Introduction to ORMs and Prisma Setup
5 min read
Module Overview
What You’ll Learn
- Explain what an ORM does, and what problems it solves over raw SQL
- Install Prisma and connect it to a real PostgreSQL database
- Understand the Prisma schema file and the Prisma Client it generates
💡 Why this module matters: Modules 1 and 2 wrote raw SQL by hand, parameterized, safe, but verbose. This module introduces Prisma, the ORM this course uses, so its migrations and generated client are understood as a layer over the SQL already familiar, not a black box.
What’s Covered
- What an ORM is, and the trade-offs between raw SQL and an ORM.
- Installing Prisma,
prisma init, and connecting it to PostgreSQL. - The Prisma schema file,
schema.prisma, where models and the database connection are defined. - Prisma Client, the generated, typed client used to query the database.
Hands-On
By the end of this module, you’ll have Prisma installed and connected to a real PostgreSQL database, with a working schema.prisma file and a generated Prisma Client ready to use.
Next module: defining real models and running your first migrations.