Learning Node

Chapter 11. The Node Relational Database Bindings

In traditional web development, relational databases are the most popular means of data storage. Node, perhaps because of the type of applications it attracts, or perhaps because it attracts uses that fit outside the traditional development box, doesn’t follow this pattern: there is a lot more support for data applications such as Redis and MongoDB than there is for relational databases.

There are some relational database modules you can use in your Node applications, but they may not be as complete as you’re used to with database bindings in languages such as PHP and Python. In my opinion, the Node modules for relational databases are not yet production ready.

On the positive side, though, the modules that do support relational databases are quite simple to use. In this chapter I’m going to demonstrate two different approaches to integrating a relational database, MySQL, into Node applications. One approach uses mysql (node-mysql), a popular JavaScript MySQL client. The other approach uses db-mysql, which is part of the new node-db initiative to create a common framework for database engines from Node applications. The db-mysql module is written in C++.

Neither of the modules mentioned currently supports transactions, but mysql-series has added this type of functionality to node-mysql. I’ll provide a quick demonstration on this, and also offer a brief introduction to Sequelize, an ORM (object-relational mapping) library that works ...