Query Azure Synapse 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 Azure Synapse, you can access live Azure Synapse 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 Azure Synapse data.

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

Connecting to Azure Synapse 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.

Connecting to Azure Synapse

In addition to providing authentication (see below), set the following properties to connect to a Azure Synapse database:

• Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to Azure Synapse Analytics -> Select your database -> Overview -> Server name.
• Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the Azure Synapse Analytics page.

Authenticating to Azure Synapse

Connect to Azure Synapse using the following properties:

• User: The username provided for authentication with Azure.
• Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Azure Synapse 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 Azure Synapse from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryAzureSynapse() {
 const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData AzureSynapse Source`);
 const data = await connection.query('SELECT Id, ProductName FROM Products');
 console.log(data);
}

queryAzureSynapse();

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