priam

A simple Cassandra driver for NodeJS. It wraps the cassandra-driver modules with additional error/retry handling, external .cql file support, connection option resolution from an external source, and query composition, among other improvements.

The driver uses cassandra-driver over a binary-protocol connection. If a Thrift connection is desired, please use the latest 1.X release and simply specify the helenus driver option in config.

Priam is designed to be used as a single instance in order to preserve the connection pools. As an example, in an Express application, priam should be initialized at server startup and attached to the request object so that your controllers can access it.

Priam is actively developed and used by Go Daddy Website Builder to provide a high-availability and high-performance hosting platform based on the Cassandra database.

Example Usage

Check the example folder for a more complete example. Start by running: npm start followed by curl http://localhost:8080/ or curl http://localhost:8080/stream=true.

Using Known Connection Information

var path = require('path');
var db = require('priam')({
  config: {
    cqlVersion: '3.0.0', /* optional, defaults to '3.1.0' */
    timeout: 4000, /* optional, defaults to 4000 */
    poolSize: 2, /* optional, defaults to 1 */
    consistencyLevel: 'one', /* optional, defaults to one. Will throw if not a valid Cassandra consistency level*/
    numRetries: 3, /* optional, defaults to 0. Retries occur on connection failures. Deprecated, use retryOptions instead. */
    retryDelay: 100, /* optional, defaults to 100ms. Used on consistency fallback retry */
    retryOptions: { retries: 0 }, /* optional. See https://www.npmjs.com/package/retry for options */
    enableConsistencyFailover: true, /* optional, defaults to true */
    coerceDataStaxTypes: false, /* optional, defaults to true */
    queryDirectory: path.join(__dirname, 'path/to/your/cql/files'), /* optional, required to use #namedQuery() */
    user: '<your_username>',
    password: '<your_password>',
    keyspace: '<your_keyspace>', /* Default keyspace. Can be overwritten via options passed into #cql(), etc. */
    hosts: [ /* Ports are optional */
      '123.456.789.010:9042',
      '123.456.789.011:9042',
      '123.456.789.012:9042',
      '123.456.789.013:9042'
    ]
  }
});

Executing CQL

The driver provides the #cql() method for executing CQL statements against Cassandra. It provides the following arguments:

• cql: The CQL statement to execute. Parameters should be replaced with ? characters

• dataParams: The parameters array. Should match the order of ? characters in the cql parameter

• options: Optional. Additional options for the CQL call. Supports consistency, queryName, keyspace, and executeAsPrepared.

• callback(err, data): Optional. The callback for the CQL call. Provides err and data arguments. data will be an Array.

• stream: Optional. A Stream object to be written to when reading from Cassandra. If this is provided, callback should not be provided. Note: Only available when using the datastax driver!

dataParams will be normalized as necessary in order to be passed to Cassandra. In addition to primitives (Number/String), the driver supports JSON objects, Array and Buffer types. Object and Array types will be stringified prior to being sent to Cassandra, whereas Buffer types will be encoded.

The executeAsPrepared option informs the node-cassandra-cql driver to execute the given CQL as a prepared statement, which will boost performance if the query is executed multiple times.

The queryName option allows metrics to be captured for the given query, assuming a metrics object was passed into the constructor. See the Monitoring / Instrumentation section for more information.

The consistency option allows you to override any default consistency level that was specified in the constructor.

The resultHint option allows you to control how objects being returned by the underlying provider are treated. For example, a data type of objectAscii will result in JSON.parse() being called on the resulting value. Special data types of objectAscii and objectText are available for this purpose. If these data types are used in a parameter's hint field, they will be automatically mapped to the corresponding data type (e.g. ascii or `text) prior to executing the cql statement.

The deserializeJsonStrings option informs Priam to inspect any string results coming back from the driver and call JSON.parse() before returning the value back to you. This works similar to providing resultHint options for specific columns, but instead it applies to the entire set of columns. This was the default behavior prior to the 0.7.0 release.

The coerceDataStaxTypes option informs Priam to convert any of the custom DataStax data types to standard JavaScript types (string, number). This is recommended if you are upgrading from a previous version of Priam and need to keep backwards-compatibility in your codebase with the previous versin of the DataStax cassandra-driver module.

The keyspace option allows you to specify another keyspace to execute a query against. This will override the default keyspace set in the connection information.

