is it possible to connect to mysql database directly without rest api? - mysql

Question

I'm very new to this backend stuff but I really want to know or else I can't sleep tonight or many other nightss.......
I'm tasked to build a rest API that will allow our web application to update our company's MySQL database remotely from any internet or client.
basically, the web application will be built using react framework that will allow users to take in some inputs and send them to the backend and update the MySQL database remotely.
so far, I have the rest API ready and inside this rest API i have included some mysql methods that will update the table in our database. it works fine.
but suddenly I couldn't find the reason why we need the rest API in the first place
below is the code I have...my question is
can't we just skip the express part? and directly connect the application to MySQL database using the mysql methods createConnection and then run db.query(sqlInsert) without running the app.get?
the only reason I can think of is that, if I do this, it will probably allow anyone to access the database from the browser's console. In this case, does it mean rest API is just like a filter that simply runs a server site after the user clicks the submit button, and then once the server runs it will then take the submitted information and run the db.query()? and then once that is complete, it will send back a response displayed on the server site saying its working?
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const mysql = require('mysql');
const db = mysql.createConnection({
host:'the ip address of the computer that has the mySQL database',
user: 'the user name created in workbench',
password: 'the password created in workbench',
database: 'the database name',
port: '1234'
})
db.connect(function(err){
if(err){
console.log(err)
process.exit(1)
}
console.log("connected to mysql")
})
app.get('/', (req,res) => {
const sqlInsert = "INSERT INTO person123 (customerid, firstname, lastname) VALUES ('USv10', 'USv10', 'USv10');"
db.query(sqlInsert), (err, result) =>{
}
res.send('working')
})
app.listen(3001, () => {
console.log ('running on port 3001 yes')
})

Answer 1

yes you can connect with mysql without express and running restful api but
condition is that server will be running using a specific port.with only this block
of code your server is connected to databse.
var mysql = require('mysql');
var con = mysql.createConnection({
host:'the ip address of the computer that has the mySQL database',
user: 'the user name created in workbench',
password: 'the password created in workbench',
database: 'the database name',
port: '1234'
});
con.connect(function(err) {
if (err) throw err;
console.log("Connected!");
});
and this block is nesecary for running server on specific port
app.listen(3001, () => {
console.log ('running on port 3001 yes')
})