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Full‑Stack Movie Catalog (Shelf + Ormed)

Welcome to the Full-Stack Movie Catalog tutorial! In this guide, we'll build a complete web application from scratch using Ormed for database persistence and Shelf for the web server.

This isn't just a "Hello World" example. We'll build a meaningful application that includes:

  • Database Modeling: Defining structured data with relations.
  • Migrations & Seeding: Managing schema changes and initial data.
  • Web Routing: Handling both HTML pages and JSON API endpoints.
  • Template Rendering: Using Liquify for dynamic HTML.
  • File Storage: Handling image uploads for movie posters.
  • Structured Logging: Using Contextual for observable applications.
  • Testing: Ensuring reliability with unit and integration tests.
note

This guide is built from a runnable example project in packages/ormed/example/fullstack with region markers. Code blocks are embedded directly from the source to keep docs and code in sync.

What You’ll Build​

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a movie catalog app with:

  • Server-rendered pages: Catalog, detail, edit, delete, and genre listings.
  • REST APIs: JSON endpoints for CRUD operations.
  • SQLite persistence: Using Ormed models and migrations.
  • Layout inheritance: Clean templates with shared layouts.
  • Asset uploads: Storing movie posters on disk.
  • Observability: Structured logging for easier debugging.

Guide Map​

  1. Setup & Scaffolding - Initialize the project and dependencies.
  2. Models & Codegen - Define your data structure.
  3. Migrations & Seed Data - Prepare your database.
  4. Server & Web Routes - Build the web application.
  5. JSON API - Expose your data via REST.
  6. Templates & Storage - UI and file handling.
  7. Testing Strategy - Verify your work.
  8. CLI & Runbook - Manage the app.

Project Layout​

Understanding the project structure is key to navigating this tutorial:

example/fullstack/
├── bin/                # Entry points (server + CLI)
├── lib/src/            # App code (models, server, templates, storage)
├── templates/          # Liquify templates
├── uploads/            # Local storage for assets
└── test/               # HTTP + property tests