Entity Listeners and Subscribers

What is an Entity Listener?

Any of your entities can have methods with custom logic that listen to specific entity events. You must mark those methods with special decorators depending on what event you want to listen to.

Note: Do not make any database calls within a listener, opt for subscribers instead.

@AfterLoad

You can define a method with any name in entity and mark it with @AfterLoad and TypeORM will call it each time the entity is loaded using QueryBuilder or repository/manager find methods. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterLoad()
    updateCounters() {
        if (this.likesCount === undefined) this.likesCount = 0
    }
}

@BeforeInsert

You can define a method with any name in entity and mark it with @BeforeInsert and TypeORM will call it before the entity is inserted using repository/manager save. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @BeforeInsert()
    updateDates() {
        this.createdDate = new Date()
    }
}

@AfterInsert

You can define a method with any name in entity and mark it with @AfterInsert and TypeORM will call it after the entity is inserted using repository/manager save. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterInsert()
    resetCounters() {
        this.counters = 0
    }
}

@BeforeUpdate

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @BeforeUpdate and TypeORM will call it before an existing entity is updated using repository/manager save. Keep in mind, however, that this will occur only when information is changed in the model. If you run save without modifying anything from the model, @BeforeUpdate and @AfterUpdate will not run. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @BeforeUpdate()
    updateDates() {
        this.updatedDate = new Date()
    }
}

@AfterUpdate

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @AfterUpdate and TypeORM will call it after an existing entity is updated using repository/manager save. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterUpdate()
    updateCounters() {
        this.counter = 0
    }
}

@BeforeRemove

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @BeforeRemove and TypeORM will call it before an entity is removed using repository/manager remove. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @BeforeRemove()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "removed"
    }
}

@AfterRemove

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @AfterRemove and TypeORM will call it after the entity is removed using repository/manager remove. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterRemove()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "removed"
    }
}

@BeforeSoftRemove

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @BeforeSoftRemove and TypeORM will call it before an entity is soft removed using repository/manager softRemove. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @BeforeSoftRemove()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "soft-removed"
    }
}

@AfterSoftRemove

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @AfterSoftRemove and TypeORM will call it after the entity is soft removed using repository/manager softRemove. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterSoftRemove()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "soft-removed"
    }
}

@BeforeRecover

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @BeforeRecover and TypeORM will call it before an entity is recovered using repository/manager recover. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @BeforeRecover()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "recovered"
    }
}

@AfterRecover

You can define a method with any name in the entity and mark it with @AfterRecover and TypeORM will call it after the entity is recovered using repository/manager recover. Example:

@Entity()
export class Post {
    @AfterRecover()
    updateStatus() {
        this.status = "recovered"
    }
}

What is a Subscriber?

Marks a class as an event subscriber which can listen to specific entity events or any entity events. Events are firing using QueryBuilder and repository/manager methods. Example:

@EventSubscriber()
export class PostSubscriber implements EntitySubscriberInterface<Post> {
    /**
     * Indicates that this subscriber only listen to Post events.
     */
    listenTo() {
        return Post
    }

    /**
     * Called before post insertion.
     */
    beforeInsert(event: InsertEvent<Post>) {
        console.log(`BEFORE POST INSERTED: `, event.entity)
    }
}

You can implement any method from EntitySubscriberInterface. To listen to any entity you just omit listenTo method and use any:

@EventSubscriber()
export class PostSubscriber implements EntitySubscriberInterface {
    /**
     * Called after entity is loaded.
     */
    afterLoad(entity: any) {
        console.log(`AFTER ENTITY LOADED: `, entity)
    }

    /**
     * Called before query execution.
     */
    beforeQuery(event: BeforeQueryEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`BEFORE QUERY: `, event.query)
    }

    /**
     * Called after query execution.
     */
    afterQuery(event: AfterQueryEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`AFTER QUERY: `, event.query)
    }

    /**
     * Called before entity insertion.
     */
    beforeInsert(event: InsertEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`BEFORE ENTITY INSERTED: `, event.entity)
    }

    /**
     * Called after entity insertion.
     */
    afterInsert(event: InsertEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`AFTER ENTITY INSERTED: `, event.entity)
    }

    /**
     * Called before entity update.
     */
    beforeUpdate(event: UpdateEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`BEFORE ENTITY UPDATED: `, event.entity)
    }

    /**
     * Called after entity update.
     */
    afterUpdate(event: UpdateEvent<any>) {
        console.log(`AFTER ENTITY UPDATED: `, event.entity)
    }

    /**
     * Called before entity removal.
     */
    beforeRemove(event: RemoveEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `BEFORE ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} REMOVED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called after entity removal.
     */
    afterRemove(event: RemoveEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `AFTER ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} REMOVED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called before entity removal.
     */
    beforeSoftRemove(event: SoftRemoveEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `BEFORE ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} SOFT REMOVED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called after entity removal.
     */
    afterSoftRemove(event: SoftRemoveEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `AFTER ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} SOFT REMOVED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called before entity recovery.
     */
    beforeRecover(event: RecoverEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `BEFORE ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} RECOVERED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called after entity recovery.
     */
    afterRecover(event: RecoverEvent<any>) {
        console.log(
            `AFTER ENTITY WITH ID ${event.entityId} RECOVERED: `,
            event.entity,
        )
    }

    /**
     * Called before transaction start.
     */
    beforeTransactionStart(event: TransactionStartEvent) {
        console.log(`BEFORE TRANSACTION STARTED: `, event)
    }

    /**
     * Called after transaction start.
     */
    afterTransactionStart(event: TransactionStartEvent) {
        console.log(`AFTER TRANSACTION STARTED: `, event)
    }

    /**
     * Called before transaction commit.
     */
    beforeTransactionCommit(event: TransactionCommitEvent) {
        console.log(`BEFORE TRANSACTION COMMITTED: `, event)
    }

    /**
     * Called after transaction commit.
     */
    afterTransactionCommit(event: TransactionCommitEvent) {
        console.log(`AFTER TRANSACTION COMMITTED: `, event)
    }

    /**
     * Called before transaction rollback.
     */
    beforeTransactionRollback(event: TransactionRollbackEvent) {
        console.log(`BEFORE TRANSACTION ROLLBACK: `, event)
    }

    /**
     * Called after transaction rollback.
     */
    afterTransactionRollback(event: TransactionRollbackEvent) {
        console.log(`AFTER TRANSACTION ROLLBACK: `, event)
    }
}

Make sure your subscribers property is set in your DataSourceOptions so TypeORM loads your subscriber.

Event Object

Excluding listenTo, all EntitySubscriberInterface methods are passed an event object that has the following base properties:

• dataSource: DataSource - DataSource used in the event.

• queryRunner: QueryRunner - QueryRunner used in the event transaction.

• manager: EntityManager - EntityManager used in the event transaction.

See each Event's interface for additional properties.

Note that event.entity may not necessarily contain primary key(s) when Repository.update() is used. Only the values provided as the entity partial will be available. In order to make primary keys available in the subscribers, you can explicitly pass primary key value(s) in the partial entity object literal or use Repository.save(), which performs re-fetching.

await postRepository.update(post.id, { description: "Bacon ipsum dolor amet cow" })

// post.subscriber.ts
afterUpdate(event: UpdateEvent<Post>) {
  console.log(event.entity) // outputs { description: 'Bacon ipsum dolor amet cow' }
}

Note: All database operations in the subscribed event listeners should be performed using the event object's queryRunner or manager instance.