Connect to Neo4J Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for Neo4J makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Neo4J data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Neo4J data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Neo4J Data

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Neo4J Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: Neo4jSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData Neo4j Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT CategoryId, CategoryName FROM ProductCategory WHERE CategoryOwner = 'CData Software'")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Neo4J data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby Neo4jSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Neo4J allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Neo4J data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!