Shelby Carpenter

5 results

The MongoDB for VS Code Extension Is Now Generally Available

Three years ago, we introduced the MongoDB for VS Code Extension to the world in Public Preview. VS Code is the most popular Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for developers, and we were excited to bring the power of MongoDB, one of the world’s most-loved databases, to developers right in their favorite IDE. Since that time, we’ve seen skyrocketing growth in adoption of the extension, which now has over 800k installs and an average rating of 4.5 stars in the VS Code Extension store. The verdict is in: people love not only VS Code and MongoDB, but love a unified experience in the form of the MongoDB for VS Code Extension. Given the popularity of the tool and innovations we’ve continued to make in the experience, we are delighted to announce that the MongoDB for VS Code Extension is now generally available. Why use the extension? This free, downloadable extension makes it easy for developers to build applications and work application data in MongoDB directly from VS Code. Not only do you get the benefit of interacting with MongoDB data in a familiar IDE experience you’ve likely already customized to your preferences—you also can work with your application data and your application code all in one place. And with the extension now generally available (GA), you can have increased confidence in the extension and MongoDB’s long-term commitment to ongoing improvements to the experience. What the extension can do With the MongoDB for VS Code Extension, you get a single unified interface (VS Code) that you already know and love. Within the extension, you can work with your application data from MongoDB side-by-side with your application code for a more streamlined software development experience. Let’s take a look at what you can do with the extension. Connect to MongoDB After you’ve installed the extension , the first thing you’ll want to do is connect to MongoDB using a connection string. If you’re using MongoDB Atlas, you can find your connection string in the Atlas Web UI under the “Database” view by clicking the “Connect” button and then choosing VS Code as your connection option. Data exploration Within the extension, it’s easy to look at your data on MongoDB while working on your code. In the left-hand sidebar, you can easily click through databases, collections, and documents, as well as see relevant schema and indexes. Referencing both schema and indexes here during development can be helpful because: 1. By looking at the schema, you can see what fields you can query on and what their types are, and 2. You can confirm if your query is covered by an index for faster reads against the database. Playgrounds The MongoDB for VS Code Extension gives you a fully-featured JavaScript Playgrounds experience for rapid scripting and prototyping. In Playgrounds you can prototype queries, aggregations, and MongoDB commands with syntax highlighting and intelligent autocomplete. After you write your code, just hit the “play” button or use your favorite keyboard shortcut to instantly see the results of code execution. Within Playgrounds you can: Create new databases and collections Execute Create-Read-Update-Delete (CRUD) operations against your MongoDB database Prototype queries and aggregations using MongoDB’s powerful and expressive Query API Export the syntax for a given query or aggregation to your chosen programming language (including language driver syntax) You can also save Playground files together with your application code and version them in git. This is a great option for documenting all the queries and aggregations your application runs, for scripts that generate or import sample datasets to seed your development clusters, or for scripts that create indexes or define schema migrations. And because Playgrounds use the shell syntax, you can then run them programmatically with the MongoDB Shell. Access the MongoDB Shell Sometimes you just want to run a quick query or command in your terminal rather than using a fully-featured UI. The MongoDB Shell is the perfect tool for these kinds of quick data interactions, and you can access the Shell without ever leaving VS Code. Just right-click on your cluster and select “Launch MongoDB Shell” to get started with the Shell. Terraform If your team uses Terraform, you’ll probably be interested in the MongoDB Atlas Terraform Provider for building with MongoDB. The MongoDB for VS Code Extension gives you access to snippets of code for common tasks you might want to accomplish—including managing your Terraform configuration for Atlas. To use this feature, just open a Terraform file, type atlas , go through the predefined placeholders, and configure your credentials. The MongoDB for VS Code Extension lets you do all of the above - and more. To learn about all the different capabilities of the extension, check out the documentation here . New features Here’s what’s new in the extension now that it’s generally available: Autocomplete support with IntelliSense for using the MongoDB Query API, making it more intuitive to type queries and aggregations for your data on MongoDB Improvements to the Playgrounds experience to make them more reflective of a traditional JavaScript environment, including the ability to integrate them with common tools for the JavaScript ecosystem such as ESLint and Prettier Time series collections can now be created right from Playgrounds You can create column store indexes to support your analytics queries Get started today If you haven’t tried it yet, now is the time to start using the MongoDB for VS Code Extension! To install it, simply search for it in the Extensions list inside VS Code or download it from the VS Code Marketplace . Or if you’re a current user, be sure to check for updates so you get the latest version of the extension and access to the new features that come with it. As you build with the MongoDB for VS Code Extension, feel free to give us feedback on your product experience in the MongoDB Feedback Engine , so we can continue to take the pulse of the community and further optimize the extension for users.

