MSSQL connector

3 minute read

The Microsoft SQL Server data connector is a plugin for API Builder that can connect to your MSSQL instance and interrogate your schema that will automatically provision Models into your project, and optionally, automatically generate a rich CRUD API to the underlying tables. The Models can be used programmatically, or can be used within the flow editor to interact with your database.

Minimum requirements

The following are the supported versions and features and the approximate memory and disk space requirements.

Supported versions

• SQL Server 2008 or later

Memory

• Approximately 8 MB

Disk space

• Approximately 15 MB

Supported features

• Automatic generation of Models from SQL tables
• Automatic generation of API for Models
• Full CRUD operations on tables via Models

Installation

npm install --no-optional @axway/api-builder-plugin-dc-mssql

A configuration file is generated for you and placed into the ./conf directory of your API Builder project. By default, we use a host of localhost, and expect user and password to come from the OS host environment.

Configuration

Once the plugin is installed, the configuration file is located in <project>/conf/mssql.default.js.

Usage

After you configure the connector, you can start up your API Builder project and visit the console (normally found under http://localhost:8080/console). Your connector will also be listed as a Connector when creating a new model in the console.

Your database tables will be listed under the Models section of the console. You can now click on the gear icon to the right of the table names and generate flow based APIs.

You can also reference the connector in a custom model.

const Account = APIBuilder.Model.extend('Account', {
  fields: {
    Name: {
      type: String,
      required: true
    }
  },
  connector: 'mssql'
});

If you want to map a specific model to a specific table, use metadata for schema and table name. For example, to map the account model to the table named the table “[dbo].[accounts]”:

const Account = APIBuilder.Model.extend('account', {
  fields: {
    Name: {
      type: String,
      required: false,
      validator: /[a-zA-Z]{3,}/
    }
  },
  connector: 'mssql',
  metadata: {
    schema: 'dbo',
    table: 'accounts'
  }
});

If your table has a primary key, then you can use additional metadata:

const Account = APIBuilder.Model.extend('account', {
  fields: {
    Name: {
      type: String,
      required: false,
      validator: /[a-zA-Z]{3,}/
    }
  },
  connector: 'mssql',
  metadata: {
    schema: 'dbo',
    table: 'accounts',
    primarykey: 'Name',
    primaryKeyDetails: {
      autogenerated: false,
      type: 'varchar'
    }
  }
});

Known issues and limitations

• Does not support range queries

For a list of known issues and limitations, refer to the API Builder known issues.