The suppressDebugLog option allows you to disable debug logging of CQL for an individual query. This is useful for queries that may contain sensitive data that you do not wish to show up in debug logs.

hinted parameters are supported. Instead of the driver inferring the data type, it can be explicitly specified by using a specially formatted object. Similar to consistencies, data types are exposed via the <instance>.dataType object.

There is also a param(value [object], type [string]) helper method for creating hinted parameters, as shown below:

Example

var db = require('priam')({
    config: { /* ... options ... */ }
});
db.cql(
  'SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?',
  [db.param('value_of_keyCol1', 'ascii'), db.param('value_of_keyCol2', 'ascii')],
  { consistency: db.consistencyLevel.one, queryName: 'myQuery', executeAsPrepared: true },
  function (err, data) {
    if (err) {
      console.log('ERROR: ' + err);
      return;
    }
    console.log('Returned data: ' + data);
  }
);

Named Queries

The driver supports using named queries. These queries should be .cql files residing in a single folder. The query name corresponds to the file name preceding the .cql extension. For example, file myObjectSelect.cql would have a query name of myObjectSelect.

In order to use named queries, the optional queryDirectory option should be passed into the driver constructor.

Queries are loaded synchronously and cached when the driver is constructed.

Named queries will automatically provide the queryName and executeAsPrepared options when executing the CQL, though the caller can override these options by providing them in the options object.

Example

var db = require('priam')({
    config: { queryDirectory: path.join(__dirName, 'cql') }
}); /* 'cql' folder will be scanned and all .cql files loaded into memory synchronously */
db.namedQuery(
  'myColumnFamilySelect', /* name of .cql file with contents: 'SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?' */
  ['value_of_keyCol1', 'value_of_keyCol2'],
  { consistency: db.consistencyLevel.ONE },
  function (err, data) {
    if (err) {
      console.log('ERROR: ' + err);
      return;
    }
    console.log('Returned data: ' + data);
  }
);

Fluent Syntax

The driver provides a fluent syntax that can be used to construct queries.

Calling #beginQuery() returns a Query object with the following chainable functions:

• #query(cql [string]): Sets the cql for the query to execute.

• #namedQuery(queryName [string]): Specifies the named query for the query to execute.

• #param(value [object], hint [optional, string], isRoutingKey [optional, bool]): Adds a parameter to the query. Note: They are applied in the order added.

If isRoutingKey is provided and true, the given parameter will be used to determine the coordinator node to execute a query against, when using the datastax driver and a prepared statement.

• #params(parameters [Array]): Adds the array of parameters to the query. Parameters should be created using db.param()

• #options(optionsDictionary [object]): Extends the query options. See Executing CQL for valid options.

• #consistency(consistencyLevelName [string]): Sets consistency level for the query. Alias for #options({ consistency: db.consistencyLevel[consistencyLevelName] }).

• #all(): Default functionality. After calling execute will return array of any results found.

• #first(): After calling execute will return first, if any of the results found.

• #single(): Similar to first, will return first result however will yield an error if more than one record found.

• #execute(callback [optional, function]): Executes the query. If a callback is not supplied, this will return a Promise.

• #stream(): Executes the query and returns a read-only Stream object. Note: Only available when using the datastax driver!

Fluent Syntax Examples

db
  .beginQuery()
  .query('SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?')
  .param('value_of_keyCol1', 'ascii')
  .param('value_of_keyCol2', 'ascii')
  .consistency("one")
  .options({ queryName: 'myColumnFamilySelect' })
  .options({ executeAsPrepared: true })
  .execute(function (err, data) {
    if (err) {
      console.log('ERROR: ' + err);
      return;
    }
    console.log('Returned data: ' + data);
  });

Similarly, fluent syntax can be used for named queries.

db
  .beginQuery()
  .namedQuery('myColumnFamilySelect') /* name of .cql file with contents: 'SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?' */
  .param('value_of_keyCol1', 'ascii')
  .param('value_of_keyCol2', 'ascii')
  .consistency('one')
  .execute(function (err, data) {
    if (err) {
      console.log('ERROR: ' + err);
      return;
    }
    console.log('Returned data: ' + data);
  });

The fluent syntax also supports promises, if a callback is not supplied to the #execute() function.

