Query SAP ByDesign 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 SAP ByDesign, you can access live SAP ByDesign 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 SAP ByDesign data.

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

Connecting to SAP ByDesign 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.

Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

• Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
• User: Set this to the username of your account.
• Password: Set this to the password of your account.
• CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
  If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to SAP ByDesign 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 SAP ByDesign from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function querySAPByDesign() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData SAPByDesign Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT ID, ProductCategoryID FROM [Inventory Balance]');
    console.log(data);
}

querySAPByDesign();

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