Query Basecamp 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 Basecamp, you can access live Basecamp 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 Basecamp data.

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

Connecting to Basecamp 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.

Basecamp uses basic or OAuth 2.0 authentication. To use basic authentication you will need the user and password that you use for logging in to Basecamp. To authenticate to Basecamp via OAuth 2.0, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties by registering an app with Basecamp.

See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a connection guide.

Additionally, you will need to specify the AccountId connection property. This can be copied from the URL after you log in.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Basecamp 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 Basecamp from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryBasecamp() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData Basecamp Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Name, DocumentsCount FROM Projects');
    console.log(data);
}

queryBasecamp();

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 Basecamp and start working with your live Basecamp data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.