Query Neo4J 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 Neo4J, you can access live Neo4J 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 Neo4J data.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Neo4J data in Node.js. When you issue complex SQL queries from Node.js to Neo4J, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Neo4J and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to Neo4J 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 connect to Neo4j, set the following connection properties:

• Server: The server hosting the Neo4j instance.
• Port: The port on which the Neo4j service is running. The provider connects to port 7474 by default.
• User: The username of the user using the Neo4j instance.
• Password: The password of the user using the Neo4j instance.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Neo4J 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 Neo4J from Node.js

With the ODBC Driver installed, a DSN Configured, and node-odbc built, we are ready to query live Neo4J data from a Node.js app. The sample code below connects to a specific DSN and queries the ProductCategory table.

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryNeo4j() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData Neo4j Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT CategoryId, CategoryName FROM ProductCategory');
    console.log(data);
}

queryNeo4j();

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 Neo4J and start working with your live Neo4J data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.