node.js design pattern for creating db connection once

Question

I am looking for help with a design pattern for creating a database connection in my node.js application.

It seems obvious to do:

module1:

var db;
exports.get_db = function(callback) {

  if (db == null) {
    dblibrary.create(connection_params, function(error, conn) {
      if (error == null) {
        db = conn;
        callback(null, db);
      }
    });
  } else {
    callback(null, db);
  }
};

module2:

exports.do_something = function () {
  module1.get_db(function (err, conn) {
    if (err == null) {
      // continue using query
    }
  });
};

It seems painful to have to penalize every single person who wants to get the db connection with the requirement of using a callback.

I could do this:

module1:

var db;

dblibrary.create_connection(connection_params, function (err, conn) {

  if (err != null) {
     console.log("can't create connection");
     console.log(err);
     process.exit();
  } else {
     db = conn;
  }
});

exports.get_db = function() {
  return db;
};

This makes it so that getting the db connection is simple and fast, but means we have to "wait" at node startup time for the connection to be established.

Which is the better design? Is there a better way of doing things?

Answer 1

mydb.js module:

var db
exports.db = function() {
    if (db === null) {
        db = dblibrary.createClient()
    }
    return db
}

Other modules:

var db = require('mydb').db()
...
db.query(...)

This creates the DB client instance once at startup. I like this solution because the creation code is encapsulated in a separate module and the other modules can get access to the client with one require() statement.