Tutorial: Installing LoopBack connectors

This tutorial shows you how to install a LoopBack data source connector manually by using the command line in IBM® API Connect Version 5.0.6 and earlier.

Before you begin

Note: For tutorials about working with the developer toolkit in IBM API Connect Version 5.0.7 and later, see Developer toolkit tutorials for V5.0.7 and later.

To install a data source connector, you must be able to run an npm install command, which requires a connection to the internet. Alternatively, you can configure a private npm repository.

The Oracle, DB2, and SQLLite connectors require C compiler tools to build and install binary extensions. The exact requirements depend on your operating system. Once you have installed compiler tools, you can install the connector following the instructions in the following procedure.

Note: You may need to restart your computer at various points during installation.

Install:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
• Visual Studio. Use Visual Studio Community unless you want purchase Visual Studio Enterprise. Run the installer, check "Visual C++" under "Programming Languages", and accept the default installation location.
  Note: The Visual Studio installation can take a long time.
• Windows SDK. If the installation fails, look for C++ 2010 x64&x86 Redistributable in your installed programs and uninstall it.
• Python 2.7.10.
• Version 3 of npm. Enter the following command:

  npm install -g npm

  Then ensure the npm command uses the correct version:

  npm -v

  If the version shown is not 3.x.x, then edit your system PATH to ensure that C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm supersedes any other entries.

• For 64-bit builds of Node.js and native modules you also need the Windows 7 64-bit SDK. If the installation fails, try uninstalling any C++ 2010 x64&x86 redistributable that you have installed first. If you get errors that the 64-bit compilers are not installed you may also need the compiler update for the Windows SDK 7.1.

Note: Do not use Cygwin (Windows bash shell emulator). Use the Windows command shell instead.

You must have the command-line developer tools (or full installation of Xcode) and Python.

If you don't already have Xcode or the command-line tools installed, installation will prompt you as follows:

Click Install to install the command-line developer tools only. Alternatively, you can click Get Xcode to install the full Xcode product, but doing this can take a long time.

Python is also required. Most versions of OSX come with Python by default. If for some reason you don't have it, download and install Python.

Many Linux® systems come with the necessary tools. The specific requirements are:

• Python version 2.7. NOTE: version 3.x is not supported.

• make

• A C/C++ compiler toolchain, like GCC. NOTE: g++ version 4.2 or later is required.

On Debian and Debian-derived distributions (Ubuntu, Mint, and so on), use the command:

apt-get install build-essential

1. Open a new shell window.
2. Install the connector package by entering this command in the project root directory:

   npm install --save connector-package

   where connector-package is the name of the npm package for the LoopBack connector, as shown in the table.

   Table 1. LoopBack Connectors

   Data Source	Connector Package
   Database connectors
   Cloudant	loopback-connector-cloudant
   DashDB	loopback-connector-dashdb
   DB2	loopback-connector-db2
   DB2 for zOS	loopback-connector-db2z
   Microsoft SQL Server	loopback-connector-mssql
   MongoDB	loopback-connector-mongodb
   MQ Light	loopback-connector-mqlight
   MySQL	loopback-connector-mysql
   Oracle	loopback-connector-oracle
   PostgreSQL	loopback-connector-postgresql
   Other connectors
   SOAP web services	loopback-connector-soap
   REST web services	loopback-connector-rest

3. For Oracle, you must modify /etc/environment, reboot the system, then enter the following commands:

   $ echo "/home/strongbot/orapp2/node_modules/instantclient" | sudo tee -a /etc/ld.so.conf.d/loopback_oracle.conf
   $ sudo ldconfig