Tl:dr - you used a crappy ORM and now think all ORM libraries sick. So... use MongoDB... which is always accesses through an ORM...
All your comments come across as confused mate. Enforcing arbitrary constraints belongs in the business logic of your app, but dealing with consistency issues does not. Postgres handles row constraints just fine, you can enforce any arbitrary logic (i.e colX != colY and its not the first Tuesday of the month), combined with stuff like expression indexes, json type and actual schemas leaves me confused as to why you would advocate mongo so hard.
Just because you write your migrations in a language like JavaScript doesn't mean it's any better than pure SQL.
You're replies in the comments are rude and borderline fanatical in tone. There are two classes of constraints: one being 'this string shouldn't be longer/shorter than x' or 'this value should only be between 1 and 10'. The other kind is 'on the first Tuesday of every month only during a full moon can this record be deleted, and only by a user with permission X'.
The first can easily be modelled in SQL, the second should be modelled in your app. The first are not arbitrary, the second are. Not hard to comprehend mate. Just because SQL can't model all constraints doesn't mean you should throw it out the window and reach for mongo.
Comments like 'none of you understand this because youre not programmers and therefore know nothing' is incredibly insulting. I'm of the opinion that you know nothing, and if you're happy knowing nothing with fellow mongodb users then so be it. Just keep your nonsense away from me thanks.
> A number between 1 and 10 on Tuesday is only slightly different. You can say it is not arbitrary, whatever.
It's not arbitrary, because the constraints at least in Postgres are themselves constrained to validating a single row in a single table. Your app code can be truly arbitrary, you could trigger a device that posts a carrier pigeon to someone many miles away and waits for it to return with a result. That's arbitrary.
> Just in case you forgot the original claim, it was that if you use a SQL database, the constraints are in your database, but if you use mongo, the constraints are in your code.
Sorry, that's not what I was claiming. I was stating, correctly, that constraints relating to the data belong in the database. Constraints belonging to the business logic that powers your app belong in your app. You can be 100% sure that a constraint in your database will be respected, whereas the same can't be said of your apps code.
If you are given a specification that says "no username can be longer than 12 characters", that's what you add to your database constraints. A specification that says "No emails from temporary email providers are allowed" belong in your app code. Clear separation of concerns, that mongodb has no clue about. 'Just validate everything in your code, and if you get junk data in your database then I fucking hope your code can handle it'. Please.
> Therefore, saying that it is a great win that a SQL database can do some basic constraints checking
It can do pretty complex constraints. On the data. The more complex, completely arbitrary constraints belong in your app code.
> is a ridiculous argument because it hardly contributes any benefit due to the fact that even more complex constraints are in the code.
What. That makes no sense. So having 100% certainty that no column value in your database will violate any of the constraints you place on it 'hardly contributes any benefits' because... you have other, unrelated, business constraints in your app? What logic is this?
Your code enforces consistency and detects when a transaction fails the consistency rule rolls back the changes to the state when the transaction started? That's some great code I'm sure, but a lot of effort.
The only limitation on an SQL check constraint is that you cannot use columns in other tables.
As has been pointed about by many of us slow learners, it's far easier to understand constraints in SQL than it often is to dive into a code base.
All your comments come across as confused mate. Enforcing arbitrary constraints belongs in the business logic of your app, but dealing with consistency issues does not. Postgres handles row constraints just fine, you can enforce any arbitrary logic (i.e colX != colY and its not the first Tuesday of the month), combined with stuff like expression indexes, json type and actual schemas leaves me confused as to why you would advocate mongo so hard.
Just because you write your migrations in a language like JavaScript doesn't mean it's any better than pure SQL.