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The following guide provides step-by-step instructions to get started writing Node.js applications using the client-side Node.js module for Kinetica. This guide demonstrates only a small set of the available API. A detailed description of the complete interface is available under Node.js API Reference.

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API Download

The source code for the Node.js API is available for download from the GitHub repository kineticadb/kinetica-api-javascript. Follow the instructions in the included README file to use the API library.

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Connecting to the Database

To connect to the database, instantiate an object of the GPUdb class, providing the connection URL, including host & port of the database server as well as an optional username & password for secure connections: 
var db = new GPUdb([url], {"username": user, "password": pass});

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Loading Data

Before any data can be loaded into the system, a Type needs to be defined in the system. The type definition is a JSON string describing the fields (i.e. columns) of the type along with a name for the type. Each field consists of a name and a data type: 
var my_type = new GPUdb.Type(
		"my_type",
		new GPUdb.Type.Column("col1", "double"),
		new GPUdb.Type.Column("col2", "string"),
		new GPUdb.Type.Column("group_id", "string")
);

my_type.create(db, build_callback( function( response ) {
	type_id = response;
} ));
The returned object from the Type.create() call contains a unique type identifier allocated by the system. This identifier can then be used in the request to create a new table as follows: 
db.create_table( table_name, type_id, {}, build_callback() );
Once the table is created, data can be inserted as follows: 
var records = [];

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
	records.push({
		col1: i + 0.1,
		col2: "string " + i,
		group_id: "Group 1"
	});
}

var insert_options = { "return_record_ids" : "true" }
db.insert_records( table_name, records, insert_options, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Record IDs for newly inserted records: " + response.record_ids);
}));

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Retrieving Data

Once the table is populated with data, the data can be retrieved from the system by a call to get_records() as shown below: 
db.get_records( table_name, 0, -9999, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Retrieved records: ");
	console.log(response.data);
}));
For large tables, the data can be easily be retrieved in smaller blocks by using the offset and limit parameters. The returned response also contains the schema (or data type) of the results.

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Running Queries

To filter a subset of the records, use the filter() method with an expression as follows: 
db.filter( table_name, view1_name, "col1 = 1.1", {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Number of filtered records: " + response.count);
}));
To filter all the records matching a known list of values: 
var column_values_map = {
	col1 : [ "1.1", "2.1", "5.1" ]
};

db.filter_by_list( table_name, view2_name, column_values_map, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Number of records filtered by list: " + response.count);
}));
To retrieve a list of all the unique values for a column or a set of columns or expression: 
db.aggregate_unique( table_name, "group_id", 0, -9999, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Unique values in 'group_id': ");
	console.log(response.data);
}));
Kinetica supports various group-by queries. To group by one or more columns and return the count of the unique values, use the aggregate_group_by() method as shown below. The next query shows how to get the count of records, as well as the sum and average of the values of column col1, within each group in group_id: 
var column_names = [ "col2" ];
db.aggregate_group_by( table_name, column_names, 0, -9999, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Unique values of col2: ");
	console.log(response.data);
}));

var column_names = [ "group_id", "count(*)", "sum(col1)", "avg(col1)" ];
db.aggregate_group_by( table_name, column_names, 0, -9999, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Count, sum, & average per group: ");
	console.log(response.data);
}));
Kinetica supports grouping numerical data into a histogram. The input range is divided into equal sized bins and the count of objects in each bin are returned: 
var start = 1.1;
var end = 2;
var interval = 1;

db.aggregate_histogram( table_name, "col1", start, end, interval, {}, build_callback(function(response) {
	console.log("Histogram results: ");
	console.log(response);
}));

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Download & Run

Included below is a complete example containing all the above requests, the data file, and output. To run the complete sample, ensure the GPUdb.js reference in the tutorial.js file points to the correct location of the Kinetica Node.js API library on your Kinetica instance (the default is to be co-located with the tutorial script); then switch to the directory containing tutorial.js and run the following, passing the Kinetica URL, and optionally, the credentials to authenticate to that instance: 
node tutorial.js [<url> [<user> <pass>]]
As this script creates a schema and several database objects within it, system admin permission is required to run it.