parse-and-format.md

You sometimes need to manipulate data from the database into the correct types. Maybe you have a TEXT field that is actually a comma separated list of tags, or a blob field with JSON that you want to parse.

This can be done with the model's {@link Model#parse parse} and {@link Model#format format} methods:

Book = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  tableName: 'books',
  parse: function(response) {
    if(response.tags)
      response.tags = JSON.parse(response.tags);
    return response;
  },
  format: function(attributes) {
    if(attributes.tags)
      attributes.tags = JSON.stringify(attributes.tags);
    return attributes;
  }
});

A very common use case for this is converting camelCase attributes to snake_case column names and vice-versa:

Book = bookshelf.Model.extend({
  tableName: 'books',
  parse: function(response) {
    return _.mapKeys(response, function(value, key) {
      return _.camelCase(key);
    });
  },
  format: function(attributes) {
    return _.mapKeys(attributes, function(value, key) {
      return _.snakeCase(key);
    });
  }
});