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

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

Connecting to Xero 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, set the Schema connection property in addition to any authentication values. Xero offers authentication for private applications, public applications, and partner applications. You will need to set the XeroAppAuthentication property to PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or PARTNER, depending on the type of application configured. To connect from a private application, you will additionally need to set the OAuthAccessToken, OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, CertificateStoreType, CertificateStore, and CertificateStorePassword.

To connect from a public or partner application, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL, or you can register an app to obtain your own OAuth values.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to authenticating to Xero.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Xero 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 Xero from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryXero() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData Xero Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Name, QuantityOnHand FROM Items');
    console.log(data);
}

queryXero();

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