MongoDB Collection

1. Overview

MongoDB is a scalable, flexible NoSQL document database platform known for its horizontal scaling and load balancing capabilities, which has given application developers an unprecedented level of flexibility and scalability.

1.1 Considerations

Please review the following considerations prior to setting up your MongoDB Collection data sync source:

• We currently only support SCRAM authentication (Mongo 4.0+).

• Syncs are column based. This means that you must flatten the MongoDB source document prior to sync by using a projection (See section 2: Projection (JSON Object)).

• The column names used in the source must match elements on the root object, with the exception of "$" which can be used to retrieve the full document.

• By default, MongoDB batch size is 101.

• By default, bulk operations size is 5000.

• Due to a conversion of doubles to decimals that occurs during the sync process, minor data losses may occur.

• The following data types are not supported:

  • Binary Data

  • Regular Expression

  • DBPointer

  • JavaScript

  • JavaScript code with scope

  • Symbol

  • Min Key

  • Max Key

• The following data types are supported with conversions:

  • ObjectID is supported, but converted to string

  • Object is supported, but converted to JSON

  • Array is supported, but converted to JSON

  • Timestamp is supported, but converted to 64-bit integers

The MongoDB Collection source supports batch syncs. (To enable real-time syncs with MongoDB, use the MongoDB Collection (Cinchy Event Triggered) source instead.)

2. Info Tab

You can review the parameters that can be found in the info tab below (Image 1).

Values

Parameter	Description	Example
Title	Mandatory. Input a name for your data sync	MongoDB to Cinchy
Version	Mandatory. This is a pre-populated field containing a version number for your data sync. You can override it if you wish.	1.0.0
Parameters	Optional. Review our documentation on Parameters here for more information about this field.

Image 1: The Info Tab

3. Source Tab

The following table outlines the mandatory and optional parameters you will find on the Source tab (Image 2).

Source Details

The following parameters will help to define your data sync source and how it functions.

Parameter	Description	Example
Source	Mandatory. Select your source from the drop down menu.	MongoDB Collection
Connection String	Mandatory. This is the encrypted connection string. You can review MongoDB's Connection String guide and parameter descriptions here. Do not include the /[database] in your connection URL. By default services like MongoDB Atlas will automatically include it when copying the connection string. If authenticating against a database other than the admin db, please provide the name of the database associated with the user’s credentials using the authSource parameter.	Example (Default): mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<mongo host URI> Example (Against different database): mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<mongo host URI>?authSource=<authentication_db>
Database	Mandatory. The name of the MongoDB database that contains the collection listed in the "Collection" parameter.	Blog
Collection	Mandatory. The name of your MongoDB collection.	Article
Type	Mandatory. The method for retrieving your data. This will be either: - db.collection.find(): This method is used to select documents in a collection when there is no need to transform (e.g. flatten or aggregate) the data. It is used for basic queries where query and projection are sufficient. - db.collection.aggregate(): This method is used when there is a need to transform the data in a collection. It is used for more complex scenarios with single or multi-stages pipelines. In general, you will yield the quickest performance by using the find method, unless you need a specific aggregation operator.
Query (JSON Object)	A query for retrieving your data. This option appears if you have selected db.collection.find().	Example Query
Projection (JSON Object)	This option appears if you have selected db.collection.find(). Syncs are column based. This means that you must flatten the MongoDB source document prior to sync using a projection.	Example Projection
Pipeline (JSON Array of Objects)	An aggregation pipeline consists of one or more stages that process documents. This option appears if you have selected db.collection.aggregate().
Use SSL	This checkbox can be used to define the use of x.509 certificate authentication for your sync. If checked, you will need to input the following values taken from your cert: - SSL Key PEM - SSL Certificate PEM - SSL CLA PEM

Schema

The Schema section is where you define which source columns you want to sync in your connection. You can repeat the values for multiple columns.

