2.2. Connecting to MongoDB¶

To connect to a running instance of mongod, use the connect() function. The first argument is the name of the database to connect to:

from mongoengine import connect
connect('project1')

By default, MongoEngine assumes that the mongod instance is running on localhost on port 27017. If MongoDB is running elsewhere, you should provide the host and port arguments to connect():

connect('project1', host='192.168.1.35', port=12345)

If the database requires authentication, username and password arguments should be provided:

connect('project1', username='webapp', password='pwd123')

URI style connections are also supported – just supply the URI as the host to connect():

connect('project1', host='mongodb://localhost/database_name')

Note

Database, username and password from URI string overrides corresponding parameters in connect():

connect(
    name='test',
    username='user',
    password='12345',
    host='mongodb://admin:qwerty@localhost/production'
)

will establish connection to production database using admin username and qwerty password.

2.2.1. ReplicaSets¶

MongoEngine supports MongoReplicaSetClient. To use them, please use an URI style connection and provide the replicaSet name in the connection kwargs.

Read preferences are supported through the connection or via individual queries by passing the read_preference

Bar.objects().read_preference(ReadPreference.PRIMARY)
Bar.objects(read_preference=ReadPreference.PRIMARY)

2.2.2. Multiple Databases¶

Multiple database support was added in MongoEngine 0.6. To use multiple databases you can use connect() and provide an alias name for the connection - if no alias is provided then “default” is used.

In the background this uses register_connection() to store the data and you can register all aliases up front if required.

Individual documents can also support multiple databases by providing a db_alias in their meta data. This allows DBRef objects to point across databases and collections. Below is an example schema, using 3 different databases to store data:

class User(Document):
    name = StringField()

    meta = {"db_alias": "user-db"}

class Book(Document):
    name = StringField()

    meta = {"db_alias": "book-db"}

class AuthorBooks(Document):
    author = ReferenceField(User)
    book = ReferenceField(Book)

    meta = {"db_alias": "users-books-db"}

2.2.3. Context Managers¶

Sometimes you may want to switch the database or collection to query against for a class. For example, archiving older data into a separate database for performance reasons or writing functions that dynamically choose collections to write document to.

2.2.3.1. Switch Database¶

The switch_db context manager allows you to change the database alias for a given class allowing quick and easy access the same User document across databases:

from mongoengine.context_managers import switch_db

class User(Document):
    name = StringField()

    meta = {"db_alias": "user-db"}

with switch_db(User, 'archive-user-db') as User:
    User(name="Ross").save()  # Saves the 'archive-user-db'

2.2.3.2. Switch Collection¶

The switch_collection context manager allows you to change the collection for a given class allowing quick and easy access the same Group document across collection:

from mongoengine.context_managers import switch_collection

class Group(Document):
    name = StringField()

Group(name="test").save()  # Saves in the default db

with switch_collection(Group, 'group2000') as Group:
    Group(name="hello Group 2000 collection!").save()  # Saves in group2000 collection

Note

Make sure any aliases have been registered with register_connection() or connect() before using the context manager.