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Microsoft Driver for Node.js for SQL Server Quickstart Guide

This document aims to provide you with a quick guide on setting up, deploying, and using the msnodesql driver binary package within your node.js application.

Prerequisites

The msnodesql driver has a few dependencies it needs in order to function.

• Node.js 0.6 (minimum version 0.6.10). If you want to use a newer version of node.js, you will need to build the driver from source

• SQL Server Native Client 11.0 - available as Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client found in the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack The msnodesql driver relies on the underlying SQL Server Native Client 11.0, and will not function without it.

Downloading and installing the driver

You can download the driver at the download page at the Microsoft Download Center.

Once you have downloaded the package, extract it to a temporary directory. Once you have extracted it, execute the install script to build the directory structure:

msnodesql-install.cmd

Once the script has completed successfully, you should have a msnodesql directory. Move this directory to your application's node_modules folder so that the structure looks like so:

application directory
    node_modules
        msnodesql
            lib

Your first 'Hello World' application

Once you have set up the driver and its prerequisites, you should be able to successfully use the driver to connect to SQL Server or Windows Azure SQL Database. The following is an example application utilizing the driver. In this example, we are connecting to a local SQL Server Express instance named ‘SQLEXPRESS’:

// Query with streaming
var sql = require('msnodesql');
var conn_str = "Driver={SQL Server Native Client 11.0};Server={(local)\\SQLEXPRESS};Database={DBName};Trusted_Connection={Yes};";

var stmt = sql.query(conn_str, "SELECT * from TestTable");
stmt.on('meta', function (meta) { console.log("We've received the metadata"); });
stmt.on('row', function (idx) { console.log("We've started receiving a row"); });
stmt.on('column', function (idx, data, more) { console.log(idx + ":" + data);});
stmt.on('done', function () { console.log("All done!"); });
stmt.on('error', function (err) { console.log("We had an error :-( " + err); });

This example uses events, but the driver also supports callbacks. Here's an example replicating the functionality above, but with callbacks. In this scenario, we are connecting to a SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB instance:

// Query with explicit connection
var sql = require('msnodesql');
var conn_str = "Driver={SQL Server Native Client 11.0};Server={(localdb)\\v11.0};Database={DBName};Trusted_Connection={Yes};";

sql.open(conn_str, function (err, conn) {
    if (err) {
        console.log("Error opening the connection!");
        return;
    }
    conn.queryRaw("SELECT * FROM TestTable", function (err, results) {
        if (err) {
            console.log("Error running query!");
            return;
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < results.rows.length; i++) {
            console.log("0:" + results.rows[i][0]);
        }
    });
});

Conclusion

This guide served to give you a quick introduction to the functionality of the msnodesql driver. The driver is currently in a preview state and will evolve, so the documentation will be created an updated as we progress.