Build a Simple CRUD Node.js App with CockroachDB and Prisma

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This tutorial shows you how build a simple Node.js application with CockroachDB and Prisma.

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Choose whether to run a temporary local cluster or a free CockroachDB cluster on CockroachDB Serverless. The instructions below will adjust accordingly.

Create a free cluster

Note:

Organizations without billing information on file can only create one CockroachDB Basic cluster.

If you haven't already, sign up for a CockroachDB Cloud account.
Log in to your CockroachDB Cloud account.
On the Clusters page, click Create cluster.
On the Select a plan page, select Basic.
On the Cloud & Regions page, select a cloud provider (GCP or AWS) in the Cloud provider section.
In the Regions section, select a region for the cluster. Refer to CockroachDB Cloud Regions for the regions where CockroachDB Basic clusters can be deployed. To create a multi-region cluster, click Add region and select additional regions.
Click Next: Capacity.
On the Capacity page, select Start for free. Click Next: Finalize.
On the Finalize page, click Create cluster.

Your cluster will be created in a few seconds and the Create SQL user dialog will display.

Set up your cluster connection

The Connection info dialog shows information about how to connect to your cluster.

Click the Connection string tab in the Connection info dialog.
Copy the connection string provided to a secure location.

Note:

The connection string is pre-populated with your username, password, cluster name, and other details. Your password, in particular, will be provided only once. Save it in a secure place (Cockroach Labs recommends a password manager) to connect to your cluster in the future. If you forget your password, you can reset it by going to the SQL Users page for the cluster, found at https://cockroachlabs.cloud/cluster/<CLUSTER ID>/users.

If you haven't already, download the CockroachDB binary.
Run the cockroach demo command:
```
$ cockroach demo \
--no-example-database
```
This starts a temporary, in-memory cluster and opens an interactive SQL shell to the cluster. Any changes to the database will not persist after the cluster is stopped.

Note:

If cockroach demo fails due to SSL authentication, make sure you have cleared any previously downloaded CA certificates from the directory ~/.postgresql.

Take note of the (sql) connection string in the SQL shell welcome text:

# Connection parameters:
#   (webui)    http://127.0.0.1:8080/demologin?password=demo76950&username=demo
#   (sql)      postgres://demo:demo76950@127.0.0.1:26257?sslmode=require
#   (sql/unix) postgres://demo:demo76950@?host=%2Fvar%2Ffolders%2Fc8%2Fb_q93vjj0ybfz0fz0z8vy9zc0000gp%2FT%2Fdemo070856957&port=26257

Step 2. Get the code

Clone the code's GitHub repo:
```
$ git clone https://github.com/cockroachlabs/example-app-node-prisma
```
Install the application dependencies:
```
$ cd example-app-node-prisma
```
```
$ npm install
```

Step 3. Initialize the database

Create a .env file for your project, and set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to a valid connection string to your cluster.
```
$ echo "DATABASE_URL=<connection-string>" >> .env
```
Where <connection-string> is the connection string you obtained earlier from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.
```
$ echo "DATABASE_URL=postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable" >> .env
```
Note:

postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable is the sql connection string you obtained earlier from the cockroach welcome text.
Prisma loads the variables defined in .env to the project environment. By default, Prisma uses the DATABASE_URL environment variable as the connection string to the database.
Run Prisma Migrate to initialize the database with the schema defined in prisma/prisma.schema.
```
$ node_modules/.bin/prisma migrate dev --name init
```
You should see the following output:
```
Your database is now in sync with your schema.

✔ Generated Prisma Client (3.12.0 | library) to ./node_modules/@prisma/client in 73ms
```
This command also initializes Prisma Client to communicate with your CockroachDB cluster, based on the configuration in the prisma/schema.prisma file.

Step 4. Run the code

The index.js file contains the code for INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE SQL operations:

const { PrismaClient } = require('@prisma/client')
const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid')

const prisma = new PrismaClient({
  datasources: {
    db: {
      url: process.env.DATABASE_URL + "&application_name=$ docs_simplecrud_node-prisma",
    },
  },
})

const main = async () => {
  const customerIds = Array(10).fill().map(() => ({ id: uuidv4() }))
  const accountValues = Array(10).fill().map((_, index) => ({
    id: uuidv4(),
    customer_id: customerIds[index].id,
    balance: Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000)
  }))

  const insertCustomerRows = await prisma.customer.createMany({
    data: customerIds
  })

  console.log('Customer rows inserted.', insertCustomerRows)

  const insertAccountRows = await prisma.account.createMany({
    data: accountValues
  })

  console.log('Account rows inserted.', insertAccountRows)
  console.log('Initial Account row values:\n', await prisma.account.findMany())

  const updateRows = await prisma.account.updateMany({
    where: {
      balance: {
        gt: 100
      }
    },
    data: {
      balance: {
        decrement: 5
      }
    }
  })

  console.log('Account rows updated.', updateRows)
  console.log('Updated Account row values:\n', await prisma.account.findMany())

  const deleteAllRows = await prisma.customer.deleteMany()

  console.log('All Customer rows deleted.', deleteAllRows)
}

main()
  .catch((e) => {
    throw e
  })
  .finally(async () => {
    await prisma.$disconnect()
  })

Note:

In production, we recommend implementing client-side transaction retries for all database operations.

