Build SQL Server-Connected Web Apps with Axios and CData Connect Cloud

Connect to SQL Server from Axios

To work with SQL Server in Axios, we need to connect to SQL Server from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the SQL Server data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to SQL Server through Connect Cloud.

Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users

Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user

You can review and edit users from the Users page

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.

On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.

Give your PAT a name and click Create.

The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to SQL Server from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection

Select "SQL Server" from the Add Connection panel

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Server.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server

Connect to Microsoft SQL Server using the following properties:

Server: The name of the server running SQL Server.
User: The username provided for authentication with SQL Server.
Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
Database: The name of the SQL Server database.

Connecting to Azure SQL Server and Azure Data Warehouse

You can authenticate to Azure SQL Server or Azure Data Warehouse by setting the following connection properties:

Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to "SQL databases" (or "SQL data warehouses") -> "Select your database" -> "Overview" -> "Server name."
User: The name of the user authenticating to Azure.
Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the SQL databases (or SQL warehouses) page.

Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)

Click Create & Test

Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SQL Server Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Note the CData Connect Cloud SQL API Endpoint(s)

CData Connect Cloud contains API endpoints that allow you to submit SQL queries to SQL Server through common web requests. To work with SQL Server data in Axios web apps, you will use the query endpoint.

Query Endpoint

https://cloud.cdata.com/api/query

With the connection and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to SQL Server data from Axios.

Connect to SQL Server Data in Axios Workflows

To establish a connection from Axios to CData Connect Cloud using the OData protocol, follow these steps.

Create a project directory for your web app. For example: ~/connect_cloud/

Open a terminal, navigate the the project directory and initialize a node project using the command: npm init -y

Install the Axios dependency in the project using the following command: npm install axios

In your project directory, create a file called server.js that contains the following code. Provide your CData Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected]) and PAT (the PAT you created in the prerequisites). You must also provide a query for your data, such as SELECT * FROM SQL1.SCHEMA.Orders.

server.js code


const axios = require('axios')

const user = '[email protected]'
const pat = '***********************************';

//Your API endpoint
const url = 'https://cloud.cdata.com/api/query';

//Your data to be sent in the POST request
const data = {
"query":"SELECT * FROM SQL1.SCHEMA.Orders"
};

axios.post(url, data, {
    auth: {
        username: user,
        password: pat
    }
})
.then(response => {
    const rows = response.data.results[0].rows;
    const schema = response.data.results[0].schema;

    //Create an array of column names
    const columnNames = schema.map(col => col.columnName);

    //Loop through each row and log the column name with its value
    rows.forEach(row => {
        const rowObject = {};
        row.forEach((value, index) => {
            const columnName = columnNames[index];
            rowObject[columnName] = value;
        });
        console.log(rowObject);
    })
})
.catch(error => {
    console.error('Error:', error);
});

In the terminal, execute the following command to run the server: node server.js The query results will appear:


    { ID: 1, VALUE: -2 }
    { ID: 2, VALUE: 1 }
    { ID: 11, VALUE: null }
    { ID: 3, VALUE: 2 }
    { ID: 4, VALUE: 5 }
    ...