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Bespoke code

Beyond the simple use cases covered by this standard package, most uses of MongoDB in Drupal projects appear in enteprise-class bespoke developments. Until this version, this usually meant totally custom code, built either straight from the legacy mongo extension, the current mongodb extension, or on top of the PHP Library or the Doctrine ODM for MongoDB, suffering from a total lack of integration with the underlying core Drupal CMS.

This module provides a degree of version independence for the API changes in PHP library. Refer to the Drupal\mongodb\MongoDb class for an example.

Starting with 8.x-2.0 vrsions, such a one-off code can be developed on top of the base mongodb module: unlike earlier releases, 8.x-2.x uses the PHP-standard connection methods and options, without deviation, adding only a thin layer of Drupal adaptation on top of the standard mongodb extension and PHP library.

Example

The familiar Drupal alias mechanism for databases is available to provide easy, string-referenced access to Client and Database instances through the package-provided ClientFactory and DatabaseFactory services respectively.

Most such code is likely to be service based, so the example given below demonstrates a service bar in module foo, using a custom foo-database database aliased as foodb, to keep its storage separate from the main database used by the package modules, and its logic independent of other Drupal modules.

Per-environment settings

The site local settings file includes the alias definition, binding it to the actual database credentials, allowing for per-environment configuration:

<?php
// settings.local.php
$settings['mongodb'] = [
  'clients' => [
    // Client alias => constructor parameters.
    'default' => [
      'uri' => 'mongodb://localhost:27017',
      'uriOptions' => [],
      'driverOptions' => [],
    ],
  ],
  'databases' => [
    // Collection alias => [ client_alias, collection_name ]
    'default' => ['default', 'drupal'],
    'logger' => ['default', 'logger'],
    'foodb' => ['default', 'foo-database'],
  ],
];

With such a configuration, the foodb alias is available to all MongoDB-using modules in the site, possibly pointing to different databases depending on the environment (development, staging, production...).

Service-based module adapter

The foo.services.yml service file for the bespoke foo.module can then reference foodb to access the database with a constant alias, regardless of the environment:

# modules/custom/Foo/foo.services.yml
services:
  foo.storage:
    class: 'MongoDB\Database'
    factory: ['@mongodb.database_factory', 'get']
    arguments: ['foodb']

  foo.bar:
    class: 'Drupal\foo\Bar'
    arguments: ['@foo.storage', '@logger.channel.foo']

  foo.baz:
    class: 'Drupal\foo\Baz'
    arguments: ['@foo.storage', '@mongodb.logger']

This allows services in the module to access the database in both function code for Drupal hooks, and OO code for component-level logic without having to be environment-aware.

If the mongodb_watchdog module is enabled:

  • the @logger.channel.foo logger instance passed to the Bar constructor will be a Drupal-standard LoggerChannel instance, dispatching events to all active loggers in the site. This is the service most "classic" Drupal applications will want to use, as it has no visible dependence on MongoDB. .
  • the @mongodb.logger logger instance passed to the Baz constructor will be a PSR-3-standard logger only writing to MongoDB instead of logging through the central Drupal logging channel mechanism, but still providing the standard Drupal UI to examine the application logs. When using this service, the type option MUST be set in the message context to appear as a logging channel in the Drupal logs UI. This is the service applications written in a "decoupled components" style will prefer.
  • In both cases, code receiving such a logger service by dependency injection should type-hint it to the PSR-3 LoggerInterface.

Component logic

Finally, the component application logic can use the services without receiving any Drupal-specific dependency. In this example, we can simply assume the service code is located within the module itself, for simplicity:

<?php
// modules/custom/Foo/src/Bar.php
use MongoDb\Database;
use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;

public function __construct(Database $database, LoggerInterface $logger) {
  $this->database = $database;
  $this->logger = $logger;
}

public function baz() {
  // Perform some business logic using $this->database.
  // Log it using $this->logger.
}

Having the code only receive standard services (like a PSR-3 logger) or PHP library classes allows it to be written as an agnostic component, that can be brought in using Composer and shared with non-Drupal code. This is often useful in bespoke projects, which tend to combine Drupal 9/10 with other parts of the application written in Laravel ≥ 5 or Symfony ≥ 4, since the code has no Drupal-specific dependency in that case, only exposing a PSR-3 standard API.

Tests

The mongodb module provides a MongoDbTestBase base test class allowing kernel-based integration tests, as described on the tests page.