Parameter	Description	Example
Name	Mandatory. The name of your column as it appears in the source. This field is case sensitive and preserves spaces.	Name
Alias	Optional. You may choose to use an alias on your column so that it has a different name in the data sync.
Data Type	Mandatory. The data type of the column values. You can review the supported data types and their translations here.	Text
Description	Optional. You may choose to add a description to your column.

There are other options available for the Schema section if you click on Show Advanced.

Parameter	Description	Example
Mandatory	If both Mandatory and Validated are checked on a column, then rows where the column is empty are rejected If just Mandatory is checked on a column, then all rows are synced with the execution log status of failed, and the source error of "Mandatory Rule Violation" If just Validated is checked on a column, then all rows are synced.
Validate Data	If both Mandatory and Validated are checked on a column, then rows where the column is empty are rejected If just Validated is checked on a column, then all rows are synced.
Trim Whitespace	Optional if data type = text. If your data type was chosen as "text", you can choose whether to trim the whitespace (that is, spaces and other non-printing characters).
Max Length	Optional if data type = text. You can input a numerical value in this field that represents the maximum length of the data that can be synced in your column. If the value is exceeded, the row will be rejected (you can find this error in the Execution Log).

You can choose to add in a Transformation > String Replacement by inputting the following:

Parameter	Description	Example
Pattern	Mandatory if using a Transformation. The pattern for your string replacement, i.e. the string that will be searched and replaced.
Replacement	What you want to replace your pattern with.

Note that you can have more than one String Replacement

Example Query

// query: where "Price" is less than 10

blog> db.Articles.find({ "Price": { "$lt": 10 } })
[
  {
    _id: ObjectId("63d8137bd755fcdeed234403"),
    Name: 'Shirt',
    Price: 9.95,
    Details: { Color: 'White', Size: 'Small' },
    Stock: 61
  }
]

Example Projection

// Flatten the document

blog> db.Articles.find({}, { Name: 1, Price: 1, Color: "Details.Color", Size: "Details.Size", Stock: 1 })
[
  {
    _id: ObjectId("63d812afd755fcdeed234402"),
    Name: 'Shirt',
    Price: 19.95,
    Stock: 12,
    Color: 'Details.Color',
    Size: 'Details.Size'
  },
  {
    _id: ObjectId("63d8137bd755fcdeed234403"),
    Name: 'Shirt',
    Price: 9.95,
    Stock: 61,
    Color: 'Details.Color',
    Size: 'Details.Size'
  }
]

Image 2: The Source Tab

4. Next Steps

• Configure your Destination
• Define your Sync Behaviour.
• Add in your Post Sync Scripts, if required.
• Define your Permissions.
• To run a real-time sync (using the Cinchy Event Triggered MongoDB Source), set up your Listener Config and enable it to begin your sync.
• To run a batch sync, select Jobs > Start Job.

Appendix A

Data Types

The MongoDB Collection Data Source obtains BSON documents from MongoDB. BSON, short for Binary JSON, is a binary-encoded serialization of JSON-like documents. Like JSON, BSON sup­ports the em­bed­ding of doc­u­ments and ar­rays

with­in other documents and arrays. BSON also con­tains extensions that allow representation of data types that are not part of the JSON spec. For ex­ample BSON makes a distinction between Int32 and Int64.

The following table shows how MongoDB data types are translated in Cinchy.

MongoDB	Cinchy	Notes
Double	Number	Supported
String	Text	Supported
Object	Text (JSON)	Supported
Array	Text (JSON)	Supported
Binary Data	Binary	Unsupported
ObjectId	Text	Supported
Boolean	Bool	Supported
Date	Date	Supported
Null	-	Supported
RegEx	-	Unsupported
JavaScript	-	Unsupported
Timestamp	Number	Supported
32-bit Integer	Number	Supported
64-bit Integer	Number	Supported
Decimal28	Number	Supported
Min Key	-	Unsupported
Max Key	-	Unsupported
-	Geography	Unsupported
-	Geometry	Unsupported