May 23, 2023

MongoDB Announces New Verified Solutions Program

MongoDB is pleased to announce the creation of our new Verified Solutions program, which empowers developers to use third-party tools alongside MongoDB with confidence. Though MongoDB offers a comprehensive, end-to-end developer data platform, some developers have bespoke needs that require the use of custom or third-party tools to complement MongoDB. Identifying the right third-party tools that will be reliable and performant — or dedicating the time and resources to build custom in-house solutions — can be a significant drain on developers’ time. That’s where the Verified Solutions program comes in. MongoDB Verified Solutions are third-party tools that are vetted and approved by MongoDB, giving developers the confidence to use them in production environments. Verified Solutions will also be regularly recertified to help prevent issues or breaking changes down the line. And, if developers do run into any trouble, they can get expert, frontline support directly from MongoDB (though we will not guarantee bug fixes). All of this means that developers can spend less time identifying, integrating, and resolving issues with third-party technologies and more time building best-in-class, differentiated applications. The inaugural offering in the Verified Solutions program will be Mongoose , a popular tool for object-modeling for MongoDB and Node.js applications. Thousands of developers love Mongoose for its schema-based data modeling, built-in type-casting, and help with validation, query building, business logic hooks, and more. As the Verified Solutions program grows, we look forward to adding more third-party tools to further empower developers building cutting-edge applications on MongoDB. Check out our Mongoose Verified Solution .

June 7, 2022

Ruby Added to MongoDB Export to Language for Compass and VS Code

Thousands of developers rely on Compass as a GUI or VS Code as an integrated development environment to query their data in MongoDB. With both Compass and the official MongoDB Extension for VS Code, you can build a query or aggregation using the MongoDB Query API and export it to your chosen programming language. The only limitation? Until now, only four languages have been supported for this feature in both tools: Java, Node.js, C#, and Python. Those four languages cover a significant percentage of the MongoDB developer community, but we knew we wanted to expand to help even more developers export queries/aggregations to their programming language of choice. To this end, we’re pleased to announce that the Export to Language features in both Compass and the VS Code Extension for MongoDB now support exporting to Ruby. To build a query/aggregation in VS Code and export to Ruby, connect to your cluster in VS Code, create a Playground with code that draws on the Query API, and highlight your Query API syntax. From there, you will see a lightbulb icon that gives you the option to export to Ruby, among other languages. You also have the option to export a sample query/aggregation including details on the driver usage so you start with a fully functional code snippet. To build a query/aggregation in Compass and export to Ruby, simply connect to your cluster from Compass, navigate to the “Aggregations” tab, build your query/aggregation, and then click the button with an export icon immediately to the right of the “Save” button. Once you’ve followed the above steps in VS Code or Compass, you’re ready to use the exported code in your Ruby app! For a peek under the hood at how MongoDB’s engineers added Ruby to Compass, check out this great article on Dev.to by Rachelle Palmer , Product Lead for Developer Experience at MongoDB. We hope all the hardcore Rubyists out there find this new feature useful and that it makes it even easier to build Ruby apps with MongoDB. As you continue to use these tools within your application development cycle, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us feedback .

April 1, 2022

Improved Experience for Saved Aggregations and Queries in MongoDB Compass

Tens of thousands of MongoDB users take advantage of MongoDB Compass to query their data and build sophisticated aggregation pipelines. As an easy-to-use GUI, Compass lets you seamlessly connect to and interact with your data, including using our powerful Query API. You just connect to your cluster, navigate to your chosen database and collection, and start building your queries. Many Compass users want to come back again and again to their best queries — or make a query repeatedly available to all database users — but the experience of working with saved queries and aggregations has created some challenges for users in the past. Previously, saved aggregations and queries were bound to a specific database and collection, making it harder to integrate those saved queries and aggregations into the standard software-development lifecycle. If, for example, you built an aggregation pipeline against a staging database and saved it, you’d still have to build that same pipeline again if you wanted to use it for your production database. Users have also reported difficulty finding their favorites after saving them. That’s why we’ve released a new-and-improved experience for saved aggregations and queries in MongoDB Compass. It includes a new “My Queries” screen you can navigate to from the left sidebar or from a tab at the top, next to the “Database” and “Performance” tabs. Once on the “My Queries” screen, you can search across all your saved queries/aggregations and sort or filter by database or collection. And you can apply your saved queries/aggregations across namespaces. To learn more about working with queries and aggregations in Compass, visit our documentation on the Aggregation Pipeline Builder or queries . We’re confident this new experience will make it easier than ever to build, save, and reuse your favorite aggregations and queries, and ultimately remove friction with integrating them into the application development process. Head over to your Compass instance and check it out. (If you’re not yet a Compass user, you can download it for free .) Happy querying!

