"Login failed" connecting to SQL-Azure from node.js (msnodesql) - node.js

Question

I followed the tutorial here for building a node.js website on Azure that connects to a SQL-Azure DB:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/nodejs/tutorials/web-site-with-sql-database/
Here's what my .js code looks like:
var sql = require('msnodesql'),
nconf = require('nconf');
exports.authenticate = function(req, res){
var select = "select userID, clientID from users where username_e = '?' AND pwd_e = '?'";
nconf.env().file({ file: 'config.json' });
var conn = nconf.get("SQL_CONN");
console.log(conn);
sql.query(conn, select, [req.param('username'), req.param('password')], function(err, results) {
if(err)
throw err;
console.log(results);
if(results.length == 0) {
// no match
res.redirect('/login?failed=true');
} else {
// authenticated
res.redirect('/start');
}
});
return;
};
But when I run it on my local node.js, I keep getting
"Login failed for user 'mylogin'"
I copied the ODBC connection string directly from the Azure management
site
I replaced {your password here} with my password
I quadruple-checked the username and password are correct (I can successfully log into the management tools, AND I can connect to the DB fine via SQL Server Management Studio from my local)
I added an IP exception for my public IP address for good measure
I tried editing the connection string here and there (changed username to mylogin instead of mylogin#server, tried using the ADO connection string instead)
I ALSO was able to connect successfully in Java using jdbc. Here's the jdbc connection string that worked:
jdbc:sqlserver://xxxmyserver.database.windows.net:1433;DatabaseName=mydb;user=mylogin#xxxmyserver;password=pwd
And here's the node.js ODBC connection string that does not work:
Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Server=tcp:xxxmyserver.database.windows.net,1433;Database=[mydb];Uid=mylogin#xxxmyserver;Pwd=pwd;Encrypt=yes;Connection Timeout=30;
I am just completely at a loss here, especially since I can connect fine from my local using SSMS. Anyone else run into the same issue?
In case it matters, I am using node.js v0.8.2 (since that's what's on Azure's VMs) and msnodesql v0.2.1

Answer 1

To anyone else stumbling across this and still getting the problem even after taking out the square brackets, there's a flag you need to set in the Azure management portal to enable other Azure services to connect to your Azure SQL database. To add confusion, when you first create it, it adds your IP address to the list, which is why you seem to be able to connect to it fine from your dev machine but not from your Azure instance.
Anyway, to do this, go into the database's settings in your Azure management portal, go to 'allowed IP addresses' and enable 'Windows Azure Services' under allowed services at the bottom.

Answer 2

Try your query without the quotes around the question mark parameters.
var select = "select userID, clientID from users where username_e = ? AND pwd_e = ?";
Quotes are not needed for string (or any type of) parameters. Parameters are sent out of band rather than substituted directly into the query. This is what makes them so much more secure, since they are never evaluated with the SQL.

Answer 3

The problem was with the Database section of my connection string - the square brackets around the database name were causing the problem. The ODBC connection string Azure tells you to use looks like this:
Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Server=tcp:xxxmyserver.database.windows.net,1433;Database=[mydb];Uid=mylogin#xxxmyserver;Pwd=pwd;Encrypt=yes;Connection Timeout=30;
When instead you need to use this:
Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Server=tcp:xxxmyserver.database.windows.net,1433;Database=mydb;Uid=mylogin#xxxmyserver;Pwd=pwd;Encrypt=yes;Connection Timeout=30;
Note the lack in square brackets around the database name.
This looks like it's a bug in Azure's management tool that will hopefully go away soon. Hope this saves someone else several hours of debugging.