Query Epicor Kinetic 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 Epicor Kinetic, you can access live Epicor Kinetic 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 Epicor Kinetic data.

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

Connecting to Epicor Kinetic 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.

To successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

• Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
• ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
• User: the username of your account.
• Password: the password of your account.
• Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

• ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
• ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
• Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Epicor Kinetic 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 Epicor Kinetic from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryepicorKinetic() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData epicorKinetic Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT CustNum, Company FROM Customers');
    console.log(data);
}

queryepicorKinetic();

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