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

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

Connecting to Freshdesk 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.

FreshDesk makes use of basic authentication. To connect to data, set the following connection properties:

• Domain: Set this to the domain associated with your FreshDesk account. For example, in your URL: https://my_domain.freshdesk.com.
• APIKey: Set this to the API key associated with your FreshDesk account. To retrieve your API key, Log into your support Portal -> Click on profile picture in the top right corner -> profile settings page. The API key will be available below the change password section to the right.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Freshdesk 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 Freshdesk from Node.js

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

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryFreshDesk() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData FreshDesk Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Id, Name FROM Tickets');
    console.log(data);
}

queryFreshDesk();

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