Initial Setup

Before you can use Bavard, you need to tell it which database to use by registering a Database Adapter. This connection should be established once during your application's startup.

Database Connection

Bavard is driver-agnostic. You can use it with SQLite (via sqflite or sqlite3), PostgreSQL, PowerSync or any other SQL database by wrapping the connection in an adapter.

import 'package:bavard/bavard.dart';

void main() async {
  // Initialize your database connection (e.g., SQLite)
  final adapter = SQLiteAdapter('my_database.db'); 

  // Register the adapter with the DatabaseManager
  DatabaseManager().setDatabase(adapter);

  // Your models are now ready to use!
}

Migration Setup (Optional)

If you are using the bavard_migration package, you can also use the Migrator during initialization to ensure your database schema is up to date.

Typically, this is handled via the CLI in development, but you can trigger it programmatically if needed:

import 'package:bavard/bavard.dart';
import 'package:bavard_migration/bavard_migration.dart';

Future<void> initializeDatabase() async {
  final adapter = SQLiteAdapter('path/to/db');
  DatabaseManager().setDatabase(adapter);

  // Initialize the migration repository and migrator
  final repository = MigrationRepository(adapter);
  final migrator = Migrator(adapter, repository);

  // In production, you might want to run this carefully
  // await migrator.runUp(allMyMigrations);
}

CLI Setup (Recommended)

To streamline your development, you should set up the Bavard CLI. This allows you to generate models, pivot tables, and run migrations directly from your terminal.

Create a file at bin/bavard.dart in your project:

import 'package:bavard_cli/bavard_cli.dart';
import 'package:bavard_migration/bavard_migration.dart';

void main(List<String> args) {
  // Registering both standard and migration commands
  CliRunner([
    MakeMigrationCommand(),
    MigrateCommand(),
    RollbackCommand(),
  ]).run(args);
}

Now you can use the CLI using dart run bavard. Check the CLI Documentation for a full list of commands.

Next Steps

Now that Bavard is connected to your database, you can:

1. Define your Models: Map your Dart classes to database tables.
2. Create Migrations: Define your database structure using code.
3. Configure Conventions: Learn how Bavard handles table and column names by default.