db
  .beginQuery()
  .namedQuery('myColumnFamilySelect') /* name of .cql file with contents: 'SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?' */
  .param('value_of_keyCol1', 'ascii')
  .param('value_of_keyCol2', 'ascii')
  .consistency('one')
  .execute()
  .fail(function (err) {
    console.error('ERROR: ' + err);
  })
  .done(function (data) {
    console.log('Returned data: ' + JSON.stringify(data));
  });

For expected large data sets in a web application, it is a good idea to stream the data back.

var through = require('through2');
/* ... */
function (req, res, next) {
  db
    .beginQuery()
    .query('SELECT "myCol1", "myCol2" FROM "myColumnFamily" limit 1000000')
    .consistency("one")
    .options({ queryName: 'myColumnFamilySelect' })
    .options({ executeAsPrepared: true })
    .stream()
    .on('error', function (err) {
      res.statusCode(500).end(err.message);
    })
    .pipe(through.obj(function(data, enc, next) {
      next(null, JSON.stringify(data)+'\n');
    }))
    .pipe(res);
}

Batching Queries

Queries can be batched by using the fluent syntax to create a batch of queries. Standard CQL and named queries can be combined. If a consistency level for the batch is not supplied, the strictest consistency from the batched queries will be applied, if given. Similarly, if debug logs for one of the batched queries are suppressed, debug logs for the entire batch will be suppressed. queryName and executeAsPrepared for individual queries will be ignored.

Note: Batching prepared statements is currently not supported. If prepared statements are used in a batch, the entire CQL query will be sent over the wire.

IMPORTANT: Batching is only supported with INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE commands. If SELECT statements are added, the query will yield a runtime error.

For more information on batching, see the CQL 3.0 reference.

If using CQL 3.1, batches can be nested and timestamps will be applied at the query level instead of the batch level. If using CQL 3.0, only timestamps at the outermost batch level will be applied. Any others will be ignored.

Calling #beginBatch() returns a Query object with the following chainable functions:

• #addQuery(query [Query]): Adds a query to the batch to execute. The query should be created by db.beginQuery().

• #addBatch(batch [Batch]): Adds the queries contained within the batch parameter to the current batch.. The batch should be created by db.beginBatch().

• #add(batchOrQuery [Batch or Query]): Allows null, Query, or Batch objects. See #addQuery() and #addBatch() above.

• #options(optionsDictionary [object]): Extends the batch. See Executing CQL for valid options.

• #timestamp(clientTimestamp [optional, long]): Specifies that USING TIMESTAMP <value> will be sent as part of the batch CQL. If clientTimestamp is not specified, the current time will be used.

• #type(batchTypeName [string]): Specifies the type of batch that will be used. Available types are 'standard', 'counter' and 'unlogged'. Defaults to 'standard'. See CQL 3.1 reference for more details on batch types.

• #consistency(consistencyLevelName [string]): Sets consistency level for the batch. Alias for #options({ consistency: db.consistencyLevel[consistencyLevelName] }).

• #execute(callback [optional, function]): Executes the query. If a callback is not supplied, this will return a Promise.

Batch Syntax Example

db
  .beginBatch()
  .add(db.beginQuery(
    .query('UPDATE "myColumnFamily" SET "myCol1" = ?, "myCol2" = ? WHERE "keyCol1" = ? AND "keyCol2" = ?')
    .param('value_of_myCol1', 'ascii')
    .param('value_of_myCol2', 'ascii')
    .param('value_of_keyCol1', 'ascii')
    .param('value_of_keyCol2', 'ascii')
  )
  .add(db.beginQuery(
    .query('UPDATE "myOtherColumnFamily" SET "myCol" = ? WHERE "keyCol" = ?')
    .param('value_of_myCol', 'ascii')
    .param('value_of_keyCol', 'ascii')
  )
  .consistency('quorum')
  .type('counter')
  .timestamp()
  .execute()
  .fail(function (err) {
    console.log('ERROR: ' + err);
  })
  .done(function (data) {
    console.log('Returned data: ' + data);
  });

Helper Functions

The driver also provides the following functions that wrap #cql(). They should be used in place of #cql() where possible, when not using named queries, as it will allow you to both use default consistency levels for different types of queries, and easily find references in your application to each query type.

