Query Harvest 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 API Driver for ODBC, you can access live Harvest 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 Harvest data.

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

Connecting to Harvest 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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Harvest Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Harvest.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Harvest (see below).

Harvest API Profile Settings

To authenticate to Harvest, you can use either Token authentication or the OAuth standard. Use Basic authentication to connect to your own data. Use OAuth to allow other users to connect to their data.

Using Token Authentication

To use Token Authentication, set the APIKey to your Harvest Personal Access Token in the ProfileSettings connection property. In addition to APIKey, set your AccountId in ProfileSettings to connect.

Using OAuth Authentication

First, register an OAuth2 application with Harvest. The application can be created from the "Developers" section of Harvest ID.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• ProfileSettings: Set your AccountId in ProfileSettings.
• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client ID that you specified in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret that you specified in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that you specified in your app settings.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage how the driver obtains and refreshes the OAuthAccessToken.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Harvest 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 Harvest from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryAPI() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData API Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Id, ClientName FROM Invoices');
    console.log(data);
}

queryAPI();

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

node myscript.js

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