Using MongoDB¶
MongoDB is a free, open-source database server. We are using the community edition and Robo 3T as the client.
Download links:
Installation instructions: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/administration/install-community/
Video guide of the tools
How to use these tools: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/9bb0c06f-7b5f-454b-b5ff-c784bd96d84b
Starting MongoDB server¶
Depending on the installation model, the server might automatically start. If we opted out of this option, we could start the server with the following command within the installation directory. (Note, that the server application is the mongod executable.)
mongod.exe --dbpath="<workdir>"
The database will be stored in directory workdir. When started with the command above, the server is alive until the console is closed. We can shut down the server using Ctrl + C.
Mongo shell¶
The Mongo shell is a simple console client. The official documentation uses this shell in the examples; however, we will not use this app.
Robo 3T¶
Robo 3T is a simple free client application for accessing MongoDB databases. There are other client applications (e.g., Studio 3T), but the free version is sufficient.
When the app starts, it displays out previous connections, or we can create a new one. By default, the address is localhost, and the port is 27017.
After the connection is established, the databases and collections are displayed in a tree-view on the left. To begin with, we will not have any database or collections. (We can create them manually: right-click on the server and Create Database. We will not use this, though.)
A collection can be opened by double-clicking. This will open a new tab, where a search command is executed. This command can be edited, and we can issue custom queries too.
The content of the collection (the documents) is listed below. Each document is a separate row. A document can be viewed, edited and deleted by right clicking a document. Edit is performed by editing the raw JSON document.
A new document can be inserted by right-clicking and writing the JSON content. It is advised to copy an existing document and change it to ensure that key names are correct.