• select: calls #cql() with db.consistencyLevel.one

• insert: calls #cql() with db.consistencyLevel.localQuorum

• update: calls #cql() with db.consistencyLevel.localQuorum

• delete: calls #cql() with db.consistencyLevel.localQuorum

Connection Management

Connection pools are automatically instantiated when the first query is run and kept alive for the lifetime of the driver. To manually initiate and/or close connections, you can use the following functions:

• #connect(keyspace [string, optional], callback [Function]): Calls callback parameter after connection pool is initialized, or existing pool is retrieved. Can be used at application startup to immediately start the connection pool.

• #close(callback [Function]): Calls callback after all connection pools are closed. Useful for testing purposes.

Error Retries

The driver will automatically retry on network-related errors. In addition, other errors will be retried in the following conditions:

• db.consistencyLevel.all will be retried at db.consistencyLevel.eachQuorum

• db.consistencyLevel.quorum and db.consistencyLevel.eachQuorum will be retried at db.consistencyLevel.localQuorum

The following retry options are supported in the driver constructor:

• enableConsistencyFailover: Optional. Defaults to true. If false, the failover described above will not take place.

• numRetries: (Deprecated) Optional. Defaults to 0 (no retry). The number of retries to execute on network failure.

• retryOptions: Optional. Defaults to { retries: 0 } (no retries). Retry logic in the event that a network failure happens. See the retry package for options. *Note: this will also affect the number of retries executed during consistency level fallback. For example, if the number of retries is 2 and a CQL query with db.consistencyLevel.all is submitted, it will be executed 3 times at db.consistencyLevel.all, 3 times at db.constistencyLevel.eachQuorum and 3 times at db.consistencyLevel.localQuorum before yielding an error back to the caller.

• retryDelay: Optional. Defaults to 100. The number of milliseconds used for consistency level fallback.

Logging

The driver supports passing a winston logger inside of the options.

require('priam')({
  config: { /* connection information */ },
  logger: new (require('winston')).Logger({ /* logger options */ })
});

Debug logging of CQL can be turned off for an individual query by passing the suppressDebugLog = true option in the query options dictionary. This is useful for queries that may contain sensitive data that you do not wish to show up in debug logs.

Monitoring / Instrumentation

Instrumentation is supported via an optional metrics object passed into the driver constructor. The metrics object should have a method #measurement(queryName [string], duration [number], unit [string]).

var logger = new (require('winston')).Logger({ /* logger options */ })
var metrics = new MetricsClient();
require('priam')({
  config: { /* connection information */ },
  logger: logger,
  metrics: metrics
});

Events

Each priam instance is an EventEmitter. The following events are emitted:

Using a Connection Resolver

If you are required to pull database credentials from a credential store (e.g. to support database failover or expiring old credentials), you should use the connectionResolver or connectionResolverPath options.

If used, the supplied connection resolver will be called before every CQL query is issued. It is up to the supplied connection resolver to follow whatever caching strategies are required for the environment.

The connectionResolver option allows you to pass in a connectionResolver object that has already been constructed.

var resolver = new MyConnectionResolver();
var db = require('priam')({
  config: {
    /* ... connection options ... */
  }
  connectionResolver: resolver
});

The connectionResolverPath will be loaded via a #require() call. Note: it is required from /lib/drivers/, so it is recommended to supply a resolver this way via a node module, as paths to source files should be relative to the internal path.

var db = require('priam')({
  config: {
    /* ... other connection options ... */
    connectionResolverPath: 'myResolverModule'
  }
});

Sample Connection Resolver Implementation

The supplied connection resolver should have the following method: #resolveConnection(config, callback).

config will be the priam configuration that was supplied to the constructor, so connection resolvers can access any custom configuration information specified when the driver was initialized.

callback(error, connectionInformation) should be called with the results from the connection resolver. If error is supplied, an error log message will be sent to the supplied logger. connectionInformation should always be supplied if known. If it is not supplied when an error is thrown, the error will be supplied to the #cql() callback.

connectionInformation should contain the following properties: user, password, hosts.

See example application for a concrete example using a connection resolver.

