How should I create relational records? via connect or via providing IDs?

[Ali-Parandeh]

I have a schema like this:

model Form {
  id               Int              @id @default(autoincrement())
  owner_uid        String           @db.Uuid
  project_id       Int
  prev_id          Int?             @unique
  title            String           @db.VarChar(255)
  form_schema      Json             @map("schema")
  state            FormState
  user             User?            @relation(fields: [owner_uid], references: [id], onDelete: SetNull)
  project          Project?         @relation(fields: [project_id], references: [id], onDelete: Cascade)
  next             Form?            @relation("form_history")
  prev             Form?            @relation("form_history", fields: [prev_id], references: [id], onDelete: SetNull)
  form_submissions FormSubmission[]
  form_requests    FormRequest[]
  created_at       DateTime         @default(now())
  updated_at       DateTime         @default(now()) @updatedAt

  @@index([owner_uid], name: "form_owner_uid")
  @@index([project_id], name: "form_project_id")
  @@index([prev_id], name: "form_project_prev_id")
}

and a form repository like this:

@staticmethod
def _prepare(data: FormCreate | FormUpdate | FormUpsert) -> FormCreateInput | FormUpdateInput:
    base: FormCreateInput | FormUpdateInput = {
        "title": str(data.title),
        "state": data.state,
        "form_schema": Json(data.form_schema),
        "owner_uid": str(data.owner_uid), #  should I connect records like this on create or update of form record?
        "project_id": data.project_id,
        # "project": {"connect": {"id": data.project_id}}, or like this?
        # "user": {"connect": {"id": str(data.owner_uid)}},
    }
    if data.prev_id is not None:
        base["prev"] = {"connect": {"id": data.prev_id}}
    return base

async def create(self, data: FormCreate) -> Form:
    async with self.db:
        records = await self.db.form.create(data=self._prepare(data))
    self._log(records, None, f"Created form record with ID: {records.id}")
    return records

My question is:

Should I create form records by directly providing owner_uid and project_id and prev_id to the create method or by using the connect object?

What is the purpose of the connect API if we can just provide IDs to the data field?

{"connect": {"id": str(data.owner_uid)}}

[RobertCraigie]

In your case it doesn't matter, it's there to provide a consistent API for cases where you have a 1-M relationship so you can easily connect multiple entries at once. The docs should be more clear about this...

[Ali-Parandeh]

Thank you - I understand the usecase for the connect API now. In my case it makes more sense to just map my schema to prisma schema in my _prepare method using IDs.