Neo4j Driver for JavaScript

A database driver for Neo4j 3.0.0+.

Resources to get you started:

Detailed docs Not available yet
Neo4j Manual
Neo4j Refcard

What's New

Upcoming version is now named as 4.0.0 instead of 2.0.0 to better align with server versions.
Reactive API (built on top of RxJS) is now available with 4.0 version server, which includes reactive protocol improvements.
Session instances can now be acquired against a specific database against a multi-database server, which is available with 4.0 version server.
A new driver.verifyConnectivity() method is introduced for connectivity verification purposes.
Driver default configuration for encrypted is now false (meaning that driver will only attempt clear text connections by default), and when encryption is explicitly enabled the default trust mode is TRUST_SYSTEM_CA_SIGNED_CERTIFICATES which relies upon underlying system's certificate trust settings.

Breaking Changes

Driver API is moved from neo4j.v1 to neo4j namespace.
driver#session() method now makes use of object destructuring rather than positional arguments (see Acquiring a Session for examples).
session#close() and driver#close() both now return Promises and no more accept callback function arguments.
driver.onError and driver.onCompleted callbacks are completely removed. Errors should be monitored on related code paths (i.e. through Promise#catch, etc.).
bolt+routing scheme is now renamed to neo4j. neo4j scheme is designed to work work with all possible 4.0 server deployments, but bolt scheme is still available for explicit single instance connections.

Including the Driver

In Node.js application

Stable channel:

npm install neo4j-driver

Pre-release channel:

npm install neo4j-driver@next

Please note that @next only points to pre-releases that are not suitable for production use. To get the latest stable release omit @next part altogether or use @latest instead.

var neo4j = require('neo4j-driver')

Driver instance should be closed when Node.js application exits:

driver.close() // returns a Promise

otherwise application shutdown might hang or it might exit with a non-zero exit code.

In web browser

We build a special browser version of the driver, which supports connecting to Neo4j over WebSockets. It can be included in an HTML page using one of the following tags:

<!-- Direct reference -->
<script src="lib/browser/neo4j-web.min.js"></script>

<!-- unpkg CDN non-minified -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/neo4j-driver"></script>
<!-- unpkg CDN minified for production use, version X.Y.Z -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/lib/browser/neo4j-web.min.js"></script>

<!-- jsDelivr CDN non-minified -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/neo4j-driver"></script>
<!-- jsDelivr CDN minified for production use, version X.Y.Z -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/lib/browser/neo4j-web.min.js"></script>

This will make a global neo4j object available, where you can access the driver API at neo4j*:

var driver = neo4j.driver(
  'neo4j://localhost',
  neo4j.auth.basic('neo4j', 'neo4j')
)

It is not required to explicitly close the driver on a web page. Web browser should gracefully close all open WebSockets when the page is unloaded. However, driver instance should be explicitly closed when it's lifetime is not the same as the lifetime of the web page:

driver.close() // returns a Promise

Usage examples

Constructing a Driver

// Create a driver instance, for the user neo4j with password neo4j.
// It should be enough to have a single driver per database per application.
var driver = neo4j.driver(
  'neo4j://localhost',
  neo4j.auth.basic('neo4j', 'neo4j')
)

// Close the driver when application exits.
// This closes all used network connections.
await driver.close()

Acquiring a Session

Regular Session

// Create a session to run Cypher statements in.
// Note: Always make sure to close sessions when you are done using them!
var session = driver.session()

with a Default Access Mode of `READ`

var session = driver.session({ defaultAccessMode: neo4j.session.READ })

with Bookmarks

var session = driver.session({
  bookmarks: [bookmark1FromPreviousSession, bookmark2FromPreviousSession]
})

against a Database

var session = driver.session({
  database: 'foo',
  defaultAccessMode: neo4j.session.WRITE
})

Reactive Session

// Create a reactive session to run Cypher statements in.
// Note: Always make sure to close sessions when you are done using them!
var rxSession = driver.rxSession()

with a Default Access Mode of `READ`

var rxSession = driver.rxSession({ defaultAccessMode: neo4j.session.READ })

with Bookmarks

var rxSession = driver.rxSession({
  bookmarks: [bookmark1FromPreviousSession, bookmark2FromPreviousSession]
})

against a Database

var rxSession = driver.rxSession({
  database: 'foo',
  defaultAccessMode: neo4j.session.WRITE
})

Executing Statements

Consuming Records with Streaming API

// Run a Cypher statement, reading the result in a streaming manner as records arrive:
session
  .run('MERGE (alice:Person {name : $nameParam}) RETURN alice.name AS name', {
    nameParam: 'Alice'
  })
  .subscribe({
    onKeys: keys => {
      console.log(keys)
    },
    onNext: record => {
      console.log(record.get('name'))
    },
    onCompleted: () => {
      session.close() // returns a Promise
    },
    onError: error => {
      console.log(error)
    }
  })

Subscriber API allows following combinations of onKeys, onNext, onCompleted and onError callback invocations:

zero or one onKeys,
zero or more onNext followed by onCompleted when operation was successful. onError will not be invoked in this case
zero or more onNext followed by onError when operation failed. Callback onError might be invoked after couple onNext invocations because records are streamed lazily by the database. onCompleted will not be invoked in this case.

