TypeORMError: alias was not found - postgresql

Question

I'm trying to make API pagination for GET /authors.
I have bidirectional many to many relation between authors and books table.
I found that problem is when using creatingQueryBuilder() in combination with .leftJoinAndSelect() and .skip() I get TypeORMError: ""authors"" alias was not found. Maybe you forgot to join it?. But I'm not sure how to solve it.
My database look like this:
library=# select * from authors;
id | first_name | last_name | birth_date | created_at | updated_at
----+------------+-----------+------------+----------------------------+----------------------------
library=# select * from books;
id | title | isbn | pages | created_at | updated_at
----+------------------+-----------------------+-------+----------------------------+----------------------------
library=# select * from books_authors
books_id | authors_id
----------+------------
(4 rows)
Entities look like this:
import { Exclude } from 'class-transformer';
import { BookEntity } from 'src/book/entities/book.entity';
import {
Entity,
PrimaryGeneratedColumn,
Column,
BeforeInsert,
ManyToMany,
} from 'typeorm';
#Entity({ name: 'authors' })
export class AuthorEntity {
#Exclude()
#PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
id: number;
#Column()
firstName: string;
#Column()
lastName: string;
#Column({ type: 'date', nullable: true })
birthDate: Date | null;
#Exclude()
#Column({ type: 'timestamp', default: () => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' })
createdAt: Date;
#Exclude()
#Column({ type: 'timestamp', default: () => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' })
updatedAt: Date;
#ManyToMany(() => BookEntity, (book) => book.authors)
books: BookEntity[];
#BeforeInsert()
updateTimestamp() {
this.updatedAt = new Date();
}
}
import { Exclude } from 'class-transformer';
import { AuthorEntity } from 'src/author/entities/author.entity';
import {
Entity,
PrimaryGeneratedColumn,
Column,
BeforeInsert,
ManyToMany,
JoinTable,
} from 'typeorm';
#Entity({ name: 'books' })
export class BookEntity {
#Exclude()
#PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
id: number;
#Column()
title: string;
#Column()
isbn: string;
#Column()
pages: number;
#Exclude()
#Column({ type: 'timestamp', default: () => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' })
createdAt: Date;
#Exclude()
#Column({ type: 'timestamp', default: () => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' })
updatedAt: Date;
#ManyToMany(() => AuthorEntity, (author) => author.books)
#JoinTable({ name: 'books_authors' })
authors: AuthorEntity[];
#BeforeInsert()
updateTimestamp() {
this.updatedAt = new Date();
}
}
Service method looks like this:
async findAll(
pageOptionsDto: PageOptionsDto,
filterAuthorDto: FilterAuthorDto,
): Promise<PageDto<AuthorEntity>> {
const builder = this.dataSource
.getRepository(AuthorEntity)
.createQueryBuilder('authors');
if (filterAuthorDto?.firstName) {
builder.where('"authors"."first_name" LIKE :firstName', {
firstName: `%${filterAuthorDto.firstName}%`,
});
}
if (filterAuthorDto?.lastName) {
builder.andWhere('"authors"."last_name" LIKE :lastName', {
lastName: `%${filterAuthorDto.lastName}%`,
});
}
// This part of code is problematic
builder
.innerJoinAndSelect('authors.books', 'books')
.orderBy('"authors"."created_at"', pageOptionsDto.order)
.skip(pageOptionsDto.skip)
.take(pageOptionsDto.perPage);
const total = await builder.getCount();
const { entities } = await builder.getRawAndEntities();
const pageMetaDto = new PageMetaDto({ total, pageOptionsDto });
return new PageDto(entities, pageMetaDto);
}

Answer 1

Just remove the double quotation inside the string, it's redundant and makes typeorm get confused and couldn't find related defined alias.
...
.orderBy('authors.created_at', pageOptionsDto.order)
...