What is the best method to seeding a Node / MongoDB application?

Question

So, I'm new to the MEAN stack, and I've hit a wall trying to seed MongoDB. I'm using Mongoose to communicate with the database, and there's a bunch of documentation suggesting I should be able to seed using populated JSON files.

What I've tried:

node-mongo-seed; Pretty straight forward, but consistently throws errors on the end of arrays. (Perhaps the missing bson module is at fault?)

{ [Error: Cannot find module '../build/Release/bson'] code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND' }
js-bson: Failed to load c++ bson extension, using pure JS version
Seeding files from directory /Users/Antwisted/code/wdi/MEAN/seeds
----------------------
Seeding collection locations
err =  [SyntaxError: /Users/Antwisted/code/wdi/MEAN/seeds/locations.json: Unexpected token {]

mongoose-seed; Also pretty straight forward, basically puts the JSON objects into a variable before exporting to the database. Promising, but... more errors...

Successfully initialized mongoose-seed
[ 'app/models/locationsModel.js' ]
Locations collection cleared
Error creating document [0] of Location model
Error: Location validation failed
Error creating document [1] of Location model
Error: Location validation failed
Error creating document [2] of Location model
Error: Location validation failed...

So, my thoughts were that it was probably a syntax error within the JSON structure, but playing around with that has not yielded any real solutions (or maybe I'm missing it?). Sample of my JSON:

{
    {
        "header": "Dan's Place",
        "rating": 3,
        "address": "125 High Street, New York, 10001",
        "cord1": -73.0812,
        "cord2": 40.8732,
        "attributes": ["Hot drinks", "Food", "Premium wifi"],
        "hours": [
            {
                "days": "Monday - Friday",
                "hours": "7:00am - 7:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Saturday",
                "hours": "8:00am - 5:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Sunday",
                "closed": true
            }
        ],
        "reviews": [
            {
                "rating": 4,
                "id": ObjectId(),
                "author": "Philly B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')",
                "body": "It was fine, but coffee was a bit dull. Nice atmosphere."
            },
            {
                "rating": 3,
                "id": ObjectId(),
                "author": "Tom B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')",
                "body": "I asked for her number. She said no."
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "header": "Jared's Jive",
        "rating": 5,
        "address": "747 Fly Court, New York, 10001",
        "cord1": -73.0812,
        "cord2": 40.8732,
        "attributes": ["Live Music", "Rooftop Bar", "2 Floors"],
        "hours": [
            {
                "days": "Monday - Friday",
                "hours": "7:00am - 7:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Saturday",
                "hours": "8:00am - 5:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Sunday",
                "closed": true
            }
        ],
        "reviews": [
            {
                "rating": 5,
                "id": ObjectId(),
                "author": "Jacob G.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')",
                "body": "Whoa! The music here is wicked good. Definitely going again."
            },
            {
                "rating": 4,
                "id": ObjectId(),
                "author": "Tom B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')",
                "body": "I asked to play her a tune. She said no."
            }
        ]
    }
}

Additionally, I'm not entirely sure how to specify subdocuments within the JSON (assuming I can get the seeding process to work correctly in the first place).

Here's my model:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var subHoursSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    days: {type: String, required: true},
    opening: String,
    closing: String,
    closed: {type: Boolean, required: true}
});

var subReviewsSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    rating: {type: Number, required: true, min: 0, max: 5},
    author: String,
    timestamp: {type: Date, "default": Date.now},
    body: String
}); 

var locationSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    name: {type: String, required: true},
    address: String,
    rating: {type: Number, "default": 0, min: 0, max: 5}, 
    attributes: [String],
    coordinates: {type: [Number], index: '2dsphere'},
    openHours: [subHoursSchema],
    reviews: [subReviewsSchema]
});

mongoose.model('Location', locationSchema);

Any insight on how to navigate these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You JSON is not flowing your schema.

Fix your JSON to this:

{
    {
        "name": "Dan's Place",
        "rating": 3,
        "address": "125 High Street, New York, 10001",
        "coordinates": [-73.0812, 40.8732],
        "attributes": ["Hot drinks", "Food", "Premium wifi"],
        "openHours": [
            {
                "days": "Monday - Friday",
                "opening": "7:00am",
                "closing": "7:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Saturday",
                "opening": "8:00am",
                "closing": "5:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Sunday",
                "closed": true
            }
        ],
        "reviews": [
            {
                "rating": 4,
                "author": "Philly B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')",
                "body": "It was fine, but coffee was a bit dull. Nice atmosphere."
            },
            {
                "rating": 3,
                "author": "Tom B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')",
                "body": "I asked for her number. She said no."
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "Jared's Jive",
        "rating": 5,
        "address": "747 Fly Court, New York, 10001",
        "coordinates": [-73.0812, 40.8732],
        "attributes": ["Live Music", "Rooftop Bar", "2 Floors"],
        "openHours": [
            {
                "days": "Monday - Friday",
                "opening": "7:00am",
                "closing": "7:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Saturday",
                "opening": "8:00am",
                "closing": "5:00pm",
                "closed": false
            },
            {
                "days": "Sunday",
                "closed": true
            }
        ],
        "reviews": [
            {
                "rating": 5,
                "author": "Jacob G.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 3, 2016')",
                "body": "Whoa! The music here is wicked good. Definitely going again."
            },
            {
                "rating": 4,
                "author": "Tom B.",
                "timestamp": "new Date('Feb 23, 2016')",
                "body": "I asked to play her a tune. She said no."
            }
        ]
    }
}

You can use mongoose-data-seed to write your own seed script that interacting your mongoose models with: https://github.com/sharvit/mongoose-data-seed

Answer 2

You can populate MongoDB in the CLI using mongoimport

It will load a JSON file into a specified MongoDB Instance & Collection, all you need is for a mongod instance to be running before executing.

Here is a walkthrough of using mongoimport.