Port Mapping Options

If your connectionResolver connection information includes port, and is returning the port for a protocol you do not wish to use, (e.g. You want to use binary port 9042, but resolver is returning Thrift port 9160), you can use the connectionResolverPortMap option to perform the mapping.

var db = require('priam')({
  config: {
    /* ... other connection options, including Nimitz ... */
    connectionResolverPortMap = {
      from: '9160',
      to: '9042'
    }
  }
});

Release Notes

• 2.0.0: Updated cassandra-driver to latest version, handle new data type coercion. Breaking Change: Removed helenus dependency (deprecated in 1.2.0).
• 1.2.1: Added retry module from PR #47.
• 1.2.0: Resolved #44 (issue with USING TIMESTAMP on individual statementes within batch queries). Fixed an issue with subtypes being dropped from collection type hints. Downgrade helenus library to an optional dependency.
• 1.1.3: Fix issue with BOM marks inside of named queries.
• 1.1.2: Update cassandra-driver connection error logging.
• 1.1.1: Add emulated streaming support for helenus driver.
• 1.1.0: Add streaming support with Query.stream() or db.cql() for cassandra-driver.
• 1.0.0: Fix keyspace option when using multiple instances. This is a breaking change if you relied on the undocumented instance.pools.default property being available.
• 0.9.7: Attach cql to error objects generated by query execution.
• 0.9.6: Add support for routingIndexes when using TokenAwarePolicy.
• 0.9.5: Add better error handling for cassandra-driver.
• 0.9.4: Strip schema metadata from result sets over binary protocol v1.
• 0.9.3: Adjust stringify for numeric bigint values.
• 0.9.2: Fix parameterized queries over binary protocol v1.
• 0.9.1: Dependency updates.
• 0.9.0: Removed node-cassandra-cql in favor of cassandra-driver.
• 0.8.17: Batch.execute no longer yields an error when the batch is empty.
• 0.8.16: Simplified result set transformation for node-cassandra-cql drivers.
• 0.8.15: Add isBatch and isQuery methods to base driver.
• 0.8.14: Fix resultTransformer bug when query generates an error.
• 0.8.13: Fix Batch.add() when given empty Batch or Query objects.
• 0.8.12: Remove github dependency via priam-connection-cql module. Added versioning logic around cqlVersion to use the appropriate driver.
• 0.8.11: Coerce timestamp hinted parameters for node-cassandra-cql to Date objects from string or number.
• 0.8.10: Batch.add() can now take an Array argument.
• 0.8.9: Fix usage of Batch.addBatch() in pre-2.0 Cassandra environments that do not support DML-level timestamps.
• 0.8.8: Fixed bug where Query.single() and Query.first() would return empty array instead of null on empty result sets.
• 0.8.7: Fixed bug which caused boolean values to not be returned when their value is false
• 0.8.6: Fixed bug which caused resultTransformers to not execute
• 0.8.5: Changed config to look up consistency level enum if given a string Added resultTransformers to drivers and queries-- synchronous functions that are mapped over query results Query consistency is set to driver's at instantiation, rather than being looked up at execution if not present Added query method to base driver, alias for cql
• 0.8.4: Modified Batch.execute() to send timestamps as parameters instead of CQL strings.
• 0.8.3: Added Query.single(), Query.first(), and Query.all() enhancements.
• 0.8.2: Added generalized Batch.add() that can take a Query or Batch argument.
• 0.8.1: Added Batch.addBatch() enhancements.
• 0.8.0: Added Batch.addBatch(), Query.params([Array]), and driver.connect([Function]). Updated internal file naming conventions.
• 0.7.6: Updated to support insert/update statements on map<,> types.
• 0.7.5: Updated consistency failover strategy. Added EventEmitter inheritance.
• 0.7.4: Add support for COUNTER and UNLOGGED batch types.
• 0.7.3: Dependency bump.
• 0.7.1: Revert back to Promises v1.
• 0.7.0: Update to latest version of Promises (q.js). Potential breaking change - JSON is no longer auto-deserialized. See the Executing CQL section for more information. Use object data types if auto-deserialization is required on specific fields, or use deserializeJsonStrings option to detect JSON as 0.6.x and prior did.
• 0.6.9: Dependency bump.
• 0.6.8: Bugfixes.
• 0.6.7: Added batching support.
• 0.6.6: Added fluent syntax. Updated example to include setup script.
• 0.6.4: Added #param() helper method for hinted parameters.
• 0.6.3: Dependency updates, test Travis CI hooks.
• 0.6.2: Initial Public Release