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Database and Models

Bedrud uses GORM as its ORM (Object-Relational Mapper). This makes it easy to switch between different database types.

Supported Databases

  • SQLite: Used by default for easy development and small installations. The database is stored in a file (usually bedrud.db).
  • PostgreSQL: Recommended for production environments with many users.

You can configure the database type and connection details in the config.yaml file under the database: section.

Core Models

The models are located in internal/models/. Here are the most important ones:

User (user.go)

Stores account information including credentials and roles.

Room (room.go)

Represents a meeting session. It uses GORM's Embedded Structs to organize settings. Instead of a separate table or a JSON blob, the RoomSettings fields (like allow_chat, allow_video) are stored directly in the rooms table with a settings_ prefix (e.g., settings_allow_chat). This provides a clean model in Go while maintaining a flat, performant database structure.

Passkey (passkey.go)

Stores FIDO2/WebAuthn public keys for passwordless login.

Custom Types: StringArray

Standard SQL databases handle arrays differently (PostgreSQL has native arrays, SQLite does not). To maintain compatibility, Bedrud defines a StringArray type in internal/models/user.go.

  • It implements sql.Scanner and driver.Valuer.
  • In PostgreSQL, it uses the native text[] type.
  • In SQLite, it serializes the array into a string (e.g., {admin,user}) for storage.

Foreign Key Management

While GORM's AutoMigrate is powerful, it sometimes struggles with complex composite primary keys (like those used in room_participants).

In internal/database/migrations.go, Bedrud manually executes ALTER TABLE statements to ensure foreign key constraints (like ON DELETE CASCADE) are correctly applied in production (PostgreSQL).

Repository Pattern

We use the Repository Pattern to interact with the database. This means handlers do not call GORM directly. Instead, they use a repository.

Example: 

// In handler:
user, err := h.userRepo.GetByEmail(email)

// In repository:
func (r *UserRepository) GetByEmail(email string) (*models.User, error) {
    var user models.User
    err := r.db.Where("email = ?", email).First(&user).Error
    return &user, err
}

Automatic Migrations

When the server starts, it automatically runs "AutoMigrate". This creates or updates database tables based on the Go structures in internal/models. You don't need to manually write CREATE TABLE statements for simple changes.