Query Avalara AvaTax Data through ODBC in Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code outside of a browser. With the CData ODBC Driver for Avalara, you can access live Avalara AvaTax data from Node.js apps and scripts. In this article, we walk through installing node-odbc and the required tools to create a simple Node.js app with access to live Avalara AvaTax data.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Avalara AvaTax data in Node.js. When you issue complex SQL queries from Node.js to Avalara AvaTax, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Avalara AvaTax and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to Avalara AvaTax Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

• User: Set this to your username.
• Password: Set this to your password.

Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

• UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

• AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
• LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Avalara AvaTax through the CData ODBC Driver, you need to build node-odbc manually (after installing the required tools).

Installing the Required Tools

The following commands install the tools required to build node-odbc (note the -g parameter, which installs the tools globally).

npm i -g windows-build-tools
npm i -g node-gyp

Building node-odbc

After installing the required tools, create a directory for the Node.js app and install odbc (which builds the binary for us to use in our Node.js script).

mkdir nodeodbc
cd nodeodbc
npm i -g node

Querying Avalara AvaTax from Node.js

With the ODBC Driver installed, a DSN Configured, and node-odbc built, we are ready to query live Avalara AvaTax data from a Node.js app. The sample code below connects to a specific DSN and queries the Transactions table.

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryAvalaraAvatax() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData AvalaraAvatax Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Id, TotalTax FROM Transactions');
    console.log(data);
}

queryAvalaraAvatax();

Once you write the app, use node to execute the script:

node myscript.js

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Avalara and start working with your live Avalara AvaTax data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.