Creating a CouchDB database using Node.js and Cradle

Before you can use a database in CouchDB, you must create it.

How to do it...

Once you've obtained a handle to the database that you want to use, you should check to see whether it exists, and create it if it doesn't:

db.exists(function (err, exists) {
if (err) {
  console.log('error', err);
} elseif (!exists) {
{
  db.create();
}
});

How it works…

The exists method checks to see whether a database exists, calling the callback you provide with an error if one occurred and a flag indicating whether or not the database exists. If the database doesn't exist, you create it using the create method.

This is a common pattern for Cradle because the RESTful interface is, by nature, asynchronous. You'll pass the arguments to the method you want to perform and a callback function that the method invokes when it's complete.

Tip

A common mistake that beginners make is to assume that you can call one of these methods without the callback function and then do...