Quick Start (2024)

Create a Free Tier Cluster in Atlas

Create a free tier MongoDB cluster on MongoDB Atlas to store and manageyour data. MongoDB Atlas hosts and manages your MongoDB database in thecloud. Complete the Get Started with Atlasguide to set up a new Atlas account, a free tier cluster (a sharedMongoDB instance) and load sample data into your cluster.

Connect to your Cluster

You can connect to your MongoDB cluster by providing aconnection string which instructs the driver on where and how toconnect. The connection string includes information on the hostnameor IP address and port of your cluster, the authentication mechanism,user credentials when applicable, and other connection options.

To connect to an instance or cluster not hosted on Atlas, seeOther Ways to Connect to MongoDB.

To retrieve your connection string for the cluster you created inthe previous step, log into your Atlas account and navigate to theDatabase section and click the Connect buttonfor the cluster that you want to connect to as shown below.

Proceed to the Connect Your Application section and selectthe Node.js driver. Select the Connection String Only taband click the Copy button to copy the connection string toyour clipboard as shown below.

Save your connection string to a safe location.

Create your Node.js Application

Create a file to contain your application called index.js in yourproject directory. Add the following code, assigning the urivariable the value of your connection string.

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
// Replace the uri string with your connection string.
const uri =
 "mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@<cluster-url>?retryWrites=true&writeConcern=majority";
const client = new MongoClient(uri);
async function run() {
 try {
 await client.connect();
 const database = client.db('sample_mflix');
 const movies = database.collection('movies');
 // Query for a movie that has the title 'Back to the Future'
 const query = { title: 'Back to the Future' };
 const movie = await movies.findOne(query);
 console.log(movie);
 } finally {
 // Ensures that the client will close when you finish/error
 await client.close();
 }
}
run().catch(console.dir);

const MongoClient = require("mongodb").MongoClient;

Run your Node.js Application

Run the application you created from the previous step from thecommand line:

node index.js

You should see the details of the retrieved movie document in the output:

{
 _id: ...,
 plot: 'A young man is accidentally sent 30 years into the past...',
 genres: [ 'Adventure', 'Comedy', 'Sci-Fi' ],
 ...
 title: 'Back to the Future',
 ...
}

If you encounter an error or no output, check whether you specified theproper connection string in the application code, and loaded the sampledata set in your Atlas cluster.

At this point, you should have a working application that usesthe Node.js driver to connect to your MongoDB instance, runs a queryon the sample data, and prints out the result.