What is the best method to seeding a Node / MongoDB application?

So, I'm new to the MEAN stack, and I've hit a wall trying to seed MongoDB. I'm using Mongoose to communicate with the database, and there's a bunch of documentation suggesting I should be able to seed using populated JSON files.

What I've tried:

node-mongo-seed; Pretty straight forward, but consistently throws errors on the end of arrays. (Perhaps the missing bson module is at fault?)

{ [Error: Cannot find module '../build/Release/bson'] code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND' } js-bson: Failed to load c++ bson extension, using pure JS version Seeding files from directory /Users/Antwisted/code/wdi/MEAN/seeds ---------------------- Seeding collection locations err = [SyntaxError: /Users/Antwisted/code/wdi/MEAN/seeds/locations.json: Unexpected token {]

mongoose-seed; Also pretty straight forward, basically puts the JSON objects into a variable before exporting to the database. Promising, but... more errors...

Successfully initialized mongoose-seed [ 'app/models/locationsModel.js' ] Locations collection cleared Error creating document [0] of Location model Error: Location validation failed Error creating document [1] of Location model Error: Location validation failed Error creating document [2] of Location model Error: Location validation failed...

So, my thoughts were that it was probably a syntax error within the JSON structure, but playing around with that has not yielded any real solutions (or maybe I'm missing it?). Sample of my JSON:

{ { "header": "Dan's Place", "rating": 3, "address": "125 High Street, New York, 10001", "cord1": -73.0812, "cord2": 40.8732, "attributes": ["Hot drinks", "Food", "Premium wifi"], "hours": [ { "days": "Monday - Friday", "hours": "7:00am - 7:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Saturday", "hours": "8:00am - 5:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Sunday", "closed": true } ], "reviews": [ { "rating": 4, "id": ObjectId(), "author": "Philly B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')", "body": "It was fine, but coffee was a bit dull. Nice atmosphere." }, { "rating": 3, "id": ObjectId(), "author": "Tom B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')", "body": "I asked for her number. She said no." } ] }, { "header": "Jared's Jive", "rating": 5, "address": "747 Fly Court, New York, 10001", "cord1": -73.0812, "cord2": 40.8732, "attributes": ["Live Music", "Rooftop Bar", "2 Floors"], "hours": [ { "days": "Monday - Friday", "hours": "7:00am - 7:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Saturday", "hours": "8:00am - 5:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Sunday", "closed": true } ], "reviews": [ { "rating": 5, "id": ObjectId(), "author": "Jacob G.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')", "body": "Whoa! The music here is wicked good. Definitely going again." }, { "rating": 4, "id": ObjectId(), "author": "Tom B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')", "body": "I asked to play her a tune. She said no." } ] } }

Additionally, I'm not entirely sure how to specify subdocuments within the JSON (assuming I can get the seeding process to work correctly in the first place).

Here's my model:

Any insight on how to navigate these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You can also consider Mongo Seeding, a flexible solution for importing data into database. This is an open source project I'm recently working on, and it enables you to seed MongoDB database with JS library, CLI and Docker image. It supports JSON, JavaScript and TypeScript (Docker/custom TS apps) for defining the data.
– pkosiec
Jun 29 at 17:50

2 Answers
2

You can populate MongoDB in the CLI using mongoimport

mongoimport

It will load a JSON file into a specified MongoDB Instance & Collection, all you need is for a mongod instance to be running before executing.

mongod

Here is a walkthrough of using mongoimport.

mongoimport

This definitely helped me accomplish what I was looking to, at least part way. I'm not sure (yet) how to modify the process to include subdocuments (most likely mongodump), but this was a great step in the right direction. Thank you!
– Antwisted
Mar 17 '16 at 18:05

mongodump

What do you mean when you say include subdocuments?
– peteb
Mar 17 '16 at 18:06

This post may be helpful to you regarding subdocs with mongoimport
– peteb
Mar 17 '16 at 18:29

mongoimport

You JSON is not flowing your schema.

Fix your JSON to this:

{ { "name": "Dan's Place", "rating": 3, "address": "125 High Street, New York, 10001", "coordinates": [-73.0812, 40.8732], "attributes": ["Hot drinks", "Food", "Premium wifi"], "openHours": [ { "days": "Monday - Friday", "opening": "7:00am", "closing": "7:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Saturday", "opening": "8:00am", "closing": "5:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Sunday", "closed": true } ], "reviews": [ { "rating": 4, "author": "Philly B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')", "body": "It was fine, but coffee was a bit dull. Nice atmosphere." }, { "rating": 3, "author": "Tom B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')", "body": "I asked for her number. She said no." } ] }, { "name": "Jared's Jive", "rating": 5, "address": "747 Fly Court, New York, 10001", "coordinates": [-73.0812, 40.8732], "attributes": ["Live Music", "Rooftop Bar", "2 Floors"], "openHours": [ { "days": "Monday - Friday", "opening": "7:00am", "closing": "7:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Saturday", "opening": "8:00am", "closing": "5:00pm", "closed": false }, { "days": "Sunday", "closed": true } ], "reviews": [ { "rating": 5, "author": "Jacob G.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')", "body": "Whoa! The music here is wicked good. Definitely going again." }, { "rating": 4, "author": "Tom B.", "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')", "body": "I asked to play her a tune. She said no." } ] } }

You can use mongoose-data-seed to write your own seed script that interacting your mongoose models with:
https://github.com/sharvit/mongoose-data-seed

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