How do I get Sails.js to query an existing database? - sql-server

Question

There's a dev database already set up for another project. I'm trying to create a sails.js server to connect to this database and act as a RESTful API. I'm also using SQL Workbench with the profile below to connect to the database and verify my query statements. On that tool, I'm able to send queries like select top 10 * from advisor and get the data I expect in response.
My connection configuration in sails.js seems to be alright, since I'm able to start the server. I've gotten simple static actions to work, like hi: function (req, res) { return res.send("Hi there!"); }. However, I can't figure out what to do to get a response from the database served by sails. My goal (at this point) is to have http://localhost:1337/advisor return JSON for the results of select top 10 * from advisor.
I initially tried using the freshly-generated model. Then, I tried adding attributes to the model file. Then, I tried adding my own code to the controller. In each case, the browser never received a response. At the end, I tested /advisor/list to run my own code and it doesn't look like the query() callback was ever executed. In case it's the first question, I have run npm install sails-sqlserver and I've double-checked that my host, db, username, & password are identical to what was used in Workbench.
connections.js
sqlserver: {
adapter: 'sails-sqlserver',
user: 'myusername',
password: 'mypassword',
host: 'mysubdomain.mydomain.net:1433',
database: 'frontofficedev'
}
models.js
module.exports.models = {
connection: 'sqlserver',
migrate: 'safe'
};
api\models\Advisor.js
module.exports = {
attributes: {
advcode: 'string',
advname: 'string',
'adv-default': 'boolean',
"user-id": 'string',
"pc-code": 'string',
"adv-tag": 'string',
"is-group": 'boolean',
"trade-grouping": 'string',
AdvisorId: 'int',
orgcode: 'string',
BranchId: 'int',
OrdPrnBranchId: 'int',
zdec1: 'float',
zdec2: 'float',
zchar1: 'string',
zchar2: 'string',
zchar3: 'string',
zchar4: 'string',
AdvStatus: 'string'
}
};
api\controllers
module.exports = {
hi: function (req, res) {
return res.send("Hi there!");
},
list: function (req, res) {
var myQuery = "select TOP 10 * from advisor";
sails.log.debug("Query :", myQuery);
console.log(Advisor);
Advisor.query(myQuery, function (err, advisors){
console.log(advisors);
console.log(err);
if(err || !advisors.rows.length){
return res.json({"status": 0, "error": err});
}
else{
return res.json(advisors);
}
});
}
};
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Is JDBC causing problems? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Im assuming you've already run: npm install sails-sqlserver --save
You have to specify your connection and the table you will be using in the model, the variables in the model should match with your DB variables, like this:
api\models\Advisor.js
module.exports = {
schema: true,
connection: 'sqlserver',
tableName: 'yourTableName',
attributes: {
advcode:{
type: 'string',
primaryKey: true //if this is a primary key
},
advname:{
type: 'string'
},
'adv-default':{
type: 'boolean'
}
};
In your controller you can use the Sails ORM waterline like this:
api\controllers
module.exports = {
list: function (req, res) {
Advisor.query('SELECT * FROM advisor', function(err, results) {
if (err) {
res.send(400);
} else {
res.send(results);
}
});
}
};
Where Advisor is the model.
For more specific information about models and ORM waterline i recommend you read the sails docs: http://sailsjs.org/documentation/reference/waterline-orm/models

Answer 2

My colleague spotted the problem. The port that database lives on needs to be a separate attribute in sails' connection.js (instead of including it in the host string). No need for extra libraries, like node-jdbc.
config/connections.js
sqlserver: {
adapter: 'sails-sqlserver',
user: 'myusername',
password: 'mypassword',
host: 'mysubdomain.mydomain.net',
port: 1433,
database: 'frontofficedev'
}
After making that change, I was able to delete all my custom code from the controller and almost everything from the model (I still need to specify a primary key, since sails looks for id by default and the database was using AdvisorId.
api/models/Advisor.js
module.exports = {
attributes: {
AdvisorId: {primaryKey: true}
}
};