Build a Node.js App with CockroachDB and Sequelize

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This tutorial shows you how build a simple Node.js application with CockroachDB and the Sequelize ORM.

We have tested the Sequelize ORM enough to claim beta-level support. If you encounter problems, please open an issue with details to help us make progress toward full support.

Tip:

For a more realistic use of Sequelize with CockroachDB, see our examples-ormsrepository.

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

Once your cluster is created, the Connect to cluster-name dialog displays. Use the information provided in the dialog to set up your cluster connection for the SQL user that was created by default:

In your terminal, run the second command from the dialog to create a new certs directory on your local machine and download the CA certificate to that directory:
```
curl --create-dirs -o ~/.postgresql/root.crt -O https://cockroachlabs.cloud/clusters/{cluster-id}/cert
```
Your cert file will be downloaded to ~/.postgresql/root.crt.
```
curl --create-dirs -o ~/.postgresql/root.crt -O https://cockroachlabs.cloud/clusters/{cluster-id}/cert
```
Your cert file will be downloaded to ~/.postgresql/root.crt.
```
mkdir -p $env:appdata\.postgresql\; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://cockroachlabs.cloud/clusters/{cluster-id}/cert -OutFile $env:appdata\.postgresql\root.crt
```
Your cert file will be downloaded to %APPDATA%/.postgresql/root.crt.
Copy the connection string provided, which will be used in the next steps (and to connect to your cluster in the future).

Warning:

This connection string contains your password, which will be provided only once. 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.
```
cockroach sql --url 'postgresql://<username>:<password>@<cluster-host>:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert='$HOME'/.postgresql/root.crt'
```
```
cockroach sql --url 'postgresql://<username>:<password>@<cluster-host>:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert='$HOME'/.postgresql/root.crt'
```
```
cockroach sql --url "postgresql://<username>:<password>@<cluster-host>:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=$env:appdata/.postgresql/root.crt"
```
Where:
- <username> is the SQL user. By default, this is your CockroachDB Cloud account username.
- <password> is the password for the SQL user. The password will be shown only once in the Connection info dialog after creating the cluster.
- <cluster-hostname> is the hostname of your CockroachDB Cloud cluster.
- <cluster-id> is a unique string used to identify your cluster when downloading the CA certificate. For example, 12a3bcde-4fa5-6789-1234-56bc7890d123.
You can find these settings in the Connection parameters tab of the Connection info dialog.

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. Create a database

In the SQL shell, create the bank database that your application will use:
```
> CREATE DATABASE bank;
```
Create a SQL user for your app:
```
> CREATE USER <username> WITH PASSWORD <password>;
```
Take note of the username and password. You will use it in your application code later.
Give the user the necessary permissions:
```
> GRANT ALL ON DATABASE bank TO <username>;
```

If you haven't already, download the CockroachDB binary.
Start the built-in SQL shell using the connection string you got from the CockroachDB Cloud Console earlier:
```
$ cockroach sql \
--url='postgres://<username>:<password>@<global host>:26257/<cluster_name>.defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=<certs_dir>/cc-ca.crt'
```
In the connection string copied from the CockroachDB Cloud Console, your username, password and cluster name are pre-populated. Replace the <certs_dir> placeholder with the path to the certs directory that you created earlier.
In the SQL shell, create the bank database that your application will use:
```
> CREATE DATABASE bank;
```
Exit the SQL shell:
```
> \q
```

Step 3. Install the Sequelize ORM

To install Sequelize, as well as a CockroachDB Node.js package that accounts for some minor differences between CockroachDB and PostgreSQL, run the following command:

$ npm install sequelize sequelize-cockroachdb

Step 4. Get the code

Download the sample code directly, or clone the code's GitHub repository.

Step 5. Update the connection parameters

Open app.js, and edit the connection configuration parameters:

Replace the value for username with the user you created earlier.
Replace the value for password with the password you created for your user.
Replace the value for port with the port to your cluster.

At the top of the file, uncomment the const fs = require('fs'); line.

This line imports the fs Node module, which enables you to read in the CA cert that you downloaded from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.
Replace the value for username with the user you created earlier.
Replace the value for password with the password you created for your user.
Replace the value for host with the name of the CockroachDB Cloud Free host (e.g., host: 'free-tier.gcp-us-central1.cockroachlabs.cloud').
Replace the value for port with the port to your cluster.
Replace the value for database with the database that you created earlier, suffixed with the name of the cluster (e.g., database: '{cluster_name}.bank').
Remove the rejectUnauthorized key-value pair.
Uncomment the ca key-value pair, and edit the fs.readFileSync('certs/ca.crt').toString() call to use the path to the cc-ca.crt file that you downloaded from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.

Step 6. Run the code

The following code uses the Sequelize ORM to map Node.js-specific objects to SQL operations. Specifically, Account.sync({force: true}) creates an accounts table based on the Account model (or drops and recreates the table if it already exists), Account.bulkCreate([...]) inserts rows into the table, and Account.findAll() selects from the table so that balances can be printed.

const Sequelize = require("sequelize-cockroachdb");

// Connect to CockroachDB through Sequelize.
const connectionString = process.env.DATABASE_URL
const sequelize = new Sequelize(connectionString, {
  dialectOptions: {
    application_name: "docs_simplecrud_node-sequelize"
  }
});

// Define the Account model for the "accounts" table.
const Account = sequelize.define("accounts", {
  id: {
    type: Sequelize.INTEGER,
    primaryKey: true,
  },
  balance: {
    type: Sequelize.INTEGER,
  },
});

// Create the "accounts" table.
Account.sync({
  force: true,
})
  .then(function () {
    // Insert two rows into the "accounts" table.
    return Account.bulkCreate([
      {
        id: 1,
        balance: 1000,
      },
      {
        id: 2,
        balance: 250,
      },
    ]);
  })
  .then(function () {
    // Retrieve accounts.
    return Account.findAll();
  })
  .then(function (accounts) {
    // Print out the balances.
    accounts.forEach(function (account) {
      console.log(account.id + " " + account.balance);
    });
    process.exit(0);
  })
  .catch(function (err) {
    console.error("error: " + err.message);
    process.exit(1);
  });

To run the code:

$ node app.js

The output should be:

1 1000
2 250

What's next?

Read more about using the Sequelize ORM, or check out a more realistic implementation of Sequelize with CockroachDB in our examples-orms repository.

You might also be interested in the following pages:

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