What is the easiest way to connect to Memgraph using Node.js?

Question

I want to test the creation of an application that uses Node.js and Memgraph. What is the fastest and easiest way for me to test this type of setup?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to use Express.js. Here are the exact steps:

1. Create a new directory for your application, /MyApp and position yourself in it.
2. Create a package.json file using npm init
3. Install Express.js using npm install express --save and the Bolt driver using npm install neo4j-driver --save in the /MyApp directory. Both packages will be added to the dependencies list.

To make the actual program, create a program.js file with the following code:

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const port = 3000;
var neo4j = require("neo4j-driver");

app.get("/", async (req, res) => {
  const driver = neo4j.driver("bolt://localhost:7687");
  const session = driver.session();

  try {
    const result = await session.writeTransaction((tx) =>
      tx.run(
        'CREATE (a:Greeting) SET a.message = $message RETURN "Node " + id(a) + ": " + a.message',
        {
          message: "Hello, World!",
        }
      )
    );

    const singleRecord = result.records[0];
    const greeting = singleRecord.get(0);

    console.log(greeting);
  } finally {
    await session.close();
  }

  // on application exit:
  await driver.close();
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
});

Once you save the file, you can run your program using node program.js.

For additional details check the official Memgraph documentation.