Consuming Records with Promise API

// the Promise way, where the complete result is collected before we act on it:
session
  .run('MERGE (james:Person {name : $nameParam}) RETURN james.name AS name', {
    nameParam: 'James'
  })
  .then(result => {
    result.records.forEach(record => {
      console.log(record.get('name'))
    })
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.log(error)
  })
  .then(() => session.close())

Consuming Records with Reactive API

rxSession
  .run('MERGE (james:Person {name: $nameParam}) RETURN james.name AS name', {
    nameParam: 'Bob'
  })
  .records()
  .pipe(
    map(record => record.get('name')),
    concat(rxSession.close())
  )
  .subscribe({
    next: data => console.log(data),
    complete: () => console.log('completed'),
    error: err => console.log(err)
  })

Transaction functions

// Transaction functions provide a convenient API with minimal boilerplate and
// retries on network fluctuations and transient errors. Maximum retry time is
// configured on the driver level and is 30 seconds by default:
// Applies both to standard and reactive sessions.
neo4j.driver('neo4j://localhost', neo4j.auth.basic('neo4j', 'neo4j'), {
  maxTransactionRetryTime: 30000
})

Reading with Async Session

// It is possible to execute read transactions that will benefit from automatic
// retries on both single instance ('bolt' URI scheme) and Causal Cluster
// ('neo4j' URI scheme) and will get automatic load balancing in cluster deployments
var readTxResultPromise = session.readTransaction(txc => {
  // used transaction will be committed automatically, no need for explicit commit/rollback

  var result = txc.run('MATCH (person:Person) RETURN person.name AS name')
  // at this point it is possible to either return the result or process it and return the
  // result of processing it is also possible to run more statements in the same transaction
  return result
})

// returned Promise can be later consumed like this:
readTxResultPromise
  .then(result => {
    console.log(result.records)
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.log(error)
  })
  .then(() => session.close())

Reading with Reactive Session

rxSession
  .readTransaction(txc =>
    txc
      .run('MATCH (person:Person) RETURN person.name AS name')
      .records()
      .pipe(map(record => record.get('name')))
  )
  .subscribe({
    next: data => console.log(data),
    complete: () => console.log('completed'),
    error: err => console.log(error)
  })

Writing with Async Session

// It is possible to execute write transactions that will benefit from automatic retries
// on both single instance ('bolt' URI scheme) and Causal Cluster ('neo4j' URI scheme)
var writeTxResultPromise = session.writeTransaction(async txc => {
  // used transaction will be committed automatically, no need for explicit commit/rollback

  var result = await txc.run(
    "MERGE (alice:Person {name : 'Alice' }) RETURN alice.name AS name"
  )
  // at this point it is possible to either return the result or process it and return the
  // result of processing it is also possible to run more statements in the same transaction
  return result.records.map(record => record.get('name'))
})

// returned Promise can be later consumed like this:
writeTxResultPromise
  .then(namesArray => {
    console.log(namesArray)
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.log(error)
  })
  .then(() => session.close())

Writing with Reactive Session

rxSession
  .writeTransaction(txc =>
    txc
      .run("MERGE (alice:Person {name: 'James'}) RETURN alice.name AS name")
      .records()
      .pipe(map(record => record.get('name')))
  )
  .subscribe({
    next: data => console.log(data),
    complete: () => console.log('completed'),
    error: error => console.log(error)
  })

Explicit Transactions

With Async Session

// run statement in a transaction
const txc = session.beginTransaction()
try {
  const result1 = await txc.run(
    'MERGE (bob:Person {name: $nameParam}) RETURN bob.name AS name',
    {
      nameParam: 'Bob'
    }
  )
  result1.records.forEach(r => console.log(r.get('name')))
  console.log('First query completed')

  const result2 = await txc.run(
    'MERGE (adam:Person {name: $nameParam}) RETURN adam.name AS name',
    {
      nameParam: 'Adam'
    }
  )
  result2.records.forEach(r => console.log(r.get('name')))
  console.log('Second query completed')

  await txc.commit()
  console.log('committed')
} catch (error) {
  console.log(error)
  await txc.rollback()
  console.log('rolled back')
} finally {
  await session.close()
}

