Article - Node.js and MongoDB - Getting started with MongoJS

articles/node-js-and-mongodb-getting-started-with-mongojs.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+Title: Node.js and MongoDB - Getting started with MongoJS
+Author: Srirangan
+Date: Mon Feb 06 2012 21:15:00 GMT+0530 (IST)
+Node: v0.6.10
+
+It won't be an exaggeration if one claims that in the past few months Node.js and MongoDB have literally taken the 
+software and web industries by storm.
+
+Not just bleeding-edge startups but even medium and large enterprises are leveraging these two technologies to deliver 
+a better experience to their users by build more capable, performant and scalable apps.
+
+So what is Node.js?
+
+    Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. 
+    Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for 
+    data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
+
+..and what is MongoDB?
+
+    MongoDB is a scalable, high-performance, open source NoSQL database.
+
+This post will cover the basics and get you started with your Node.js + MongoDB app. Make sure you have Node.js 
+installed and MongoDB setup on your developer machine.
+
+Let's verify your Node.js installation and start the MongoDB server:
+
+    $ node -v
+    $ mongod
+
+### Introducing MongoJS
+MongoJS is a brilliant little Node.js package that lets you access MongoDB using an API that is extremely similar to
+MongoDB's JavaScript shell.
+
+### Installing MongoJS
+Once Node.js has been setup correctly on your machine, you can use its internal package manager NPM to install MongoJS:
+
+    $ npm install mongojs
+
+We can now start building our JavaScript application and connect to our MongoDB server:
+
+    // app.js
+    var databaseUrl = "mydb"; // "username:[email protected]/mydb"
+    var collections = ["users", "reports"]
+    var db = require("mongojs").connect(databaseUrl, collections);
+
+The databaseUrl can contain the database server host and port along with the database name to connect to. By default
+the host is “localhost” and the port is “27017“. If you're using the default, which is likely on a developer
+environment, the databaseUrl can contain just the actual database name for our app.
+
+The collections is a set (array) of collections our application uses. It isn't mandatory but is preferred as it allows
+us to emulate a MongoDB JavaScript client like API within our Node.js app.
+
+Here's an example for finding documents within a collection specifically in this case to find all female users.
+
+    // app.js
+    db.users.find({sex: "female"}, function(err, users) {
+      if( err || !users) console.log("No female users found");
+      else users.forEach( function(femaleUser) {
+        console.log(femaleUser);
+      } );
+    });
+
+Notice how our initial query is a near duplication of the corresponding query in MongoDB's console. In addition to the
+query, in our Node.js source code (i.e. app.js) we pass a callback function to handle the results of the query.
+
+Node.js implements an event based concurrency paradigm and almost everything is always a callback. This allows your
+Node.js app to be non-blocking and high performing.
+
+What happens in our specific callback is self-explanatory — we check for errors and results, and if the query returns
+female users they are logged to the console.
+
+Okay, how do I save a new user in my collection? Exactly how you would do it in the console, your code will look like
+this:
+
+    // app.js
+    db.users.save({email: "[email protected]", password: "iLoveMongo", sex: "male"}, function(err, saved) {
+      if( err || !saved ) console.log("User not saved");
+      else console.log("User saved");
+    });
+
+Here's an example for updating a record / document:
+
+    // app.js
+    db.users.update({email: "[email protected]"}, {$set: {password: "iReallyLoveMongo"}}, function(err, updated) {
+      if( err || !updated ) console.log("User not updated");
+      else console.log("User updated");
+    });
+
+Okay, now we run this app in the console:
+
+    $ node app.js
+
+And there we have it, an incredibly simple quick start for Node.js + MongoDB enthusiasts. Happy coding!
+