}

and I wanna to use this repository as provider in other services . for example I want to use this in user Module

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { User } from '../entity/user.entity';
import { GenericRepositoryModule, GenericRepository } from '@app/common';
import { Repository } from 'typeorm'


@Module({
    imports: [
        GenericRepositoryModule
    ],
    providers: [ // I think something is wrong here
        {
            provide: 'userGenericRepository',
            useFactory: (genericRepository: GenericRepository<User>, user: User) => new genericRepository(Repository(user)),
            inject: [GenericRepository,User]
        }
    ],

})
export class UserModule { }

But this doesn't work , there is an error

I think something is wrong with this provider

so, How can I fix this ?

Answer 1

The issue is that you are providing GenericRepository to their own provider.

A way to solve this is:

1. Write a function to create the provider token base on the class;

export function createRepositoryToken(entity: any): string {
  return `${entity}__generic_repository_token`;
}

2. Write a function to create the provider. This will help you to save a lot of code.

export function createGenericRepositoryProvider(entity: any): Provider {
  return {
    provide: createRepositoryToken(entity),
    useFactory: (manager: EntityManager) => {
      return new GenericRepository(new Repository(entity, manager));
    },
    inject: [EntityManager],
  };
}

3. Write a custom decorator

export const InjectRepo = (entity: any) =>
  Inject(createRepositoryToken(entity));

4. Create the provider in your module.

@Module({
  imports: [],
  providers: [
    createGenericRepositoryProvider(User);
  ]
})
export class UserModule {}

A cleaner option is to write the module like this:

// user.providers.ts
export UserRepositoryProvider = createGenericRepositoryProvider(User);

and use it in your module

@Module({
  imports: [],
  providers: [
    UserRepositoryProvider;
  ]
})
export class UserModule {}

5. Inject the provider in your service:

@Injectable()
export class UserService {
  constructor(@InjectRepo(User) private readonly repository: GenericRepository<User>)
}

and is done.

Update (bonus):

You can also create a module to provide generic repositories easily.

export type GenericRepositoryModuleOptions = {
  entities: any[];
};

@Module({})
export class GenericRepositoryModule {
  static forFeature(options: GenericRepositoryModuleOptions): DynamicModule {
    const repositoryTokens = this.createRepositoryTokens(options);
    const repositoryProviders = this.createRepositoryProviders(options);
    return {
      module: GenericRepositoryModule,
      providers: repositoryProviders,
      exports: repositoryTokens,
    };
  }

  private static createRepositoryTokens(options: GenericRepositoryModuleOptions) {
    return options.entities.map(entity => createRepositoryToken(entity));
  }

  private static createRepositoryProviders(
    options: GenericRepositoryModuleOptions
  ): Provider[] {
    return options.entities.map((entity) =>
      createGenericRepositoryProvider(entity)
    );
  }
}