Run the application code:

$ node index.js

Customer rows inserted. { count: 10 }
Account rows inserted. { count: 10 }
Initial Account row values:
 [
  {
    id: '1961432f-f93e-4568-b2a5-ba08f73afde5',
    customer_id: '079daee3-ecf2-4a0f-980b-4c3ea4c8b6a3',
    balance: 914n
  },
  {
    id: '4ccd7eea-eb47-4aa9-9819-30b5aae58bf8',
    customer_id: 'c0eeb465-ab60-4f02-9bf3-3451578d400d',
    balance: 176n
  },
  {
    id: '53ed4f7d-72ee-4390-9487-9bf318357c77',
    customer_id: 'a4c9e26e-f9d8-4c1b-ac20-1aa8611b134f',
    balance: 54n
  },
  {
    id: '79a1f1b2-4050-4329-bf52-5df53fec749e',
    customer_id: '392c7d15-5ab2-4149-9eee-8a3a44b36e9d',
    balance: 482n
  },
  {
    id: '7e30f1e0-e873-4565-9ea3-3079a48a4886',
    customer_id: '12cb3406-264a-417c-b0e6-86593e60dc18',
    balance: 478n
  },
  {
    id: '94f461d5-3985-46c1-98f4-1896f15f0a16',
    customer_id: 'e4c909a4-6683-429d-9831-dfcf792f4fb0',
    balance: 240n
  },
  {
    id: 'a0c081f5-fb15-47cc-8dbb-85c6f15677d2',
    customer_id: '91ece5f2-df03-4023-b112-2b4d5677981b',
    balance: 520n
  },
  {
    id: 'a45b7c41-2f62-4620-be69-57d5d61186e4',
    customer_id: 'c1824327-d6a1-4916-a666-ea157ef2a409',
    balance: 50n
  },
  {
    id: 'dbe0dec5-257b-42ff-9d36-1b5a57e1a4ac',
    customer_id: '6739eb2f-bcb1-4074-aab4-5860b04d227d',
    balance: 468n
  },
  {
    id: 'ebc520b4-8df0-4e2f-8426-104594f6341c',
    customer_id: 'f83e02cb-77cf-4347-9e0c-28cad65fac34',
    balance: 336n
  }
]
Account rows updated. { count: 8 }
Updated Account row values:
 [
  {
    id: '1961432f-f93e-4568-b2a5-ba08f73afde5',
    customer_id: '079daee3-ecf2-4a0f-980b-4c3ea4c8b6a3',
    balance: 909n
  },
  {
    id: '4ccd7eea-eb47-4aa9-9819-30b5aae58bf8',
    customer_id: 'c0eeb465-ab60-4f02-9bf3-3451578d400d',
    balance: 171n
  },
  {
    id: '53ed4f7d-72ee-4390-9487-9bf318357c77',
    customer_id: 'a4c9e26e-f9d8-4c1b-ac20-1aa8611b134f',
    balance: 54n
  },
  {
    id: '79a1f1b2-4050-4329-bf52-5df53fec749e',
    customer_id: '392c7d15-5ab2-4149-9eee-8a3a44b36e9d',
    balance: 477n
  },
  {
    id: '7e30f1e0-e873-4565-9ea3-3079a48a4886',
    customer_id: '12cb3406-264a-417c-b0e6-86593e60dc18',
    balance: 473n
  },
  {
    id: '94f461d5-3985-46c1-98f4-1896f15f0a16',
    customer_id: 'e4c909a4-6683-429d-9831-dfcf792f4fb0',
    balance: 235n
  },
  {
    id: 'a0c081f5-fb15-47cc-8dbb-85c6f15677d2',
    customer_id: '91ece5f2-df03-4023-b112-2b4d5677981b',
    balance: 515n
  },
  {
    id: 'a45b7c41-2f62-4620-be69-57d5d61186e4',
    customer_id: 'c1824327-d6a1-4916-a666-ea157ef2a409',
    balance: 50n
  },
  {
    id: 'dbe0dec5-257b-42ff-9d36-1b5a57e1a4ac',
    customer_id: '6739eb2f-bcb1-4074-aab4-5860b04d227d',
    balance: 463n
  },
  {
    id: 'ebc520b4-8df0-4e2f-8426-104594f6341c',
    customer_id: 'f83e02cb-77cf-4347-9e0c-28cad65fac34',
    balance: 331n
  }
]
All Customer rows deleted. { count: 10 }

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