We call this revolutionary new feature DataMesh. This feature packs even more capability into the request URL string itself, further reducing the need to build custom REST APIs. What’s more, once DreamFactory knows about the virtual relationships, you can work with related data of any kind without the need for server-side scripting. There is no need to change the actual configuration of your database. These virtual relationships are imposed from outside by the DreamFactory platform. This is a game changing capability because now a developer can create, read, update, and delete related data across multiple servers with a single REST API call! The tables can be located on different databases, and the databases can be located on different servers.
Here is a recent blog post about how to do this.īut now, with the introduction of DreamFactory 2.0, developers can specify virtual relationships between any two tables. Or you could create a custom service or write a server-side script to combine unrelated tables of data. This is possible because we use the schema information stored in the database to learn about the various relationships between the tables.īut what if you have tables that are related in some way, and those relationships are not detailed in the schema? What if the related tables exist on different databases, or even on different servers? Previously, the only solution was to make multiple calls from the client-side and assemble the information as needed. DreamFactory automatically maintains all of the links and junction objects for you. You can POST the JSON document back to the API in order to create, update, or delete the related data. The SQL DB service can return a table along with any number of related tables in a single API call. A few years ago, we wrote a blog post about working with related data using the DreamFactory REST API platform.