Connecting to MongoDB in a Node.js/Express app with Routes

Working with Data
1

I’m building a simple MERN stack application and I want to build the backend REST API using the most current MongoDB connection methods. My app is currently functional. However, I want to be sure I am connecting to MongoDB properly, specifically in a Node Express app that has routes in separate files.

Here are the main files in my project backend:

  • server/
    • db
      • conn.js
    • routes
      • record.js
    • server.js
    • config.env

As my starting place, I am using this (outdated) tutorials:

Both of these tutorials connect to MongoDB using an older callback method. (See links above or code snippets further below). I would like to use a more current method, as exampled here, but in both cases the code is contained in a single file:
-Node.js Connection Guide
-Connect to a MongoDB Database Using Node.js

This is the code that the older tutorials suggests to export the connection from the conn.js file:

module.exports = {
   connectToServer: function (callback) {
     client.connect(function (err, db) {
       // Verify we got a good "db" object
       if (db)
       {
         _db = db.db("employees");
         console.log("Successfully connected to MongoDB."); 
       }
       return callback(err);
          });
   },
  
   getDb: function () {
     return _db;
   },
 };

And this is how I have currently refactored it:

module.exports = {

async connectToServer() {

try {

       dbConnection = client.db("employees");
 
       console.log("Successfully connected to MongoDB.");
 
     } catch (err) {
 
       console.log(`Error connecting to MongoDB: ${err}`);
 
     }
 
   },
 
   getDb: function () {
 
     return dbConnection;
 
   }
 };

If you have any suggestions or pointers for me, I welcome them. Thanks in advance!