# Upsert tupleAttrs containing :db.type/ref, using tempids **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [February 15, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://forum.datomic.com/t/upsert-tupleattrs-containing-db-type-ref-using-tempids/2181 "2023-02-15T02:46:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![onetom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.datomic.com/onetom/32/430_2.png) [@onetom](https://forum.datomic.com/u/onetom)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://forum.datomic.com/t/upsert-tupleattrs-containing-db-type-ref-using-tempids/2181/1 "2023-02-15T02:46:47Z")
We are able to do **upserting** a single entity, having a tuple key, mad of `:db.type/ref` attrs, IF we use concrete entity IDs: ```clojure [{:ref/x 79164837199951, :ref/y 79164837199952, :key [79164837199951 79164837199952]}] ``` However, if we are trying to **upsert** the referenced entities at the same time, hence using tempids, instead of concrete entity IDs, we are getting `:db.error/unique-conflict`: ```clojure [{:db/id "x", :x/id "x"} {:db/id "y", :y/id "y"} {:ref/x "x", :ref/y "y", :key ["x" "y"]}] ``` # Q1. Is this expected behaviour? # Q2. Is it some intentional restriction? # Q3. Are there some use-cases, where this approach would be ambiguous? This seems like a bug or at least a missing feature, unless I’m missing something. Without this capability, we had to **break the atomicity** of our transaction, by splitting it into 2 transactions. # Related literature - [:db.unique/identity does not work for tuple attributes](https://forum.datomic.com/t/db-unique-identity-does-not-work-for-tuple-attributes/1072) - [Upsert behavior with composite tuple key](https://forum.datomic.com/t/upsert-behavior-with-composite-tuple-key/1075) - [Troubles with upsert on composite tuples](https://forum.datomic.com/t/troubles-with-upsert-on-composite-tuples/1355/) # Complete example Requires Datomic `dev-local`. ```clojure (ns repl.composite-ref-key (:require [datomic.client.api :as d] [clojure.pprint :refer [pprint]])) (defn ? [x] (println) (pprint x) x) (defn tx! "Pretty-printing d/transact" [conn tx-data] (let [?? (if (-> tx-data meta :silent) identity ?)] (-> conn (d/transact {:tx-data (?? tx-data)}) (doto (-> (dissoc :db-before :db-after) (update :tx-data (partial into [])) ??))))) (defn mk-conn [schema] (let [db-ref {:db (str (gensym "db-"))}] (-> {:server-type :dev-local :storage-dir :mem :system (str (gensym "in-mem-sys-"))} d/client (doto (d/create-database db-ref)) (d/connect db-ref) (doto (tx! schema))))) (def schema ^:silent [{:db/ident :x/id :db/valueType :db.type/string :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one :db/unique :db.unique/identity} {:db/ident :y/id :db/valueType :db.type/string :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one :db/unique :db.unique/identity} {:db/ident :ref/x :db/valueType :db.type/ref :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one} {:db/ident :ref/y :db/valueType :db.type/ref :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one} {:db/ident :key :db/valueType :db.type/tuple :db/tupleAttrs [:ref/x :ref/y] :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one :db/unique :db.unique/identity} {:db/ident :attr :db/valueType :db.type/long :db/cardinality :db.cardinality/one}]) (comment ;;; Using concrete entity IDs works (let [conn (mk-conn schema) txr0 (tx! conn [{:db/id "x" :x/id "x"} {:db/id "y" :y/id "y"}]) {:strs [x y]} (-> txr0 :tempids) ent {:db/id "ent" :ref/x x :ref/y y :key [x y]}] (tx! conn [(-> ent (merge {:attr 1}))]) (tx! conn [(-> ent (merge {:attr 2}))])) ;[{:db/id "x", :x/id "x"} {:db/id "y", :y/id "y"}] ; ;{:tx-data ; [#datom[13194139533319 50 #inst "2023-02-15T03:24:33.321-00:00" 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[101155069755471 73 "x" 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[101155069755472 74 "y" 13194139533319 true]], ; :tempids {"x" 101155069755471, "y" 101155069755472}} ; ;[{:db/id "ent", ; :ref/x 101155069755471, ; :ref/y 101155069755472, ; :key [101155069755471 101155069755472], ; :attr 1}] ; ;{:tx-data ; [#datom[13194139533320 50 #inst "2023-02-15T03:24:33.323-00:00" 13194139533320 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 75 101155069755471 13194139533320 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 76 101155069755472 13194139533320 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 78 1 13194139533320 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 77 [101155069755471 101155069755472] 13194139533320 true]], ; :tempids {"ent" 87960930222161}} ; ;[{:db/id "ent", ; :ref/x 101155069755471, ; :ref/y 101155069755472, ; :key [101155069755471 101155069755472], ; :attr 2}] ; ;{:tx-data ; [#datom[13194139533321 50 #inst "2023-02-15T03:24:33.325-00:00" 13194139533321 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 78 2 13194139533321 true] ; #datom[87960930222161 78 1 13194139533321 false]], ; :tempids {"ent" 87960930222161}} ;;; Using tempids fails (let [conn (mk-conn schema) ent {:db/id "ent" :ref/x {:db/id "x" :x/id "x"} :ref/y {:db/id "y" :y/id "y"} :key ["x" "y"]}] (tx! conn [(-> ent (merge {:attr 1}))]) (tx! conn [(-> ent (merge {:attr 2}))])) ;[{:db/id "ent", ; :ref/x {:db/id "x", :x/id "x"}, ; :ref/y {:db/id "y", :y/id "y"}, ; :key ["x" "y"], ; :attr 1}] ; ;{:tx-data ; [#datom[13194139533319 50 #inst "2023-02-15T03:25:49.663-00:00" 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711055 75 83562883711056 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711056 73 "x" 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711055 76 83562883711057 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711057 74 "y" 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711055 78 1 13194139533319 true] ; #datom[83562883711055 77 [83562883711056 83562883711057] 13194139533319 true]], ; :tempids ; {"x" 83562883711056, "y" 83562883711057, "ent" 83562883711055}} ; ;[{:db/id "ent", ; :ref/x {:db/id "x", :x/id "x"}, ; :ref/y {:db/id "y", :y/id "y"}, ; :key ["x" "y"], ; :attr 2}] ;Execution error (ExceptionInfo) at datomic.core.error/raise (error.clj:55). ;:db.error/unique-conflict Unique conflict: :key, ; value: [83562883711056 83562883711057] ; already held by: 83562883711055 ; asserted for: 101155069755474 (let [conn (mk-conn schema) x-ent {:db/id "x" :x/id "x"} y-ent {:db/id "y" :y/id "y"} ent {:db/id "ent" :ref/x "x" :ref/y "y" :key ["x" "y"]}] (tx! conn [x-ent y-ent (-> ent (merge {:attr 1}))]) (tx! conn [x-ent y-ent (-> ent (merge {:attr 2}))])) ; same end result as above ) ``` ---
**Author:** ![kenallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/858c86/32.png) [@kenallen](https://forum.datomic.com/u/kenallen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://forum.datomic.com/t/upsert-tupleattrs-containing-db-type-ref-using-tempids/2181/2 "2024-11-08T14:54:17Z")
+1 on this, I’ve run into the same issue. Instead of breaking atomicity I worked around it by denormalizing some data into the tuple. This really seems like a bug. This is the obvious way to model identity for reified relations so it’s pretty unfortunate that this doesn’t work.