# Getting Started with ORMnomnom

ORMnomnom is a lightweight ORM; its goal is to make the code
you write around 80% of your business logic fast and flexible,
and then get out of your way for the remaining 20%.

The first step in getting started with ORMnomnom is to determine
whether or not it will fit your needs.

In particular, ORMnomnom:

* Exposes a Promise-based API.
* Requires Node v4+.
* Is only tested with Postgres.
* Does not provide a solution for aggregates or self-referencing queries.
* Does not handle database migrations.

If these things sound okay to you, or **you don't know what these things
mean but this sounds fun anyway**, read on!

## Prerequisites

You'll need Node v4 or greater and a database, we recommend Postgres. 
For help on getting those, check out this [doc](./prerequisites.md).

## Installing ORMnomnom in Your Project

In your shell, navigate to your project. In your project directory, run the
following command:

```bash
$ npm install ormnomnom pg
```

This will install `ormnomnom` and the [`pg`](https://npmjs.org/package/pg)
client and record the dependencies in your project's `package.json`, if it
exists.

Note: For npm version 4 and below, you need to pass `--save` to the 
install command to add the installed dependencies to your `package.json`.

If you get any errors from this process, please [open an
issue](https://github.com/chrisdickinson/ormnomnom/issues/new).

## Setting up a Connection

ORMnomnom does not know how to get a postgres connection out of the box — your
application is in charge of telling ORMnomnom how to attain a connection.
ORMnomnom will try to attain a connection whenever a query is about to be run,
and will release that connection after the query has executed.

An example of creating a connection follows:

```javascript
const orm = require('ormnomnom')
const pg = require('pg')

orm.setConnection(() => pg.connect())
```

The next step is to [start defining models](./building-models.md)!