Golang MongoDB Tutorial with Examples

In this tutorial, we will walk through how we can connect a Golang application with MongoDB.

MongoDB is a document database with the scalability and flexibility that you want with the querying and indexing that you need. MongoDB stores data in flexible, JSON-like documents, meaning fields can vary from document to document and data structure can be changed over time

If we want to connect out Go appication with MongoDB Atlas cluster, we need Go driver.

• The Go driver lets you connect to and communicate with MongoDB clusters from a Go application.
• MongoDB Atlas is a fully-managed cloud database service that hosts your data on MongoDB clusters. In this guide, we show you how to get started with your own free (no credit card required) cluster.

 

Setup Lab Environment - Install and Setup MongoDB

I am sharing two different ways to install and setup MongoDB. You can choose any one of the preferred method.

 

Method-1: Set up a Free Cluster in Atlas

Access https://www.mongodb.com/cloud/atlas/register to sign up a new account. After that, you should have a new MongoDB cluster deployed in Atlas, a new database user, and sample datasets.

Remember to note the username and password when create database:

It will direct you to the Database Deployments page, where you can manage all your databases.

Next step, you create and run an application that uses the Go driver to connect to your MongoDB cluster. You have to provide the driver connection string to connect to your MongoDB cluster. This string includes information on the hostname or IP address and port of your cluster, authentication mechanism, user credentials when applicable, and other connection options.

Click the Connect button, then choose the option: Connect your application:

Select the Go version you are using, copy the connection string for future use:

 

Method-2: Install MongoDB using Package Manager

You can also install MongoDB manually using package manager. I have written another article to install and setup MongoDB on Rocky Linux 8. To install the same on Ubuntu we can simply use apt package manager:

# apt install mongodb

Next start and check the status of the service:

To access the database you can execute mongo from the terminal

 

Method-1: Using mongo-driver for MongoDB

Create workspace and install mongodb package

We will create a golang workspace to test our code:

$ mkdir ~/goexamples
$ mkdir ~/goexamples/code1
$ touch ~/goexamples/code1/main.go
$ cd ~/goexamples/code1

Use go get to add the Go driver as a dependency:

$ go get go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo

 

Create your first database

Databases are collections of data. Records, also known as documents, are stored in collections. Collections are the RDBMS equivalent of tables, and documents are rows in a table.

Here is an example of how to insert a new document to a MongoDB Atlas Cluster database. One document have two field: student's name (name) and score

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/bson"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo/options"
)

func main() {

	// Define the mongodb client URL
	var uri = "mongodb://localhost:27017"

	// Establish the connection
	client, err := mongo.Connect(context.TODO(), options.Client().ApplyURI(uri))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Create go routine to defer the closure
	defer func() {
		if err = client.Disconnect(context.TODO()); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}()

	// begin insertOne and create testDB database
	coll := client.Database("testDB").Collection("scoreCollection")
	doc := bson.D{{"name", "Anna"}, {"score", 9.5}}

	result, err := coll.InsertOne(context.TODO(), doc)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// end insertOne

	// When you run this file, it should print:
	// Document inserted with ID: ObjectID("...")
	fmt.Printf("Document inserted with ID: %s\n", result.InsertedID)
}

Output:

Document inserted with ID: ObjectID("6333107dd0edee77528fcaf8")

Noted that:

• The database and the collection will automatically created if not existed.
• The _id field is automatically added to each document
• BSON is a binary serialization format used to store documents and make remote procedure calls in MongoDB. The BSON specification is located at bsonspec.org

We can verify the same using mongo client on the terminal:

 

For multiple documents insert, you can change the code to:

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/bson"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo/options"
)

func main() {

	// Define the mongodb client URL
	var uri = "mongodb://localhost:27017"

	// Establish the connection
	client, err := mongo.Connect(context.TODO(), options.Client().ApplyURI(uri))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Create go routine to defer the closure
	defer func() {
		if err = client.Disconnect(context.TODO()); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}()

	coll := client.Database("Employee").Collection("scoreCollection")
	docs := []interface{}{
		bson.D{{"name", "Alley"}, {"score", 7.5}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Bob"}, {"score", 8.5}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Carry"}, {"score", 6.8}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Daniel"}, {"score", 5.5}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Danish"}, {"score", 4.8}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Era"}, {"score", 9.2}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Hush"}, {"score", 10}},
		bson.D{{"name", "Halley"}, {"score", 3.6}},
		bson.D{{"name", "John"}, {"score", 7.5}},
	}

