Issue with AuthorDetails in typescript and GraphQL being misaligned

[erezmus]

Currently, we have in the GraphQL definition:

type AuthorDetails {
    firstName: String!
    lastName: String!
    email: String!
    institution: String!
}

and

type Submission {
  //...
  author: AuthorDetails
  //...
}

In typescript, we have:

export type AuthorDetails = {
    firstName: string;
    lastName: string;
    email: string;
    aff: string;
};

the GraphQL and TS differ by "institution" field being named as "aff". However we are saving the teamMember for authors with "institution" rather than "aff":

          role           |                                                                              team_members                                                                               
--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 author                   | {"{\"meta\": {\"corresponding\": true}, \"alias\": {\"email\": \"jimmy@doe.com\", \"lastName\": \"doe\", \"firstName\": \"jimmy\", \"institution\": \"institution\"}}"}

therefore when we have an AuthorDetails object in typescript, it actually doesn't have an "aff" field but an "institution" field. This is causing issues for instance when doing the validation for submission as its expecting there to be an aff field:

        aff: Joi.string().required(),

Solutions:

1. Rename aff to institution in typescript type. However, i think we are using 'aff' in xpub.

2. Change the client to use 'aff' instead of 'institution'. I'm not sure of all the ramifications for this so will need advice.

3. Convert from 'institution' => 'aff' at resolver level and then change it back to 'institution' when sending the Submission object back. However we would need to have a separate Submission type to send back because the AuthorDetails don't match between Typescript and GraphQL

4. Same as 3 but at the repository level with the same issue that we would need to use slightly different types for the DatabaseEntry's team_members field (AuthorTeamMember specifically)

[erezmus]

@Cooryd @will-byrne If you could comment on number 2 that would be great as you have more experience with the client

[erezmus]

checked on xpub and we are storing as 'aff':

 author | {"{\"meta\": {\"corresponding\": true}, \"alias\": {\"aff\": \"Tech team, University of eLife\", \"email\": \"test@example.com\", \"lastName\": \"Swartz\", \"firstName\": \"Aaron\"}}"}

[diversemix]

ok - let's use that then - don't care really what we use in the GraphQL - as long as it get's mapped to aff in the database :+1:

[erezmus]

@diversemix sorry which option?

[erezmus]

after discussing with rest of team, option 4 has been chosen

• type AuthorDetails (in TS), the 'aff' field will be changed to 'institution'
• change the DatabaseEntry type in the xpub-team.ts to use a separate type for the author details with the member being 'aff' instead of 'institution'
• change the toDatabaseEntry and toModel methods in the team repository.