With Reactive Session

rxSession
  .beginTransaction()
  .pipe(
    flatMap(txc =>
      concat(
        txc
          .run(
            'MERGE (bob:Person {name: $nameParam}) RETURN bob.name AS name',
            {
              nameParam: 'Bob'
            }
          )
          .records()
          .pipe(map(r => r.get('name'))),
        of('First query completed'),
        txc
          .run(
            'MERGE (adam:Person {name: $nameParam}) RETURN adam.name AS name',
            {
              nameParam: 'Adam'
            }
          )
          .records()
          .pipe(map(r => r.get('name'))),
        of('Second query completed'),
        txc.commit(),
        of('committed')
      ).pipe(catchError(err => txc.rollback().pipe(throwError(err))))
    )
  )
  .subscribe({
    next: data => console.log(data),
    complete: () => console.log('completed'),
    error: error => console.log(error)
  })

Numbers and the Integer type

The Neo4j type system includes 64-bit integer values. However, JavaScript can only safely represent integers between -(2⁵³- 1) and (2⁵³- 1). In order to support the full Neo4j type system, the driver will not automatically convert to javascript integers. Any time the driver receives an integer value from Neo4j, it will be represented with an internal integer type by the driver.

Any javascript number value passed as a parameter will be recognized as Float type.

Writing integers

Numbers written directly e.g. session.run("CREATE (n:Node {age: {age}})", {age: 22}) will be of type Float in Neo4j. To write the age as an integer the neo4j.int method should be used:

var neo4j = require('neo4j-driver')

session.run('CREATE (n {age: {myIntParam}})', { myIntParam: neo4j.int(22) })

To write integers larger than can be represented as JavaScript numbers, use a string argument to neo4j.int:

session.run('CREATE (n {age: {myIntParam}})', {
  myIntParam: neo4j.int('9223372036854775807')
})

Reading integers

Since Integers can be larger than can be represented as JavaScript numbers, it is only safe to convert to JavaScript numbers if you know that they will not exceed (2⁵³- 1) in size. In order to facilitate working with integers the driver include neo4j.isInt, neo4j.integer.inSafeRange, neo4j.integer.toNumber, and neo4j.integer.toString.

var aSmallInteger = neo4j.int(123)
if (neo4j.integer.inSafeRange(aSmallInteger)) {
  var aNumber = aSmallInteger.toNumber()
}

If you will be handling integers larger than that, you should convert them to strings:

var aLargerInteger = neo4j.int('9223372036854775807')
if (!neo4j.integer.inSafeRange(aLargerInteger)) {
  var integerAsString = aLargerInteger.toString()
}

Enabling native numbers

Starting from 1.6 version of the driver it is possible to configure it to only return native numbers instead of custom Integer objects. The configuration option affects all integers returned by the driver. Enabling this option can result in a loss of precision and incorrect numeric values being returned if the database contains integer numbers outside of the range [Number.MIN_SAFE_INTEGER, Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER]. To enable potentially lossy integer values use the driver's configuration object:

var driver = neo4j.driver(
  'neo4j://localhost',
  neo4j.auth.basic('neo4j', 'neo4j'),
  { disableLosslessIntegers: true }
)

Building

npm install
npm run build

This produces browser-compatible standalone files under lib/browser and a Node.js module version under lib/. See files under examples/ on how to use.

Testing

Tests require latest Boltkit and Firefox to be installed in the system.

Boltkit is needed to start, stop and configure local test database. Boltkit can be installed with the following command:

pip3 install --upgrade boltkit

To run tests against "default" Neo4j version:

./runTests.sh

To run tests against specified Neo4j version:

./runTests.sh '-e 3.1.3'

Simple npm test can also be used if you already have a running version of a compatible Neo4j server.

For development, you can have the build tool rerun the tests each time you change the source code:

gulp watch-n-test

Testing on windows

To run the same test suite, run .\runTest.ps1 instead in powershell with admin right. The admin right is required to start/stop Neo4j properly as a system service. While there is no need to grab admin right if you are running tests against an existing Neo4j server using npm test.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1,259 Commits
docs		docs
examples		examples
spec/support		spec/support
src		src
support		support
test		test
types		types
.babelrc		.babelrc
.eslintignore		.eslintignore
.eslintrc.json		.eslintrc.json
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmignore		.npmignore
.nycrc		.nycrc
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md		ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
esdoc.json		esdoc.json
gulpfile.babel.js		gulpfile.babel.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
runTests.ps1		runTests.ps1
runTests.sh		runTests.sh
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

License

SailsGoal/neo4j-javascript-driver

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Neo4j Driver for JavaScript

What's New

Breaking Changes

Including the Driver

In Node.js application

In web browser

Usage examples

Constructing a Driver

Acquiring a Session

Regular Session

with a Default Access Mode of READ

with Bookmarks

against a Database

Reactive Session

with a Default Access Mode of READ

with Bookmarks

against a Database

Executing Statements

Consuming Records with Streaming API

Consuming Records with Promise API

Consuming Records with Reactive API

Transaction functions

Reading with Async Session

Reading with Reactive Session

Writing with Async Session

Writing with Reactive Session

Explicit Transactions

With Async Session

With Reactive Session

Numbers and the Integer type

Writing integers

Reading integers

Enabling native numbers

Building

Testing

Testing on windows

About

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License

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with a Default Access Mode of `READ`

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