	// insertMany
	result, err := coll.InsertMany(context.TODO(), docs)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// end insertMany

	// When you run this file, it should print:
	// Document inserted with ID: ObjectID("...")
	for _, id := range result.InsertedIDs {
		fmt.Printf("\t%s\n", id)
	}

}

Output:

# go run main.go 
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df91")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df92")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df93")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df94")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df95")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df96")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df97")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df98")
        ObjectID("6336d3f9fe33297da558df99")

We can verify the same inside the Employee db:

 

Update one or multiple documents

Here is an example of how to update a student's score. We first filter by name, then update score for that student:

	coll := client.Database("Employee").Collection("scoreCollection")
	studentName := "Alley"
	// filter by name
	filter := bson.D{{"name", studentName}}
	// set new score for that student
	update := bson.D{{"$set", bson.D{{"score", 5.6}}}}

	result, err := coll.UpdateOne(context.TODO(), filter, update)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// end updateone

	// When you run this file for the first time, it should print:
	// Number of documents replaced: 1
	fmt.Printf("Documents updated: %v\n", result.ModifiedCount)

Output:

Documents updated: 1

If the score is unchanged or the student is not in collection, the output will be:

Documents updated: 0

We can verify the same on our DB:

 

I will demonstrate how to create a new "type" field with value "bad" for all students with score <= 7.5

	filter := bson.D{{"score", bson.D{{"$lte", 7.5}}}}
	update := bson.D{{"$set", bson.D{{"type", "bad"}}}}

	// update Many
	result, err := coll.UpdateMany(context.TODO(), filter, update)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// end update Many

	// When you run this file for the first time, it should print:
	// Number of documents replaced:
	fmt.Printf("Documents updated: %v\n", result.ModifiedCount)

Output:

Documents updated: 6

We can check the collection after updated:

 

Delete MongoDB documents

We can filter the student's name we want to delete then call DeleteOne() or DeleteMany() method to delete those documents. If there's no record meet the filter, no exception or error will be raised. If you want to check the number of deleted document, you can print the DeletedCount. Here is an example of deleting 'John' record

	filter := bson.D{{"name", "John"}}
	result, err := coll.DeleteOne(context.TODO(), filter)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// When you run this file for the first time, it should print:
	// Documents deleted: 1
	fmt.Printf("Documents deleted: %d\n", result.DeletedCount)

Output:

Documents deleted: 1

Verify the same on the DB:

 

Filter MongoDB documents using Golang

You can find multiple documents in a collection by using the Find() method. Here's example of find student's name starts with 'A'

	filter := bson.D{{"name", bson.D{{"$regex", "^A"}}}}

	cursor, err := coll.Find(context.TODO(), filter)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// end find

	var results []bson.M
	if err = cursor.All(context.TODO(), &results); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	for _, result := range results {
		output, err := json.MarshalIndent(result, "", "    ")
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
		fmt.Printf("%s\n", output)
	}

Output:

# go run main.go 
{
    "_id": "6336d3f9fe33297da558df91",
    "name": "Alley",
    "score": 5.6,
    "type": "bad"
}

 

Method-2: Using mgo as driver for MongoDB

The third-party package mgo, pronounced “mango,” provides support for working with MongoDB database, and its subpackage bson does the implementation for BSON specification to work with BSON documents. The values of Go types such as slice, map, and struct can be persisted into MongoDB. When a write operation is performed onto MongoDB, the package mgo automatically serializes the values of Go types into BSON documents. In most use cases, you can define your data model by using structs and perform the CRUD operations against it.

 

Installing mgo

To install the package mgo, run the following command:

$ go get gopkg.in/mgo.v2

This will fetch package mgo and its subpackage bson. To work with the mgo package, you must add gopkg.in/mgo.v2 to the list of imports.

import "gopkg.in/mgo.v2"

If you want to use the bson package, you must add gopkg.in/mgo.v2/bson to the list of imports:

import (        
        "gopkg.in/mgo.v2"
        "gopkg.in/mgo.v2/bson"
)

 

Connecting to MongoDB

To perform CRUD operations with MongoDB, you first obtain a MongoDB session using the function Dial as shown here:

session, err := mgo.Dial("localhost")

The function Dial establishes a connection to the cluster of MongoDB servers identified by the url parameter and returns a pointer to mgo.Session, which is used to perform CRUD operations against the MongoDB database. The function Dial supports connection with a cluster of servers as shown here:

session, err := mgo.Dial("server1.mongolab.com,server2.mongolab.com")

