What is the proper way to use the node.js postgresql module?

Question

I am writing a node.js app on Heroku and using the pg module. I can\'t figure out the \"right\" way to get a client object for each request that I need to query the database

Answer 1

I am the author of pg-promise, which simplifies the use of node-postgres via promises.

It addresses the issues about the right way of connecting to and disconnecting from the database, using the connection pool implemented by node-postgres, among other things, like automated transactions.

An individual request in pg-promise boils down to just what's relevant to your business logic:

db.any('SELECT * FROM users WHERE status = $1', ['active'])
    .then(data => {
        console.log('DATA:', data);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log('ERROR:', error);
    });

i.e. you do not need to deal with connection logic when executing queries, because you set up the connection only once, globally, like this:

const pgp = require('pg-promise')(/*options*/);

const cn = {
    host: 'localhost', // server name or IP address;
    port: 5432,
    database: 'myDatabase',
    user: 'myUser',
    password: 'myPassword'
};
// alternative:
// const cn = 'postgres://username:password@host:port/database';

const db = pgp(cn); // database instance;

You can find many more examples in Learn by Example tutorial, or on the project's home page.