MEAN Stack Development with MongoDB

Introduction

• This is just an introduction of MEAN Stack and MongoDB.
• I'll write more about MEAN Stack in the future.
• This is the first part of the series of articles which I will write about the MEAN.

What is MEAN Stack ? 

• The MEAN stack is a powerful, full-stack JavaScript solution.
• That contains 4 major building blocks or components.
• Which are MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js 

What is MongoDB ?

• MongoDB is an open source, document-oriented database.
• In MongoDB you can store JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas.

What is Express ?

• Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework.
• It provides a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

What is AngularJs ?

• AngularJS is a web client framework.
• It extends the HTML vocabulary for your application.
• The resulting environment is extraordinarily expressive, readable, and quick to develop.

What is Node.js ?

• Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications.
• It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient.
• It's perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

What are the advantages of using MEAN stack ?

• A single language is used throughout the application.Which is JavaScript.
• All the parts of the application can support and often enforce the use of the MVC architecture.
• Serialization and deserialization of data structures is no longer needed hence data marshalling is done using JSON objects.

How to Install MongoDB on Windows ?

Step 1 :

• My laptop is having Win 8.1 OS.So I'm going to download the Windows 64 bit Msi version.
• You can download it from Here.

Step 2 : 

• Just double-click the Msi file.
• Then you'll see a set of screens which will appear to guide you through the installation process.
• I accepted default settings for all the screens.

Step 3 :

• The default path for the installation as shown below.

Step 4 :

• I have created a new folder named as 'mongodb' on 'c:\' drive.
• This step is optional.You can run MongoDB from any folder as you wish.
• After that contents have been moved into that folder as shown below. 

How to Run MongoDB ?

Step 1 :

• MongoDB requires a 'data' directory to store all the data.
• MongoDB’s default data directory path is 'c:\data\db'.
• I have created  a 'data\db' folder on 'C' drive.It looks like below.

Step 2 :

• Run 'Command Prompt' with “Administrative Privileges”.
• To start MongoDB, run 'mongod.exe' on command prompt as shown below.

          C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd C:\mongodb\bin

          C:\mongodb\bin>mongod.exe

• You can see that the main MongoDB service where it starts listening to the default port 27017.
• Which means it starts the main MongoDB database process.
• The 'waiting for connections' message in the console output indicates that the mongod.exe process is running successfully.

How to Create a Windows Service for MongoDB ?

• We can use Windows Service for running MongoDB automatically after every reboot cycle.
• Which is the more popular approach for running MongoDB on windows machines.
• Before we begin setting up MongoDB as a Windows Service, it's considered good practice to specify a path for the MongoDB log and configuration files.Let's do it first.

Step 1 :

• Create a directory inside the 'data' folder as 'log'.
• This is for the log files.It's shown as below.

Step 2 :

• Let's create a configuration file.
• This configuration  file can include any of the configuration options for mongod.
• But it must include a valid setting for the 'logpath' which we created on Step 1.
• The following command creates a configuration file, specifying both the 'logpath' and the 'dbpath' settings in the configuration file.

         C:\>echo logpath=c:\data\log\mongod.log> "C:\mongodb\mongod.cfg"

         C:\>echo dbpath=c:\data\db>> "C:\mongodb\mongod.cfg"

• It creates 'mongod.cfg' file inside the 'C:\mongodb' folder.
• It looks like below.

Step 3 :

• Let's create a MongoDB service.
• For that,you have to run the below mentioned command on command prompt (which is having administrator privileges ( Run as administrator)).

C:\> sc.exe create MongoDB binPath=  "\"C:\mongodb\bin\mongod.exe\" --service --config=\"C:\mongodb\mongod.cfg\"" DisplayName= "MongoDB 2.6 Standard" start= "auto"

Note : sc.exe requires a space between “=” and the configuration values (eg “binPath= ”), and a “” to escape double quotes.

• If the service was successfully created, you will get the following log message.

          [SC] CreateService SUCCESS

Step 4 : Run

• We have installed our MongoDB service.Now you can run it by executing the following command in the command prompt window.

          C:\>  net start MongoDB

Step 5 : Stop

• If you need to stop the MongoDB service, use the following command.

       C:\>  net stop MongoDB

How to use the MongoDB shell ?

• You can find out the MongoDB shell inside the 'C:\mongodb\bin' folder. 
• Which allows you to interact with MongoDB server instance using the command line.

Step 1 :

• To start the shell, you have to navigate to the mongodb bin folder as shown below.

          C:\> cd C:\mongodb\bin

Step 2 :

•  After that you can run the 'mongo' service as shown below.

          C:\mongodb\bin> mongo

• If you successfully installed MongoDB, the shell will automatically connect to your local instance, using the 'test' database.
• You will see a console output similar to the following screenshot.

Step 3 :

• Let's do some MongoDB data manipulations.
• Type following command on the MongoDB shell.

          > db.books.insert({title: "Hello MEAN World"})

• The preceding command will create a new 'books' collection and insert a JSON object containing a 'title' property.

• To retrieve the book object, execute the following command.

        > db.books.find()

• The shell console will output the following message.

         { "_id" : ObjectId("54cc8cfedc0606c101f00e95"), "title" : "Hello MEAN World" }

• It means your MongoDB instance is working properly and you have successfully managed to interact with it using the MongoDB shell. 
• Congratulations !. You have done that.

Step 4 :

• If you need to exit from the shell,just type 'exit'.

         > exit

What is Robomongo ?

• Robomongo is a shell-centric cross-platform open source MongoDB management tool (i.e. Admin GUI).
• Robomongo embeds the same JavaScript engine that powers MongoDB's mongo shell.
• Everything you can write in mongo shell where you can write in Robomongo.

How to Install Robomongo on Windows ?

• You can download the Robomongo Windows Installer from here.

• Just double click the downloaded installer set-up and accept the default settings for all the screens.That's it.

How to work with the Robomongo ?

Step 1 :

• Just double click the auto created 'Robomongo' short cut on the desk top.
• It'll open the GUI of the Robomongo.

Step 2 :

• After that you have to create a connection string for the MongoDB database.
• You can use 'Create' link to create a new database connection as shown below.

• I have given a connection name as 'MongoDbTest' and Address with port number (i.e. port of MongoDB server) as 'localhost : 27017'.
• You can test your connection by using 'Test' button as shown above.
• After that you can use the 'Save' button to save the changes.

Step 3 : 

• You can do huge set of MongoDB operations by using this awesome Robomongo GUI.
• Just a few of them are shown below.

• Here I have used the 'test' database with the 'books' collection where we created earlier.
• If you need to see the full list of features, please visit their home page here. 

References

• MEAN Home

• MongoDB Home

• Robomongo Home

Conclusion

• In this article, you learned basics of MEAN stack development.
• You also learned how to install MongoDB and how to connect to your local database instance using the MongoDB shell.
• You also learned how to install and use the MongoDB management tool Robomongo GUI.
• In the next article,we'll discuss how to install Node.js and the basics of Node.js.
• I hope this helps to You.Comments and feedback greatly appreciated.

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