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.

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Create a free 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 Create your cluster page, select Serverless.
Click Create cluster.

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

Create a SQL user

The Create SQL user dialog allows you to create a new SQL user and password.

Enter a username in the SQL user field or use the one provided by default.
Click Generate & save password.
Copy the generated password and save it in a secure location.
Click Next.

Currently, all new users are created with full privileges. For more information and to change the default settings, see [Manage SQL users on a cluster.

Get the connection string

The Connect to cluster dialog shows information about how to connect to your cluster.

Select General connection string from the Select option dropdown.
Open the General connection string section, then copy the connection string provided and save it in a secure location.

The sample application used in this tutorial uses system CA certificates for server certificate verification, so you can skip the Download CA Cert instructions.

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 start-single-node command:
```
$ cockroach start-single-node --advertise-addr 'localhost' --insecure
```
This starts an insecure, single-node cluster.

Take note of the following connection information in the SQL shell welcome text:

CockroachDB node starting at 2021-08-30 17:25:30.06524 +0000 UTC (took 4.3s)
build:               CCL v21.1.6 @ 2021/07/20 15:33:43 (go1.15.11)
webui:               http://localhost:8080
sql:                 postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable

You'll use the sql connection string to connect to the cluster later in this tutorial.

Warning:

The --insecure flag used in this tutorial is intended for non-production testing only. To run CockroachDB in production, use a secure cluster instead.

Step 2. Get the code

Clone the sample code's GitHub repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/cockroachlabs/example-app-node-sequelize

The sample code uses Sequelize to map Node.js-specific objects to some read and write SQL operations.

Step 3. Run the code

To start the app:

Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the connection string:
```
$ export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable"
```
```
$ export DATABASE_URL="<connection-string>"
```
Where <connection-string> is the connection string you obtained from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.
The app uses the connection string saved to the DATABASE_URL environment variable to connect to your cluster and execute the code.
Install the app dependencies:
```
$ cd example-app-node-sequelize
```
```
$ npm install
```

Run the code:

$ node app.js

The output should look similar to the following:

Executing (default): SELECT version() AS version
Executing (default): DROP TABLE IF EXISTS "accounts" CASCADE;
Executing (default): SELECT crdb_internal.increment_feature_counter(concat('Sequelize ', '6.17'))
Executing (default): SELECT crdb_internal.increment_feature_counter(concat('sequelize-cockroachdb ', '6.0.5'))
Executing (default): CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS "accounts" ("id" INTEGER , "balance" INTEGER, "createdAt" TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE NOT NULL, "updatedAt" TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY ("id"));
Executing (default): SELECT i.relname AS name, ix.indisprimary AS primary, ix.indisunique AS unique, ix.indkey AS indkey, array_agg(a.attnum) as column_indexes, array_agg(a.attname) AS column_names, pg_get_indexdef(ix.indexrelid) AS definition FROM pg_class t, pg_class i, pg_index ix, pg_attribute a WHERE t.oid = ix.indrelid AND i.oid = ix.indexrelid AND a.attrelid = t.oid AND t.relkind = 'r' and t.relname = 'accounts' GROUP BY i.relname, ix.indexrelid, ix.indisprimary, ix.indisunique, ix.indkey ORDER BY i.relname;
Executing (default): INSERT INTO "accounts" ("id","balance","createdAt","updatedAt") VALUES (1,1000,'2022-03-30 19:56:34.483 +00:00','2022-03-30 19:56:34.483 +00:00'),(2,250,'2022-03-30 19:56:34.483 +00:00','2022-03-30 19:56:34.483 +00:00') RETURNING "id","balance","createdAt","updatedAt";
Executing (default): SELECT "id", "balance", "createdAt", "updatedAt" FROM "accounts" AS "accounts";
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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