April 1, 2022

Understanding the MongoDB Stable API and Rapid Release Cadence

MongoDB provides the world’s leading data platform, and we strive to make it as easy as possible for developers to build and evolve their applications. In MongoDB 5.0, we made two important updates to the way we release database versions and make them available to customers: One was the creation of the Stable API and the other was our new quarterly MongoDB Rapid Release cadence. Now that we have a few Rapid Releases under our belt (visit our blog to learn about MongoDB 5.1 and 5.2 ), we wanted to provide an update on the API and the process for choosing between the Major and Rapid Release tracks. The MongoDB Stable API The Stable API was created to make it easier for customers to upgrade to the latest MongoDB version without worrying about introducing breaking changes to their code base. It includes a subset of MongoDB commands that applications commonly use, and MongoDB ensures those commands remain consistent when we release new database versions. That effectively decouples the application lifecycle from the database lifecycle. Providing this level of consistency is especially important for helping customers consume our innovations faster and take advantage of MongoDB’s new release cadence. It was previously known as the Versioned API, but we changed the name to Stable API to avoid potential confusion. From our conversations with users and customers, it became clear that the previous name gave the impression that the API would change with each incremental MongoDB version release. That is not the case, so we say “hello” to the MongoDB Stable API. The MongoDB Rapid Release Cadence MongoDB Atlas customers with clusters on a Dedicated Tier (M10+) can opt in to Rapid Releases to get the latest features from MongoDB on a quarterly basis. Atlas customers are initially on the Major Release track; Major Releases happen annually and contain the previous year’s Rapid Releases by default. Customers who choose the Major Release track will have the following upgrade flow: 5.0 -> 6.0 -> 7.0, etc., and can schedule when they want to upgrade to each new Major Release after it enters general availability. Customers who opt in to the Rapid Release track will have the following upgrade flow: 5.0 -> 5.1 -> 5.2 -> 5.3 -> 6.0 -> 6.1 -> 6.2, etc. If you are on a Major Release and decide to change tracks, then you will automatically go to the next Rapid Release. (If you are on 6.0 and 6.2 is the latest Rapid Release, you can jump directly from 6.0 to 6.2 without having to upgrade to 6.1 first.) Customers on the Major Release track will still receive regular patch upgrades. Users on the Rapid Release track who later decide to opt out will need to do so at the time of the next Major Release. If you’re MongoDB 5.2 and want to change back to the Major Release track, for example, you will wait to leave the Rapid Release track until the next Major Release, MongoDB 6.0, is available. As another example, at the time of publication, the latest Major Release is 5.0 and the latest Rapid Release is 5.2. A customer on MongoDB 4.4 (an earlier Major Release prior to the new release cadence and numbering scheme ) would need to manually upgrade from 4.4 to 5.0 before opting in to Rapid Releases and getting MongoDB 5.2. To opt in to the Rapid Release cadence, choose the “Latest Release” option in the Atlas web UI. Rapid Releases are only supported for MongoDB Atlas. For on-premises environments, they should be used only for development builds and testing and not for production environments. Apart from MongoDB Atlas Dedicated Tier clusters, Atlas supports Shared Tier clusters M0, M2, and M5 — which provide 512MB, 2GB, and 5GB of storage, respectively — as well as managed serverless instances , which are currently in public preview. Shared Tier clusters are always on the Major Release track, and serverless instances are on the Rapid Release track. With options to get Major or Rapid Releases in MongoDB Atlas and to use the Stable API for consistency across versions, MongoDB customers have more flexibility than ever to choose how to take advantage of the latest MongoDB database upgrades. Stay tuned for the latest innovations from MongoDB in the 5.3 release this spring, and join us at MongoDB World this summer to learn about MongoDB 6.0 and more!

March 10, 2022