You can also use the function DialWithInfo to establish connection to one or a cluster of servers, which returns mgo.Session. This function allows you to pass customized information to the server using type mgo.DialInfo as shown here:

mongoDialInfo := &mgo.DialInfo{
            Addrs:    []string{"localhost"},
            Timeout:  60 * time.Second,
            Database: "testDB",
            Username: "testuser",
            Password: "password123",
        }   

 session, err := mgo.DialWithInfo(mongoDialInfo)

 

Working with Collections

MongoDB stores data as documents, which are organized into collections. The CRUD operations are performed against a collection, which is mapped to the type mgo.Collection in the package mgo. The method C of type mgo.Database is used to create an mgo.Collection object. The mgo.Database type represents the named database of MongoDB, which is created by calling the method DB of type mgo.Session.

The following statement creates a pointer to mgo.Collection that represents the MongoDB collection named "bookmarks" in the "testDB" database.

collection := session.DB("testDB").C("bookmarks")

 

Inserting Struct Values into MongoDB

The struct type should be your choice when you define a data model for Go applications. So when you work with MongoDB, you primarily provide values of the struct type to insert BSON documents into a MongoDB collection. The mgo driver for MongoDB automatically serializes the struct values as BSON documents when the Insert method is used.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"gopkg.in/mgo.v2"
	"gopkg.in/mgo.v2/bson"
)

type Category struct {
	Id          bson.ObjectId `bson:"_id,omitempty"`
	Name        string
	Description string
}

func main() {
	session, err := mgo.Dial("localhost")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer session.Close()

	// Optional. Switch the session to a monotonic behavior.
	// Reads may not be entirely up-to-date, but they will always see the
	// history of changes moving forward, the data read will be consistent
	// across sequential queries in the same session, and modifications made
	// within the session will be observed in following queries (read-your-writes).
	// http://godoc.org/labix.org/v2/mgo#Session.SetMode
	session.SetMode(mgo.Monotonic, true)

	//get collection
	c := session.DB("taskdb").C("categories")

	doc := Category{
		bson.NewObjectId(),
		"Open Source",
		"Tasks for projects",
	}
	//insert a category object
	err = c.Insert(&doc)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	//insert two category objects
	err = c.Insert(&Category{bson.NewObjectId(), "R & D", "R & D Tasks"},
		&Category{bson.NewObjectId(), "Project", "Project Tasks"})

	var count int
	count, err = c.Count()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	} else {
		fmt.Printf("%d records inserted", count)
	}
}

A struct named Category is created to define the data model and persist struct values into a MongoDB database. You can specify the type of _id field as bson.ObjectId. ObjectId is a 12-byte BSON type that holds uniquely identified values. BSON documents stored in a MongoDB collection require a unique _id field that acts as a primary key.

When you insert a new document, provide an _id field with a unique ObjectId. If an _id field isn’t provided, MongoDB will add an _id field that holds an ObjectId. When you insert records into a MongoDB collection, you can call bson.NewObjectId() to generate a unique value for bson.ObjectId. Tag the _id field to be serialized as _id when the mgo driver serializes the values into a BSON document and also specifies the omitempty tag to omit values when serializing into BSON if the value is empty.

The Insert method of mgo.Collection is used for persisting values into MongoDB. The Collection object is created by specifying the name "categories" and inserting values into the "categories" collection by calling the Insert method. The Insert method inserts one or more documents into the collection. First, one document with the values of the Category struct is inserted and then two documents are inserted into the collection. The mgo driver automatically serializes the struct values into BSON representation and inserts them into the collection.

In this example program, three documents are inserted. The Count method of the Collection object is called to get the number of records in the collection and finally print the count.

When you run the program for the first time, you should get the following output:

3 records inserted

Verify the same on the mongoDB

 

Summary

Due to a lack of simple resources for using MongoDB with Go, developers must spend a significant amount of time researching documentation. You can confidently integrate MongoDB into a Go application if you use this article as a reference guide. For query and filter operations, you can read the Mongo's documentations.

You can learn more about MongoDB's features by visiting the official MongoDB and Go driver documentation.

 

References:

https://www.mongodb.com/what-is-mongodb
https://www.mongodb.com/docs/drivers/go/current/
https://bsonspec.org/
https://www.mongodb.com/docs/